New Army site connects recruits, soldiers

Starting today, visitors to GoArmy are presented with a rousing new feature: “Straight from Iraq.” The idea is to bypass the media and give would-be recruits the chance to hear directly from soldiers about their experiences in the long-running war.

The site opens with an audio soundtrack as powerful as any motion picture trailer. A strong male voice intones:

On March 20, 2003, elements of the United States Army thundered across the Kuwaiti border. Codenamed “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” it was an event of historic proportions. In the weeks and months [and years – Ed.] most of what we have learned about the conflict has been through the print and broadcast media. Until Now. Here’s your chance to find out what’s it really like to be deployed in the Middle East. Find out first-hand from actual soldiers about their daily life and the intense comaradie that binds them together. Simply click the Submit a Question to begin. Straight Questions. Straight Answers. Right from Iraq.

This wouldn’t be quite so laughable if the media been essentially emasculated by the military through the embedding process. What are the odds the Army is going to post a full range of soldiers’ answers including the negative ones?

The new site represents an evolution in Army marketing from such things as sponsoring rodeos to the Internet, the New York Times reports.

“The campaign has been successful conveying the benefits of ‘Army strong,’ the physical, emotional and mental benefits,” said Ed Walters, chief marketing officer for the Army at the Pentagon.
“We wanted to more clearly articulate that,” he added, through efforts like sharing with civilians the video clips of “real soldiers’ stories.”

Although the campaign was developed months ago, its Veterans Day launch dovetails quite nicely with the recession, which may lead more young people to choose service over the fruitless search for jobs that no longer exist.