A command information newspaper is an unofficial written

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Con ...

directly funded by the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

. Editorial views expressed in command information newspapers may not necessarily be those of the United States government, or the Department of Defense. Since October 2008, the Defense Department has changed the way information is distributed to service members and their families, unifying the publication of command information newspapers with command information websites.

History

According to the ''Doctrine for Public Affairs in Joint Operations'' (1997), it is the responsibility of combatant commanders to conduct command information programs, including "resourcing" locally produced command information newspapers, to disseminate information to forces deployed in an operational area. The

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operat ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

has produced its own command information news publications during at least three wars. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, it produced a news magazine called ''Screaming Eagle'', which first appeared in print on September 17, 1945. In 1968, during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, it published a quarterly magazine called ''Rendezvous With Destiny''. In 1990, during

Operation Desert Shield The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, its Public Affairs Office published another command information newspaper called ''Screaming Eagle'', as well video news segments. Production of the newspaper during Desert Shield was kept simple, with pages typed on laptops, printed out with photographs glued on, and photocopied. During the

, the

Military Assistance Command, Vietnam U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was a joint-service command of the United States Department of Defense. MACV was created on 8 February 1962, in response to the increase in United States military assistance to South Vietnam. MACV ...

(MACV) under General

William C. Westmoreland William Childs Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) was a United States Army general, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from ...

published a command information newspaper called the ''Observer''. According to former military journalist Les Payne, 80,000 copies of the ''Observer'' were dumped in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

due to a printing error. The error was blamed on the printer in Tokyo, who had somehow replaced "VN" for "Vietnamese" with "VC" for "

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

", in a headline about a new agricultural bank. An example of a domestically produced command information newspaper in the United States is ''The Andrew Vindicator'', first published by the Joint Task Force (JTF) Andrew Public Affairs Office on September 16, 1992, in the response to

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged ...

References

{{reflist Newspapers published in the United States Military communications of the United States