DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland-- Soldiers and civilian staff in the media information center at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area gather around a television in anticipation. With them is a journalist from Polish network TVN, who sits next to the television, facing the growing crowd. Several Soldiers are holding up their camera phones, waiting for the highlight of the evening. When suddenly, the evening news anchor turns over the broadcast and the journalist with them at the MIC shows up on screen, reporting from a U.S. Army Blackhawk.
It is the precise moment they have been waiting for.
The surreal moment of having the journalist's physical and virtual presences adjacent to each other throws them into raucous laughter. They cheer and shout and clap him on the back.
“It’s great to see that our hard work doesn’t remain in the MIC and that it goes out for the world to see,” said Polish Air Force 2nd Lt. Anna Issel, a Zary, Poland, native and legal advisor assigned to the 33rd Rocket Air Defense Squadron. “Its great to see that the work isn’t only measured by our media metrics but by the public.”
When television viewers around the world watch exhilarating footage from Exercise Anakonda 2016, little do they know that a team of nearly 100 soldiers and civilians at DPTA has been behind the effort. Public affairs officers and journalists from the Polish, U.S., British, Croatian, Finnish and Macedonian militaries have been working around the clock to produce photos and video footage, as well as to facilitate local and international media presence.
“It’s astonishing how the different nations are able to work together,” said 1st. Lt. Alexander Kim, a military intelligence officer assigned to the 151st Theatre Information Operations Group, when discussing the challenges of several journalists working between several languages. “When you observe the media information center, everyone is capable of communicating with each other.”
The MIC runs on a tight schedule. Staff members typically arrive a few hours prior to the 8 a.m. briefing to prepare materials and coordinate the day's activity. By 9 a.m., photojournalists and broadcasters from both the Polish military and the 326th MPAD of the U.S. Army Reserve have left to gather stories about the multinational units conducting operations at DPTA. They are augmented by several combat cameramen from the 55th Signal Company, 114th Signal Battalion, 21st Signal Brigade. Additional U.S. Soldiers from the 326th MPAD are based a few hours away in Torun and Chelmno, where they covered an engineer bridge crossing and an airborne drop.
“The exercise is a media success,” said Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nigel Martin, a Cornwall, United Kingdom native and communications officer assigned to NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum. “At first there were a lot of people from different nations that didn’t know each other, so we all had to come together quite quickly.”
The personnel remaining in the office prepare press releases, handle press inquiries and track media production but their work takes them into the field as well. The MIC team has handled the public appearances of dignitaries; such as U.S. Army Lt. Gen Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe; Polish Lt. Gen Marek Tomaszycki, armed forces operation commander and the Hon. Eric Fanning, Secretary of the U.S. Army.
“There are a mix of people who are new to public affairs, as well as those who are experienced public affairs officers,” added Martin. “I think it’s important for there to be a set of eyes that are not necessarily subject matter experts because they can provide a different perspective of what may be needed.”
At 7 p.m., the MIC leadership gather to discuss how the day went and to plan the coming days' events. It is not unusual for photojournalists and broadcasters to work late into the night. Here, individuals stay as late as 2 a.m. to finish stories and to edit footage in time for the next day's newspaper edition or morning television broadcast.
“Anakonda is a good experience,” said Monika Lewczuk, a Warsaw native and press officer working in the MIC at DPTA. “It was an opportunity for me to take on a larger responsibility, meet new people, as well as work with soldiers from the U.S., U.K., Macedonia and Finland. There is always something new happening here.”
Exercise Anakonda 2016, a Polish-led, multinational exercise running June 7-17, involves over 31,000 participants from 24 partner nations and is a premier training event for U.S. Army Europe.
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.19.2016 11:09 |
| Story ID: | 201725 |
| Location: | DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, PL |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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