A Backpack Journalist program is a program that teaches youth about the aspects of journalism like photography, writing, poetry and songwriting. Recently, this program had the opportunity to interview Adjutant General Edward Tonini of the Kentucky National Guard. In the interview, Tonini discusses how important military support programs are to keeping his command ready. He also offered advice to those who are considering a career in Public Affairs.
1) I understand that you earned your bachelor’s degree in history. Are there any lessons from history that have aided you in being a military leader?
I look at history as one of the subjects that we as a nation have turned our back on. I would very much like to see us place a higher degree of emphasis on the study of history. I think that you broaden your baseline if you have knowledge of history. It’s something that absolutely is beneficial to youth, not just to be a leader and soldier, but to be a good person.
2) A Backpack Journalist coaches one on one with military youth in journalistic writing and broadcast journalism. Having over 26 years’ experience in Public Affairs for the Guard, is there any advice you would like to give backpackers interested in pursuing a career in Public Affairs for the military?
I have a great appreciation and a great love of (public Affairs). Place yourself in Public Affairs and you’ll find yourself in the thick of everything, where the action is, so to speak. You have to have a tremendous work discipline; be able to do things when and where you’re needed where and when things happen. It’s a great area that I would recommend highly.
3) You also have quite an impressive civilian resume when it comes to radio and television. You have worked with ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, and HBO to name a few. You also head up Louisville Productions which has produced five programs on PBS. Are there any key differences between civilian broadcast and military broadcast journalism?
Back when I started in the business, every TV station and newspaper would have specialists, (who) would have a full knowledge of what’s going on. As the years have evolved, the media became more competitive. Now the media has generalists, bright young people that are capable of reading with basic skill but have no knowledge of the area they’re working in. Public Affairs staff has to make sure that the message being relayed is the message they want to send out. We basically hand feed the media the message that you want them to carry. It’s based on your interpersonal relationships as to how successful you’re going to be in telling the story that you want them to tell.
4) You’ve recently made history during the 2011 National Volunteer workshop and Youth Symposium. You hosted the first ever home front USO concert with Montgomery Gentry. Through the Pentagon Channel that concert was broadcast to military servicemen and their families all around the world. Would you like to share any after thoughts about that?
I must say that it was one of the highlights of my career. We presented it to the USO. They were interested in spending more time with the guard and spending more time with families; the people that enable the soldiers to do what they do to protect our country. It was one of the most significant events in their 70 year history, something I’m extraordinarily proud of.
5) The National Volunteer workshop and Youth Symposium had an emphasis on the support military families give. How do you think family programs make our military stronger and better prepared to defend our country?
With over 14,000 people that have deployed to go into harm’s way (since 9/11), we as a guard could have only done that with the amount of support from family members, employers, communities, and churches. It has become a major element in our success and our ability to be the operational force that we are today. I am a big believer in emphasis of that conference. It’s so important to continue to let soldiers know that we appreciate them, and that the work that they do is important.
6) You were the creator and director of the Your Guardians of Freedom Program. This program automated a process by which until commanders could send personalized letters of thanks to the family members and civilian employers of Guardsmen and Reservists who were called to duty following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The youth at A Backpack Journalist are encouraged to write letters of thank you to someone significant in their life. Thank you letters seem like such a small act, but in your opinion how much of an impact do the letters sent via the Your Guardians of Freedom program have on those who receive them?
The response that we got back through reply letters will bring me to tears. The one that I remember most vividly was a letter sent out to a young man with a “parent pin” that is usually given to their parents, saying that they were a proud parent of a soldier. The individual that got it was special. It was sent to an airman who was stationed in Korea (whose parents had recently deceased). This airman told me that as soon as he got back to the United States, he was going to super-glue the parent-pin on the tombstone of his parents so they would always wear it with pride. Those are the stories that make me feel good about what I do.
7) Your state just went through the largest deployment in its history. How often do you visit deployed troops around the world? How do you recommend your troops keep their morale up during deployment?
Every chance I get I make a pledge to all of my units that I will do everything in my power to visit them during their deployment. I’ve been able to do that for the most part. I have found that it is extraordinarily important. It’s something that’s appreciated, not only by the soldiers, but by their families. With the technology we have today, the families are every bit as aware as you would imagine of when the Adjutant General visits people in the field. As for morale, I never have had a problem with morale. The men and women that make up the Army and the Air National Guard today are a different lot than the ones that I remember early in my career. They are professional soldiers and airman in every way. They don’t have a problem in doing their job. The difficult part is having the families adjust, and if the families back home are convinced that they’re being taken care of and that they’re okay, there’s not a problem with morale for the most part.
8) What advice do you have for other military leaders as they work with soldiers who return from deployment?
One needs to make sure that you have their best interest in mind even though they’re back home. They need to know that there are lots of services and resources that they can bring to bear, from helping them find a job to medical treatment. Whatever it is, we are replete with (for the most part) federally funded services for people that have returned from deployment. It’s our duty to make sure that those services are well-known to the individual who needs them.
9) What advice do you have for soldiers who are returning back from deployment that can help them adjust to reintegration?
We as an Army and Air force are doing everything we can do to get people employed when they’re back home. All that relates back to the family. If you don’t have income in your family, you’ve got problems. When you have problems in your family, you don’t have as good a soldier as you need in order to produce combat ready units in order to do the things that we do on a state and federal basis.
10) What advice do you give to families about how they can support their soldier as they return to life in the U.S?
I think it all is built on a stable family situation, which includes a lot of factors. The more kinetic activity we see, the higher instances of divorce, alcoholism, and other factors we want to avoid. It’s our responsibility to analyze that and do whatever is necessary to try to help the situation get resolved.
Report by DeAnna Stinnett, Questions and Additional Reporting by Zia Johnson
