Last week the Coast Guard published a faked first-person testimony on its official “Coast Guard Journal” blog over at www.uscg.mil. “Transparency breeds corrective behavior,” is a favorite saying at Coastie HQ in the wake of the $100-million scandal over botched 123-foot patrol boats. In the interest of some “corrective behavior,” here’s how that the faked blog went down, as best as I can tell from various confidential and public sources:
Wednesday, March 12, late PM: The Coast Guard gets a mayday call from a swamped fishing vessel, the Captain Joe, off the coast of New Jersey. A helicopter crew from Atlantic City, including enlisted rescue swimmer Karen Voorhees, swoops in to rescue (audio!) the crew despite rough seas.
Thursday, March 13, early AM: Just one junior enlisted public affairs specialist is on duty at Atlantic City, in Coast Guard District Five. This specialist, Chris McLaughlin, has been working since four in the morning, taking calls from media about the rescue and coordinating coverage for TV crews.
Thursday, March 13, later: Public Affairs officers at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., decide to feature the rescue, and especially Karen Voorhees, in the first of a planned series of first-hand on-line accounts about Coast Guard life. Despite being nearly overwhelmed by his existing workload, McLaughlin contacts Voorhees, asking for a written statement. Voorhees says she isn’t really interested in blogging, but complies.
Friday, March 14, early AM: By now Voorhees apparently has turned in her 462-word written statement. A draft is passed from McLaughlin, via his superior Steve Carleton (an enlisted chief), to headquarters. The draft is not well-received. Captain Jim McPherson from HQ sends out an email (I’ve tweaked the punctuation):
The rescue swimmer story for the Capt Joe [sic] is sensational. Let me see the post before it goes. Here is what I desire … Let’s go with the heading: Everyday heroes: Women’s History Month celebration. (Wednesday, 12 March, the xx foot long fishing vessel Captain Joe experienced uncontrolled flooding and sank in 10 [foot] seas and 40 degree waters off NJ coast. Here is the first hand account of the daring rescue by Rescue Swimmer Karen Valdez [sic] as told to PA1 McClaughlin [sic]) “The seas were angry that day, my friend.” I am Karen Valdez and I love that line from Seinfield. I can make a joke because our rescue of 4 crewmembers was perfect. I was very pleased etc etc. Then I desire link to mayday audio and photo of Karen on journal page. This will be our first journal entry of first hand rescues.
Friday, March 14, later: In an email to Tyler Johnson, a senior enlisted chief at HQ, Carleton objects to the idea of changing Voorhees’ words:
If you manipulate her words like he [McPherson] suggests … then it is no worse and just as unethical as manipulating an official Coast Guard photo. You have her words — use them as she submitted them, don’t rewrite history or paint the scene as something it wasn’t. This is not a Pulp Fiction Drama Novel, and to spin it that way is completely and totally inappropriate. I can’t sit idly by and not inform you that you are dangerously close to losing credibility as the Senior Enlisted PA if you support this effort to fluff it.
Johnson quickly responds by email:
These are suggestions to highlight personal feelings of an event and de-Coast Guard them. We, as PA practitioners have to assist people in meeting the needs of a particular market. If this was for Telemundo, for example, I may think outside the box a little and translate the material into Spanish. My credibility as a Senior Enlisted PA shouldn’t ever be in question. Stepp [sic] off the high-horse, get a little creative, and start thinking in terms of non-traditional productivity. The Journal is one of those outlets the [sic] CAPT McPherson would like to highlight as a new avenue of distributing information. Of course you don’t dictate what someone says … a good PA would simply guide someone through the process of brining [sic] their own words to creative light to better-fit the outlet. Unfortunately no one in D5 [District Five] was creative enough to do that.
So Carleton edits the statement. The result — a 675-word narrative — goes live on the Coast Guard website on Friday afternoon. It is signed, “I am Aviation Survival Technician First Class Karen Voorhees, and this is my story.”
Related posts:
“My credibility as a Senior Enlisted PA shouldn’t ever be in question”
That’s gotta hurt
A source familiar with the inner workings of the Office of Inspector General says, “the more people who file a similar or like complaint, the more action it (complaint) receives.” DHS IG does not have the resources or staff to keep up with its many complaints. The squeaky and noisy complaints get the most attention.
In this case, we as citizens cannot afford to let this one slip us by. If we can’t rely on government Public Affairs Officers to get it right, keep it factual and get it out … we can’t trust them at all. In this case Rear Admiral Landry and her staff have created an environment where not only can the American people no longer trust in their word, work and Journal, but neither can the Public Affairs Officers in the field.
Capt Jim McPherson apparently has lost misplaced his values, morals, and ethics. The special trust and confidence entrusted to him by virtue of his appointment and commission have been misplaced as well. His actions call into question the very spirit and intent of Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty.
He was given an opportunity to set the record straight, get it right and make it right, and he did not. He choose to play a loosing hand and the game us up. Nothing less than his resignation seems fitting at this point.
Rear Admiral Landry now has her opportunity to set this record straight, and publicly apologize for the embarrassment this has brought on her office, her profession, and the United States Coast Guard.
Lastly, don’t forget we all have a civil duty here as well. Contact DHS IG at:
•DHS OIG Hotline: 1-800-323-8603
•Fax DHS OIG Hotline at: (202) 254-4292
•Email at DHSOIGHOTLINE@dhs.gov
•Or write:
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528
Attn: Office of Inspector General, Hotline
Thanks for making other services’ public affairs operations look good. I especially like this line, “I worked tirelessly to get three of the four up into my helicopter…” No one narrates their actions that way. That’s bragging. That’s a bullet for an award recommendation. “She worked tirelessly to blah-blah-blah.” When you’re caught, you’re caught.
[...] Really, Blore is talking about just four blogs — this one, Danger Room, http://www.cgblog.org and Thomas Jackson’s site — and a handful of writers. My reporting, for one, is all sourced. In fact, the only people making things up in blogs about the Coast Guard is … the Coast Guard. [...]
[...] Coast Guard public affairs perp Jim McPherson [...]
[...] We shouldn’t be surprised. The Coast Guard did, after all, inaugurate its own official blog this spring by publishing a largely fictionalized rescue account. Allen’s "transparency" talk is, in fact, a smokescreen for what I believe are shady, shady dealings in the backrooms of the nation’s fifth and smallest military service. [...]
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