Noah at Danger Room is smacking military PAOs around a little:
Forget the drone stuff. Here is your eye-popping statistic of the day: “This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations — almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.”
That’s from an Associated Press investigation, “which found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year.”
Staff costs take up most of the money, more than $2 billion. Another $1.6 billion goes into recruiting. About a half-billion goes towards “psychological operations, which targets foreign audiences.” And, finally, “$547 million goes into public affairs, which reaches American audiences.”
That last one may be the most amazing figure of ’em all. Because getting a straightforward answer out of most military public affairs shops is still a root-canal-painful procedure. You’d think it’d be easier, with all those resources brought to bear.
Come on, Noah. You’re being a bit unfair. My response:
First, as already noted that the 27,000 includes recruiters — which mean staff in small towns peppered across the country. The actual communications apparatus is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller.
Even if you took the whole 27,000 though, which may seem like a lot, you need to consider that there are about 1 MILLION soldiers and nearly that many government civilians that are in or work for the Army. This means recruiting and communications make up a scant 1% of the organization.
And last, I understand the challenge getting answers from military PAOs. But you know as well as anyone that there are laws governing release of military information. Violating those laws can put Soldiers’ lives at risk — and, from their personal perspective, is punishable by fines and prison.
Given what is on the line with release of information, I don’t begrudge a PAO spending a little time fact checking, getting security review and legal take before putting information into the public domain.
No matter what you think, I’d definitely read the AP article that inspired Noah’s post.
Why does the United States Military need people relations and advertising? It’s not like it’s some fledgling funeral home needing to get the word out. Recruiters I grasp, to hire soldiers; but PR?
For the same reason that the White House, Wal-Mart and the United Way need professional communicators — to get the word out. Just because it is a large and visible organization doesn’t mean that fewer “PR guys” are needed.
In fact, you might argue that more visible organizations need more.
Everyone needs some PR.
PERSHENDETJE.
Wow, those numbers are staggering.
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