214                                    U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, l99~199I

            prioritization of shipment for-food, water, weapons, and
            ammo.  This will remain an austere deployment, but a
            concerted effort is underway to improve mail delivery,
            establish systems for delivering news and information,
            provide spare parts, and enhance living conditions with
            health and comfort items.    Off-hand comments about
            these shortages,   when   broadcast/published in  news
            media, focus undue attention on problems that we're
            working very hard to resolve.  You should not muzzle
            your Marines, but they should be reminded that these
            discomforts and     inconveniences, while   sometimes
            foremost in their minds, play a backseat to the import-
            ance of accomplishing our mission, of doing what has to
            be done for as long as we have to be here.

    The message seemed to have had some impact. Media accounts centering on
such complaints were rare, and they were about the only negative reports about
Marines throughout the deployment.     When media did direct attention toward
gripes, our commanders, to their credit, were more focused on resolving the
source of the complaints than on lashing out at the media.  There were a few
commanders that reacted to negative comments in media reports by wanting to
ban reporters from their ranks.  But these were the exceptions. As the months
wore on, a phenomenon developed none of us public affairs officers really
expected.   Some of our commanders actually began to enjoy having reporters
around.   In many cases they were the only Americans that our Marines and
Sailors saw throughout the deployment.      They brought news from home.
Friendships and relationships developed between the journalists and the troops
they covered.  Perhaps more significantly, Marines grew accustomed to having
journalists in their midst, and this paid dividends later on as we prepared to take
the media through the breach.

                       Sensitivities and Propaganda

    As DESERT SHIELD wore on, we became increasingly aware that Western
media reports were being closely monitored in Jeddah, Baghdad, Amman, Tel
Aviv, and, of course, Washington.     On the one hand, our mandate for media
access provided us with a means to tell Iraq and the rest of the world that we
meant business and that we were capable of carrying through with the Presi-
dent's goals.  We were showing that our weapons worked as advertised and
our Marines were tough and unintimidated.
    But a miscue with the press could turn into a propaganda coup for Iraq. For
example, we steered reporters away from filming or photographing the practice
of Christian or Jewish worship by U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia.     The
Saudis granted us the privilege of observing our religious practices in their holy
land so long as we didn't flaunt it.  Had media routinely trained their cameras
on our Marines bowing before a chaplain on the sacred Arabian sands, it would