I am quite fond of the staff in the Coast Guard Auxiliary's Public Affairs Department -- perhaps because I have served as a Public Affairs Officer in the past -- they are a first class operation filled with true professionals from top to bottom. As the world soaks in images of rescue workers bringing children to safety and a Naval Hospital Ship plying the waters off the coast (also check this one out), the USCG Auxiliary's public affairs team have worked around the clock not only to tell the Coast Guard's story in Haiti, but also to staff the Joint Information Center in Miami, and to tap the social networking to provide real time search and rescue intelligence to operational commanders on the ground. Indeed, as the independent website "Coast Guard News" reported earlier this week, it is thanks to our Public Affairs Officers that "Social media saves lives in Haiti." Petty Officer 3rd Class Walter Shinn writes:
Imagine being trapped or buried under a collapsed building for 24 hours, and the only lifeline is a cell phone which is about to die. The social media application is opened and a short call for help is sent hoping someone will see it and come to the rescue.
Seconds later, a Coast Guard Auxiliarist who monitors all distress content submitted via social media platforms from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, through a new media technology feed, sees the social media post and sends the message with a latitude and longitude to rescuers who race to the rescue.Concluding that, "Social media may have never played a more important role than now in any major crisis in history," Shinn goes on to write of the work that my friend Ryan Bank, who "expected the data networks of Haiti’s mobile providers to be operational very soon after the disaster," and his leadership in aggregating distress calls via social networking and providing them to teams on the ground:
Bank and the volunteers and the Coast Guard District Seven’s Joint Information Center monitored feeds and put as much useful information together as possible using all available sources of information including non-government organizations, publicly-available satellite imagery, contacts on the ground, and direct contact. The information was immediately forwarded to the Coast Guard District Seven command center and U.S. Agency for International Development Coordinators at U.S. Southern Command, as well as rescue dispatch teams in Port-au-Prince.By all means, please go read Petty Officer Shinn's full story with many more details and good quotes from Mr. Bank. Also have a look at Monday's guest post on the Commandant's blog discussing this same effort.
I had hoped to be assigned to this operation myself, having submitted my name through the Chain of Command to do so, but the powers that be have apparently thus far not felt it necessary to get me underway. I am, nonetheless, both proud and excited about the great work our Public Affairs Officers are doing to support American operations in Haiti. Normally responsible for telling the story that others create, it is a rare moment when those involved with Public Affairs get to help write the story themselves. Many thanks for your service.
