A sniper takes out a leader of American troops. He writhes on the ground, while another soldier stands nearby videotaping his dying comrade.
Army Master Sgt. Lance Milsted stops the training exercise and speaks to the young soldier-journalist about the most important lesson he would learn.
“You have to learn when to stop shooting video and start shooting bullets,” said Milsted, an instructor at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade.
This is the kind of tutelage more than 3,500 journalists, broadcasters and public affairs officers from all five service branches receive at DINFOS, the military?s journalism and communications school.
The Department of the Defense is pushing for more DINFOS graduates, but it has also put a strain on the 50-year-old barracks plauged by mold and leaky pipes that houses the students.
“With a continuous student population, you can?t just shut down the showers,” said Col. Kenneth McCreedy, fort commander.
The military?s demand is so high DINFOS cannot meet the requested allotment of graduates in 19 of 26 courses. The Navy has doubled its requested graduates in the past year, and the Army is offering bonuses to recruits who graduate, officials said.
“Providing factual information and communication to the public is as important as holding tactical ground,” said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Cordell, of DINFOS.
Meanwhile, the DINFOS barracks’ moldy rooms, and aging pipes contribute to the problem. Army officials are working to renovate the barracks where students live for three to nine months during training.
“When you enlist, you know you?re not getting put up in the Ritz, but you also don?t expect to live in black mold,” said Airman Chris Jacobs, 24, of Texas, who lives in the Air Force barracks ? considered the worst by Fort Meade officials.
Army Sgt. Gina Vaile, 26, of the Kentucky National Guard, said she was moved to a newer barracks because of her mold allergy.
Graduates become embedded with convoys and provide the now-to-familiar images of troops coming under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also become the voice of the military. But they are also soldiers, Marines, saliors, airmen and Coast Guardmen.
“Without credibility, you can?t win a war, and the only way to do that is to provide information to all,” said Navy Capt. W. Curry Graham, DINFOS? commandant.
DINFOS students are trained to be journalists, but instructors stress the importance of remaining a military service member above all else.
Milsted worked as a videographer, and was covering a group of soldiers sweeping roads for improvised explosive devices when one hit the vehicle he was riding in.
“It was then that I realize that if one of these men go down, I?ll be in the fight,” Milsted said.
Officials said DINFOS has served as an “international model.” Slovenia has modeled the school, and Canada built its own defense information school after sending its military journalists to DINFOS for several years, officials said.
While some newly graduated civilan journalists have trouble finding work, DINFOS students are guaranteed jobs after graduation. But that job may put them in the combat zones.
Since the Korean War, more than 100 military journalists have died in combat, with about eight dying in the recent Middle East conflicts. DINFOS has a memorial honoring fallen graduates.
“No matter what job you do, you?re going to see combat. I want to show what the troops are doing on the ground,” Vaile said.
