Guidelines for covering a local unit in battle

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1. If you have a military base in your area, contact the public affairs officer there to get a firm rundown of units that have been deployed. Don’t forget to make lists of any reserve and national guard units – which are spread across one or more states in dozens of hometown armories – that have been mobilized.
   
2. Many Internet Web sites deal with the military and veterans’ groups and are willing to help you get insights into local units. Local chapters of the primary veterans organizations such as the American Legion and VFW are excellent places to network. For a roster of veterans’ organizations, go here.
   
3. Designate at least one editor to monitor print and broadcast reports to locate any combat references to a local unit. This will enable you to the wire service/network reports with fill-in reporting from the home front. If you use wire services, it helps to let them know which military units you are interested in.
   
4. Should a fragmentary account emerge on a local unit’s involvement, get more details by contacting the appropriate military public affairs officers.

   These links may be helpful:
   
   Secretary of Defense
   
   Army
   
   Air Force
   
   Navy
   
   Marine Corps
   
   Special Operations
   
   Coast Guard
   
   
   

5. Try to recruit a local member of a deployed military unit to write a serial report from his or her unit in the field. Usually this must have to be cleared through the service member’s chain of command, but in past conflicts – even the 1991 Gulf War – a number of newspapers benefited from such eyewitness accounts.

Ed Offley, editor of DefenseWatch magazine, has covered the U.S. military since 1981. He is the author of "Pen & Sword: A Journalist's Guide to Covering the Military," published by Marion Street Press. Inc.