Navy pares back strategic communication units

[unhappycamper]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/07/navy-stops-strategic-communication/1753941/



Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, once derided strategic communication as a "cottage industry.

Navy pares back strategic communication units
Tom Vanden Brook

1:16PM EST December 7. 2012 - WASHINGTON - Leaders of the military's services and combatant commands are scrambling to interpret a new initiative from the Pentagon that seeks to contain a poorly understood communication program that has taken root in some commands.

Strategic communication offices have proliferated throughout the military in recent years, including in the Army and at some of the military's geographical combatant commands. In essence, strategic communication was designed to help the military coordinate its operations with its messages.

In practice, some these offices "actually added a layer of staffing and planning ... and resulted in confusion and inefficiencies," Assistant Secretary of Defense George Little wrote late last week in a memo to commanders. He added that the Pentagon would avoid using the term and that public affairs offices should take the lead in communicating for the military.

Late Thursday, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the chief of naval information, told his public affairs spokesmen in an e-mail obtained by USA TODAY to seize the initiative offered by Little's memo and take the lead in communicating for their commanders.