ANTllOLOOY AND ANNOTATED BIBUOGRAPHY                                         209

During the Vietnam War the public watched videotape of the previous days
aaion; during Desert Storm viewers around the world watched an tiaircraft fire
over BagMad, Scud missile attacks, and the liberation of Kuwait City live via
satellite hookups.  Colonel Shotwell was the public affairs officer for I Marine
Expeditionary Force during the Persian Gulf Conflict.     In this article, he
describes how the Marine Corps cooperated with the media.


The Fourth Estate as a Force Multiplier

by Colonel John M. Shotwell

Marine Corps Gazette, July 1991


   Major commands at Camp Pendleton turn over just about every summer with
varying degrees of attention from the news media. But the change of command
scheduled for 8 August 1990, was expected to draw more media interest than
normal.  LtGen Walter E. Boomer was to assume command of I Marine Ex-
peditionary Force (MEF), as well as Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.       The
Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), Gen A.M. Gray, was flying in as
guest of honor and had agreed to a news conference that afternoon.
   We researched and briefed the Commandant on the topics the media were
likely to throw his way--a recent force reduction of civilian workers, hazard-
ous waste disposal, freeway and airport proposals, and other persistent en-
vironmental and encroachment issues.   But the one question all the journalists
asked in one way or another was the one Gen Gray couldn't address at the time,
even though he knew the answer--Were Camp Pendleton Marines going to the
Gulf?
   Six days earlier, when Saddam Hussein raped Kuwait, he set in motion a
chain of events that seized the world's attention and held it fast. For the next
several months every national leader, as well as just about every American
family, would monitor each detail of the crisis through the news media. Perhaps
no other event in world history has received as much public and media attention
over a comparable time period.
   The Marines from I MEF were very much in the eye of this typhoon of
publicity throughout the crisis.   During DESERT SHIELD and DESERT
STORM, Marines would be featured frequently on all four television networks,
would grace the covers of the major news magazines, and would figure promi-
nently nearly every day on the front pages of America's newspapers.
   Throughout the operation, correspondents frequently visited our area of re-
sponsibility, observed our training and buildup, and often remained overnight
with our units.     And during offensive operations a large pool of reporters
literally lived with Marines for several weeks and crossed into Kuwait with them
on G-day.  They required logistical support, sometimes got in the way during