Barksdale's War Journalists
By: Leslie Draffin
Updated: March 18, 2012
In the 2nd Bomb Wing's Public Affairs office airmen write, shoot and edit stories about life on Barksdale. They also give a voice to every airmen, no matter his position.
"As communicators, our primary goal is to tell our airmen's story, to let people have the spotlight a little bit because these airmen working off the flightline in the dark corner of a hangar don't alwasy get the attention they deserve," says Tech Sgt Mike Andriacco who believes, "it's absolutely one of the best jobs in the Air Force."
These are the "real" war reporters and photographers. They get down and dirty, doing whatever it takes to get the scoop. "In alot of ways not only do we get to tell the story we get to experience first hand," Andriacco says.
Aside from reporting the news on base, public affairs airmen also take offical portraits of every person working or living on base. "It's busy all the time, we're in the studio all week," says Senior Airmen Amber Ashcraft. She's also responsible for the "darker side" of the job, taking photos during emergency situations that range from car crashes on base to bombings during deployments.
"It's behind the scenes kind of deal," Ashcraft says. She admits its those photos that leave the biggest impact, "its one of the parts of the job thats demanding and also a little upsetting at times. We see things alot of people don't get to see." The best way she's found to deal with this, is keeping a distance between herself and what she sees through the lense. "It wears on you after a while, everybody sees us out with our cameras smiling, talking to people, they forget that behind the scenes we have an important job to do."
Airmen telling the story of war because they've lived through it and defending our freedom, camera in hand.
