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As a mass communication specialist (MC), I can’t help but find myself thinking of how what is happening today will be portrayed in history books tomorrow. As military journalists, photographers and videographers, those in the MC community are taught early that we are not only the world’s eyes and ears for the work our Navy is doing today, but that we are also the keepers of the military history of the future.
In my six years as a Navy mass communication specialist, I have worked with people who had their photography and videography featured across multiple news networks, covering rescue missions, the launch of missiles, humanitarian aid and disaster response, counterpiracy operations, and more highly impactful stories of current events and operations of our Navy.
While the overall impact of COVID-19 is not Navy or military specific, there is no doubt that it will be Navy history, and as such, there are MCs documenting the incredible work being done by Department of Defense (DOD) personnel, including the deployment of our two hospital ships USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort to Los Angeles and New York, respectively.
This is an unprecedented time for our Navy. Navy doctors, corpsmen and other medical staff aboard our hospital ships are treating non DOD-affiliated, United States citizens on opposite sides of our country simultaneously supporting a singular mission. For those who are not directly supporting the Navy’s COVID-19 response, many are finding themselves navigating new waters as they serve their country from home. Some, like me, have people in their lives who are essential workers. As we adjust to doing our part by preventing the spread of the virus, our loved ones have stepped into the role of being on the front lines.
In these times of change and uncertainty, it is important that we focus on what we know. We don’t know yet what the history books will say. We don’t know what will change as we as a Navy learn and adapt to these new challenges. What we do know is that it’s critical we do what we can to keep our shipmates safe.
The obvious first step to this is following guidance from the Navy and our respective commands to prevent the spread of the virus, but there is another aspect we’ve all been trained on that may slip by us in our new routines; It is more important than ever that we communicate with our shipmates.
Active-duty Sailors generally go from spending eight or more hours per day with their coworkers to spending 24 hours together when deployed. While social distancing impacts our country as a whole, it’s not unlikely that this change is even more drastic for many within the Navy. Reserve Sailors have shifted from seeing their shipmates once a month to only seeing faces on a screen.
Unless we are asking questions and checking up on one another, we have no way of knowing who is having a difficult time in isolation, who has loved ones on the front lines, or who is a care taker for someone immunocompromised, or even who has a family member who has contracted the virus.
For those of us in leadership roles, it falls to us to know what unique stressors our Sailors are facing, and how they are managing them. The situation we’re faced with calls for more than keeping our distance physically. It calls for us to ensure that while our Sailors may be isolating, not a single one of them is alone.
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2020 11:02 |
| Story ID: | 366959 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Isolation and Readiness: Supporting Sailors through unprecedented change and uncertainty, by PO1 Chelsea Milburn, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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