Gary Sheftick is currently editor of the Army News Service and Soldiers Features at the Defense Media Activity, Fort Meade, Maryland. In this role, he supervises writers and posts multi-media stories to the Army webpage to keep Soldiers informed, while supporting communications priorities of senior Army leaders.
His experience includes serving as commander of American Forces Network-Iraq and the 356th Broadcast Operations Detachment. His team produced Freedom Journal Iraq, a daily television news program aired on the Pentagon Channel, along with 14 hours of live radio broadcasting in theater daily from July 2006 to July 2007.
He began his career as a beat reporter for the Kittanning Leader Times, a daily newspaper serving Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. He worked the police beat and enjoyed helping cover sports. He also produced a series of photo features on little-known historical sites around the county.
He has served as command information officer for the Military District of Washington, media relations officer for First U.S. Army, editor of the First Army Voice, and community relations specialist at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
He has a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
As an Army Reserve officer, his last assignment was as a lead instructor for the Command and General Staff College, Intermediate Level Education at the Fort Belvoir, Virginia campus.
As a reporter, he had the opportunity to cover U.S. service members at both the London and Sochi Olympics, as well as the world military CISM games in Korea four years ago.
In addition to numerous journalism awards, his citations include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, along with multiple Army Commendation, Achievement, and Service Medals.