This week two (1 and 2) incredibly popular progressive political blogs, albeit amateurs regarding military discussions, pounded the Navy for its emphasis on aircraft carriers. Don't think it is important? Their arguments are very amateur, but whether they are well informed or not, the arguments resonate with scores of thousands of politically active Americans.The US Navy will need to communicate a clear strategic vision following the QDR results, the question is, has the Navy considered how to do it? Look, I went to the Conversations with the Country thing, and while I'd spend the money to hang out with CDR Surette or chat for 45 minutes with General Conway again, as a taxpayer I hope the Navy will evolve the communication strategy a bit towards the idea of reaching more American people than a room of 100 or so in a dozen cities nationwide.
The Navy will need to put the evangelists (if any truly exist in the Navy) out there to articulate that strategic vision of the Navy coming out of the QDR. There are lots of ways to do it, and if RADM Crowder is as interesting speaking as he is on paper, let that guy loose. What the Navy shouldn't do though is miss an opportunity to build a narrative within a large audience. When RADM Frank Thorp sat down in front of bloggers at the Pentagon on milblog week and leaves the impression he doesn't need them because he doesn't know them, he demonstrated remarkable ignorance regarding modern communication networks. RADM Thorp may look like a strapping young 30 year old officer, but I heard a rumor he is actually over 40. We'll forgive him, this time.
When two incredibly popular political blogs are discussing the Navy, in my mind that is a signal an opportunity exists. FireDogLake averages 50,000+ politically active readers daily who embraced an argument rejecting aircraft carriers that has gone an entire week without any credible counterargument. If it isn't CHINFO's role to communicate to the American people why the Navy is important to them, why an aircraft carrier matters, then whose role is it exactly? The CNO? Not in my life time. Someone has to do it, and with the traditional media downsizing due to budget problems the Navy needs to find other ways to get their message to the masses.
Luckily, even if Admiral Thorp doesn't get it, others in CHINFO do. I have been watching several social software personalities embark on the USS Nimitz lately and follow up with discussions of their experience, and if you haven't read Lex's latest accounts I highly encourage reading this, this, this, and this. When I saw the list of bloggers who Lex joined for that embark, noting that others had also previously embarked, I knew somewhere in the mix had to be @flynavy otherwise known as CDR Charlie Brown, a Public Affairs Officer with the Pacific Fleet. One of those in the embark with Lex was Guy Kawasaki, who tweets to a mere 126,000+ daily, and whose story regarding the trip on the Nimitz became a nice positive counterpunch promoting discussion of aircraft carriers to an enormous audience. For this embark Guy invited a bunch of his friends who also happen to be very popular and well respected folks in internet social circles, which means the reach of tales told from that embark could easily be well over 250,000 American citizens, if not much larger.
Two points. First, I think the embark program that CDR Charlie Brown did with all of these various popular social software personalities on the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) is really quite brilliant, something I wanted to highlight as such. While some of the stories have ended up in the blog section of CLIPS, some folks in the Navy discussion may not have fully appreciated, or even understood how many people are reading these stories.
Second, I would encourage the Navy to reach out to the War Nerds and Blue Texans of the blogosphere, and other progressive political commentary types (particularly the really smart ones like Robert Farley) who discuss Navy matters and get them out on the ships, let them talk to sailors and officers, and give them some experiences to inject into their informed opinions. These blogger embarks are smart bombs, because it allows popular writers to research and develop their own opinions based on their experience instead of study. As one who has spent a great deal of time as a blogger speaking to officers and sailors... the officers and sailors in the fleet are the Navy's most potent communication tools.
Then close the deal. Send an 0-6 from N3/N5 out to the ship hosting the embark, and use that homefield advantage to walk the politically astute social media group through the connection from policy to strategy to doctrine to operations and answer their questions while explaining what the Navy is doing globally. I assure you, a few embarks with that model will go a lot further than a Conversation With the Country and will reach a hell of a lot more people in the process while also elevating the Navy discussion politically.
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