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In July 1998, I was sent to the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Md. to learn to be a military journalist. The Air Force enrolled me there in the Basic Journalist Course, BJC 8-98. My instructor was Army Master Sgt. Billy Shepherd. The most feared portion of the BJC course was the "features" section. The highest number of failures that occurred in BJC occurred during the features portion. I passed the section by less than 1/10 of a point. The feature stories I wrote for this portion of the course are included below:

• "COMPUTER"

• "HERBAL"

• "TRC"

• "CLOSET"

• "LAGREGGS"

• "BOWL"

• "STEP"

So you want to join the Air Force and be a 3N0x1?

DINFOS

New Air Force Public Affairs folks and new Air Force Broadcasters all go through DINFOS, the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Md.

DINFOS is a great place; I even love going back there to look around. Because DINFOS is a DOD school, not an Air Force school, you may be in class with prior service Air Force, Army, Marine or Navy service members of any rank; or basic trainees from any of those services. In the school house you will find officers from all branches of the U.S. armed forces, in addition to foreign military officers and DOD civilians.

Going through training at DINFOS is tough, and the washout rate is high. Students there will learn how to write, interview and take pictures. You will also learn things unique to your branch of the service. The toughest part of the public affairs course at DINFOS is the "features" course. The highest failure rate at DINFOS public affairs course is the features section, so be prepared to work hard there.

Be prepared to work hard at DINFOS.

  • Public Affairs training course at DINFOS: This training guide is for the BPAS-W (BASIC PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST-WRITER) at DINFOS. This explains the training you will receive if you attend DINFOS to become a public affairs specialist.

  • Air Education and Training Command Instruction 36-2216: This document will explain some of what happens in your technical school. This is not about DINFOS training, however. This document applies to the Air Force component at all locations where new Airmen go for training after basic training. The 36-2216 explains training standards, the "phase" system, when you're going to be allowed to drink and smoke again, when you can go out in your civilian clothes, when you can drive your car, or what you can have in your bedroom. This document explains what happens in Air Force student detachments around the United States when you are not actually in class.

Public Affairs

When you get to your new PA shop, be prepared to be exposed to stuff that nobody else knows. You'll be "on the inside," sitting in at meetings other enlisted don't even know exist. You’ll be the first to know, and you'll be the tasked with explaining it to the rest of the base. You'll also have an understanding of what is going on at your base that some enlisted don't get until they are a senior or a chief.

As part of a PA shop, you may be tasked with writing or editing the base newspaper, writing or maintaining the base's Web page, answering media queries, or working in the community relations section.

As a PA you'll get to meet everybody on your installation, and everybody that visits. When the Secretary of the Air Force, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, or the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force visits, you will probably meet them. You may even interview them. You'll need to be prepared to wear your blue uniform and ensure it's pressed and sharp looking. You'll have to have your questions ready, and be able to turn a story around for your base paper, your Web site, your major command Web site, or Air Force News.

Recently, the director of Air Force public affairs has suggested, strongly, that all Air Force wing public affairs offices cancel their base newspapers. Instead, they are to focus on writing entirely for the Web. This is because the Air Force is cutting back on public affairs troops. This is a reality of "Force Shaping." By eliminating the need to have enlisted troops tied each week to a contracted deadline with a civilian publisher, the Air Force can more easily deploy those troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. If you are in public affairs, be prepared to deploy.

Just about everything you learn in military public affairs will apply in some way to the civilian world of journalism. But there are no journalists in the military. Diehard "DINFOS trained killers" will say they are journalists, but once you have been doing public affairs long enough, the notion that you are a journalist wears off. There are no "fourth estate" or "First Amendment" journalists in military public affairs. Instead, there are writers, corporate communicators, and public relations specialists. You never lie in public affairs, and you don't manipulate images to change their news value. But there's also only one side of a story: the side the military wants you to hear. Instead of providing a richness of detail and background on both sides of an issue, so readers can form their own opinion, you provide full disclosure on one side of the issue, to the extent that national security allows.

  • Air Force Instruction 35-101. This is the Air Force's guide for how to run everything in public affairs. This instruction is something you might see at DINFOS for a short time during your service unique training. You will see more of it later at your first public affairs shop. This document is all about public affairs policy and is for broadcasters, writers, enlisted and officers alike.

  • 3N0X1 Career Field Education and Training Plan This CFETP is a kind of a roadmap for an enlisted public affairs specialist's career. As you reach the end of your PA career, you will need to know everything in this training plan.

If you want more information on Air Force Public Affairs, please drop me a line.

  • Air Force Pamphlet 36-2241 This instruction has nothing to do with public affairs, but instead is a study guide for promotion in the Air Force. If you are going to be new to the Air Force, and you want to know what the service is all about -- recruiter babble aside -- this is the book. It explains everything an Airman should know to be "book smart" about the Air Force. If you start studying it now, the first time you test for E-5, you will blow your peers away.