CHINFO needs a 12-step program

Our buddy Lee, who knows where my buttons are, pressed one again.

Navy messaging is broken beyond parody. I used to hit on it all the time - but I have tired of it as the sport is out of it - we don't care.

Since Sunday night, we have had one of the prime above-the-fold moments when it comes to the Navy's contribution to the Long War. We have a great story, one our Sailors deserve to have told from the mountain tops. Big Navy though doesn't seem to think so.

A little over 16-hrs after the President reported that Osama bin Laden had assumed room temperature - Lee reminded me that I needed to visit the marquee internet presence for our Navy; http://www.navy.mil.

What do I see? (click for higher res)


A day and a half earlier than the above screen-cap, a Navy at war just eliminated the most wanted person of this century - and what do we tell the world that the United States Navy thinks is most important?

• Recruiting events at football games.
• Children.
• Family support.
• Returning from deployments (4).
• Liberty (5).
• Retention (3).
• Sexual Harassment.
• Exercises (3).
• Retired issues.
• We want you to read All Hands.
• We want to pimp the Global Force For Good slogan - we paid a lot for it and we want to use it.
• We want you to know that we have such a problem with sexual harassment that we must have it on our front page because, goodness knows, a Sailor NEVER hears about that subject.
  

If there was anything that screamed a lack of sea duty and battlemindedness, navy.mil is it - and that is sad. CHINFO has some good folks working there and doing the best they can for our Sailors - but this is just UNSAT.

Of course a good question would be what took me so long to go to navy.mil. Simple, I knew that I wouldn't find anything there - neither does anyone else.

To my friends in CHINFO - your first step to fixing your problem is to acknowledge you have one. This is the second decade of the 21st Century and your internet presence is ossified, stale, and non-relevant.

Is it a zero-defect culture where you cannot find any responsible officer to be assigned as your online editor who can make the call on what does and does not go up? Is there an appreciation how out of the loop Big Navy is in the blazing Navy story that is going on right now?

It is sad. The minute it became known that the Navy had such a high profile role in the killing of OBL - people should have gone to navy.mil to get information. I didn't, they didn't, and the reason is simple --- there is nothing there.

We can do better - our Sailors deserve better.

I've had the pleasure to meet a lot of great PAOs over the last few years since I came in from the cold - you guys and gals are good people, you know your community is better than this. Fix your house.

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UPDATE: OK kiddies; if we are going to play that game of happy-20th Century-horseshi'ite, then the CINC should have said the mission was completed by Task Force Shangri-la, smiled, and walked away. That is all I have to say about that. One way or another, ham-fisted and club-footed behind the green curtain. Look at your calendar.