PS Magazine stays relevant at age 70

Photo By Eric Schultz | A copy of the first edition of PS Magazine, photographed at the PS Magazine office.  

HUNTSVILLE, AL, UNITED STATES

05.26.2021

Story by Emily Strickland 

U.S. Army Garrison - Redstone Arsenal

For 70 years now, Master Sgt. Half-Mast McCanick and a rotating cast of characters have been helping Soldiers maintain and repair their equipment at PS Magazine.

PS, also known as PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, was first published in 1951 as tensions leading up to the Korean War boiled over. Illustrated by prolific comic strip artist Will Eisner, the magazine was revolutionary in its formatting, as Eisner decided to present all of the information in comic strips.

A host of characters, including Half-Mast, Connie Rodd, Bonnie, Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin “Rotor” Blade, Cloe, and half a dozen “retired” others, have helped civilian employees communicate with Soldiers about maintaining their equipment. The magazine, which was initially headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, relocated to Raritan Arsenal, New Jersey, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Lexington-Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky, before moving to Redstone Arsenal in 1993.

The last decade, however, has brought many changes to the magazine. June 2017 saw the last printed edition of the magazine before shifting to a completely digital format. The magazine was realigned to Army Sustainment Command, a major subordinate command to AMC, when AMC implemented its “Shape the Fight” initiative in the late-2010s, and the longstanding cartoon contract largely ended (though the characters still appear on the magazine’s website from time to time).

Robert Hill, PS supervisory editor, has been with the magazine for three years and said that these changes have helped the magazine remain relevant in an increasingly digital world. While there are occasional issues with accessing the site, like in instances where Soldiers do not have reliable Internet service, the ease of using a searchable digital format outweighs the challenges.

“It’s on-demand,” Hill said. “As soon as an article is written and verified, then we can publish it on the web.” This is a major change from the magazine’s previous monthly format, which required long lead times for art to be created, articles to be written and the magazine to be printed and distributed. In the past, if a Soldier encountered an issue with equipment, it might take four to five months for that issue to be addressed in the print magazine; now, that process has been shortened to mere days.

Despite the major changes that the physical magazine has gone through, Hill said the mission of the magazine is still the same as it was 70 years ago. Soldiers are still invited to write letters to Half-Mast when they have issues with equipment or ideas regarding how to make things better.

“If you’re trying to fix a piece of equipment and you’re banging your head against the wall because you just can’t figure something out, or parts are not coming to you that you need, or if you have an idea about to do things better, please write us, and we’ll research the answer and get back to you,” Hill said.

Contracts change, leadership shifts, and technology progresses, but the mission of PS has remained the same: making sure Soldiers are prepared when it matters most.

“What we as a staff take pride and joy in is the fact that we’re responsible for information that can really make a difference in Soldiers’ daily lives and that can help them keep their equipment combat-ready, keep them safer, keep them more resilient,” Hill said.

“They know that if they read us on a continual basis, they’ll hopefully have a leg up, because they’re able to order the parts that they need without any problems or they’ll get a tip for how to take care of something. … So that’s what we take pride in, collectively, is the fact that we impact Soldiers’ lives on a daily basis.”

• Date Taken: 05.26.2021
• Date Posted: 07.02.2021 11:20
• Story ID: 399466
• Location: HUNTSVILLE, AL, US