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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Working With National Guard
Paul Hayes, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Littleton | NH | USA | Posted: 12:01 PM on 06.25.10 |
->> I'm interested in documenting the lead up to a major National Guard deployment later this year. I was hoping to cover the pre-deployment training (wherever it may be held).
Has anyone else done something similar to this? If so, are there any bureaucratic hoops I need to jump through to gain access? Are there any restrictions to covering training I might face? Is there anything I can do to make things easier for me and the Guard officials I'll be dealing with? etc. etc.
Any help you can provide would be appreciated. |
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Sandy Huffaker, Photographer
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 12:59 PM on 06.25.10 |
->> Paul, Just call or email the public affairs office and tell them what you want to do. They should be fine wit your request.
Here is a ink to their New Hampshire media contacts.
https://www.nh.ngb.army.mil/contact |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 1:00 PM on 06.25.10 |
| ->> it's usually not too tough to do any of what you want. get in touch with the PAO for the guard unit you want OR go straight to the top and speak with the Adjutant General of the guard in your state. starting at the local level may get you better access down the road since they won't feel you "snubbed" them in the initial stages. |
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John Bowersmith, Photographer
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Lubbock | Tx | USA | Posted: 4:50 PM on 06.28.10 |
->> Sometimes guard and reserve units don't really have PAO per se. I would go to the guard HQ and talk to a few people and find out who might be able to help you best. Sometimes they will assign someone new PAO duties for you. Sometimes this works out better for you because they don't really know what you aren't allowed to do, but the opposite can be true too. I would try to talk to at least a Sgt. and perhaps a Cpt. and prepare to get bounced around. Try to start at the battalion level and move up and down from there. It will be a little more difficult either way because you are not dealing with regular Army and there just aren't the same established procedures in place.
Chuck is right, whatever you do play nice at the unit level and do go over to many heads. If you can prove to people at the unit level that you are competent, willing to learn and easy to work with it will grease the wheels all the way up the chain.
If they go to NTC (National Training Center) it will either be at Fort Polk, La. or Fort Irwin, Ca. Generally, an attempt is made to ensure conditions at NTC are more primitive than they are in the combat zone. So be ready for that. Pretty much everyone goes through NTC. |
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Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 6:32 PM on 06.28.10 |
->> What're your guys doing? Convoy security, checkpoint guarding, maintenance, a mix?
I did what you're describing in 2008. Three or four months of lead up stories in Indiana, then training at Ft. Stewart, GA, followed by six weeks in Iraq.
Shoot me an email, I'd be happy to share what I learned (both good and bad).
-Bob |
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Nick Morris, Photographer
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 8:47 PM on 06.28.10 |
| ->> Hey Paul, I can echo pretty much what everyone here has said. I can also tell you after completing a recent embed there are a few key people in the NG that you can shave some time off getting permission and going directly to. There are also a few people that you will want to stay away from in the beginning because they will most likely deny anything you attempt to gain access and they will shout up the command which will travel much faster than you can to head it off. Their not bad guys it's just what they do. As Robert said feel free to contact me and I can offer you any info that may help. Good luck and just so you know it will be hours if not days of extreme boredom with tiny moments of intense excitement. |
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Tim Hynds, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Sioux City | IA | USA | Posted: 10:11 AM on 07.01.10 |
->> I (and SS member Jim Slosiarek) just did an embed with the Iowa National Guard as they were doing training in Minnesota prior to a planned deployment in Afghanistan.
The upcoming deployment will be the largest in Iowa's history since WWII and as such the Iowa Guard is aching to get their story out. They were also quite upfront in letting us know that we were serving the purpose of training the troops in working with the media
The Iowa Guard's head PAO initiated contact and set up all logistics, including flying us up to Minnesota to the training. Once we got there we were given our vests and helmets and taken to the units we were assigned to. They had already made sure the units we were embedded with were chock full of local soldiers and the leaders of the units were (of course) given advance notice of our embed.
Once embedded with our units and assigned a cot, the PAO was hands off and I didn't see him until the end of the short embed. We ate, slept and went on training with the soldiers. It was impossible to turn around and NOT see a photo. I was never given the impression that they were doing anything (other than getting us to where we needed to go) simply for our benefit. I had the same access as the soldiers to whom I was assigned.
We were also offered the opportunity to embed in Afghanistan and, in fact, the troops I was with seemed disappointed that I would probably not get to go with them.
That said, I would encourage you to go for it and would suggest, as have others, that you contact your state's head Guard PAO. Prior to this, I would suggest contacting the leader of the unit you wish to cover and ask him/her who you should contact at state HQ to make this happen - just so the local officer has a heads up you wish to do this BEFORE he/she gets a call from state. |
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