Marine Information

There are two sides to every story, and there’s another side to your story about some wives at Camp Pendleton who are unhappy because they could not always find out where their husbands were and when they were coming home from the Gulf (“Pendleton Marine Wives Tired of Having to Battle for Information on Husbands,” May 15).

The article indicts the Marine Corps for failure to establish an effective system to communicate to the families of Marines deployed abroad and seems to imply that Marine leaders don’t try and don’t care. In fact, there are a number of people at Camp Pendleton within the Family Services Center and the individual units who work very hard to build and maintain networks for notifying Marine families about events that can affect their loved ones abroad. In this specific case, the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade established a hot line for families, which has been updated an average of once a week since the unit arrived in the Gulf. It’s true that this “care line” didn’t contain a confirmation of the unit’s detour until 2 1/2 days after the Pentagon announcement on May 10. But the previous hot line announcement, sent out May 8, clearly stated that a diversion to Bangladesh was very possible.

Perhaps this age of instant communications has created unrealistic expectations among families of military members deployed abroad. Movement of military units is directly influenced by ongoing events. Prudent commanders keep their options open as long as possible. Decisions on when and where a military contingent will deploy are frequently made at the last minute. The Marine Corps has to be prepared to respond at a moment’s notice. When commanders know about these plans, they are often prohibited from discussing them to protect operational security. Often the information is not declassified until publicly announced in Washington.

We share the frustrations of wives who learn of their husband’s delay or diversion through the news media. But it simply isn’t possible to withhold information from public release until all family members can be notified. Change and uncertainty have long been a big part of the baggage of military spouses. It’s part of the burden that most military families grow to understand and shoulder proudly. That doesn’t mean that our commanders don’t care for them or make every effort to keep them informed.

COL. JOHN M. SHOTWELL, Director, U.S. Marine Corps Public Affairs Office