responsible for coordinating all aspects of the embarkation A  well-orchestrated  embark  involving  national media  begins  at  the  local  command  level,  then ultimately  reaches  CHINFO  for  final  approval. Planning  and  coordination  is  the  responsibility  of  the on-scene PAO, because he is more familiar with the subject  matter,  issues  and  facilities  where  the  embark will  take  place. Pre-Departure  Briefing Hold a pre-departure briefing as soon as possible so reporters  can  meet  the  CO  and  other  key  individuals, and  get  answers  to  preliminary  questions.  If  corre- spondents join your unit while it is deployed, make sure they  are  briefed  soon  after  arriving. Cover the following subjects in the pre-departure briefing: . Ground rules . Basic shipboard safety . Emergency procedures l Off-limit areas l  Photography  restrictions . Procedures to take during a security alert .  Wardroom  and  berthing  accommodations Note: Embarked  news  media  representatives  will receive the same wardroom and berthing privileges as a lieutenant commander or senior, if available, regardless of any prior military rank held. Preparing the Command Inform  the  crew  about  the  media  embark  through the Plan of the Day, ship’s newspaper, bulletin boards and SITE system. Give the reporter’s names, affiliations and the length of their visits. Be ready to provide the reporters with crew members of certain geographical locations for interviews. For instance, if an ENG team from a San Antonio television station embarks aboard the USS Forrestal  (AVT 59) in Pensacola to do a story on naval aviation training, they will request interviews with Texans involved in the actual training, especially those  from  San  Antonio.  The  personnel  office  can  help you  with  hometown  information. Escorts If  the  number  of  embarking  correspondents outnumbers your public affairs office escorts, you have to get more. These escorts are usually senior enlisted members or officers identified by the command during pre-embark planning sessions. Regardless of who is chosen, you must adequately train these escorts and make sure they attend the pre-departure briefing. VISUAL  RELEASE A picture is worth a thousand words, and one good still photo can often do a better job of conveying an idea than a month’s worth of news releases. You should develop  an  eye  for  photo-worthy  situations  and  either release  them  yourself  or  invite  news  photographers  to cover the event. Film clips or videotapes are also in demand if they are not obvious setups or posed situations. In general, news editors and news directors are very distrustful of government  audiovisual  products.  However,  if  you  have established  credibility  and  deal  only  in  “honest  images,” you can achieve greater acceptance of visual releases. MARKETING Your JO2 has written a feature story about two pilots assigned  to  a  squadron  at  your  air  station.  She interviewed the pilot and co-pilot after a flight to an interesting  destination.  The  story,  written  primarily  for your base newspaper, is aimed at your internal audience that already knows something about your base and its mission. A picture of the two of them in the cockpit illustrates the story. What can you do to get more media mileage from this story? Market it. Your taking the time to adapt this story to a different audience will enable you to tap into thousands  of  new  readers. In the preceding scenario, you can easily modify the story into a hometown feature. By having the two pilots fill out a Fleet Home Town News release form, you get both  personal  data  and  release  permission.  With minimal rewrite time, you can take the original story and turn it into two separate stories-with each pilot getting star billing for his hometown markets. When doing this, you will need to add such information as hometowns, where they attended school and the names of their parents.  You  also  must  identify  the  location  of  the  air station and its mission. 4-15