Military Channel Broadcasting Servicemembers’ Stories

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

“We want to give a voice to the troops to allow them to tell their stories,” Jill Bondurant, Military Channel publicist, said during an interview with American Forces Press Service today.

The Military Channel plans to use servicemembers-submitted video for broadcast during nightly one-hour blocks of programming starting in early February, Bondurant said. The dates and times haven’t been specified yet, she said.

Video can be in digital or taped format, Bondurant said, and can be submitted via the following methods:

-- Online: www.mywardiary.com;

-- E-mail: mywardiary@discovery.com; or

-- Mail: Military Videos, care of Discovery Productions, 8045 Kennett Street, Silver Spring, Md. 20910.

All submitted video will be screened for appropriate content, Bondurant noted.

The initiative seeks to illustrate some personal stories of military service during wartime, Military Channel spokesman and former soldier Pat Lafferty told the Pentagon Channel in a recent interview. Most evening news programming on the military these days shies away from the personal and focuses on “big picture” events, he said.

“There’s only so much that the ‘normal media’ can get out as far as the stories (and) what’s going on,” Lafferty said. “And, oftentimes, that really isn’t the story about individual servicemembers and what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis.”

A component of Discovery Communications, the Silver Spring, Md.-based Military Channel was the first television media outlet to partner with America Supports You, a Department of Defense program connecting public and corporate support for the troops to servicemembers and their families.