Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 124

said Campbell, “even at the numbers that we are.” The
general could not visit every venue in Poland, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Estonia, though, nor could a company of
airborne infantry, but media reports could. To achieve
the desired sentiment on a national level in four countries, it was incumbent upon USAREUR’s public affairs
personnel to work with their host nation counterparts
and U.S. State Department country teams to deliver
the message to stake-holding populations through the
national and international media.

Institutionalizing Lessons for the
Future
USAREUR’s achievement of both tactical and communication end-states offers lessons for implementing
communication strategy in future operations. NielsonGreen, in evaluating the work of her team, pointed to a
few key conditions that set the stage for that success:
Being part of the staff estimate: In spite of dissent
from some in the staff, identifying the decisive nature of public affairs activities, and alerting the commander to that fact, laid the foundation for mission
accomplishment.
Thorough planning: Meticulous planning by the
main command post public affairs team allowed the
forward-deployed team to execute without hesitation. This included early and regular engagement with
U.S. Embassy and U.S. EUCOM personnel to ensure
interagency accord and sharing of information and
resources.
Public affairs should be no different than any other operational capability that the commander has: The
integration of public affairs with the staff allowed for
last-minute planning adjustments that avoided costly
mistakes.
A seat at the table: It is critical that public affairs
leaders demonstrate they can be trusted to accomplish
the mission. They, and their people, must train and
practice their craft so that when the unexpected happens, they are trusted members of the team.

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Mission Command: Trust your noncommissioned officers and civilian public affairs experts.
The plan could not have been implemented without allowing members of the team to take initiative
and think independently. Waiting on decisions or
explicit guidance from leadership would have cost
time when every hour was valuable.
Today, Operation Atlantic Resolve continues. The 173rd Airborne Brigade paratroopers
have rotated home, replaced by regionally aligned
forces from the U.S. who continue to serve and
train in the same capacity as their predecessors.
Accordingly, communication efforts continue to
play an ongoing and vital role as American soldiers
train with their host-nation counterparts, the U.S.
continues to reinforce the NATO alliance through
reassurance efforts, and transparency of U.S.
government activities abroad is still owed to the
American public.
On 3 September 2014, President Barack Obama
stood just five kilometers from the place where
Campbell delivered the welcome news to Estonia
that American forces would stand by their side.
The president addressed U.S. and Estonian soldiers
gathered in an aircraft hangar at Tallinn Airport
with the prime minister of Estonia, Taavi Rõivas.
“You’re sending a powerful message that NATO,
including the United States, will defend Estonia,
will defend Latvia, will defend Lithuania, will
defend all of our NATO allies,” Obama told the
paratroopers.30
The commander-in-chief ’s visit and remarks
highlighted the central role of the troops, and the
message communicated by their presence, in fulfilling one of the nation’s strategic priorities.
The delivery of that message is owed in no small
part to the initial and ongoing communication efforts of the Ministries of Defense and U.S. Embassy
personnel in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia,
U.S. EUCOM, and USAREUR public affairs.

Jesse Granger is a U.S. Department of the Army civilian with the U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs Office. He
holds a B.S. from University of Maryland University College. Granger previously served in the Army as a broadcast journalist/public affairs specialist with tours in Iraq, Germany, and Fort Hood, Texas. He was awarded the
Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware award as the Army civilian broadcast journalist of the year in 2010.
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January-February 2015  MILITARY REVIEW