Navy turns to War of 1812 for help

[bruno]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...812-for-help/2012/04/14/gIQAHcB7HT_story.html

Interesting article in today's Washington Post. The War of 1812 is pretty much unremembered save for "Old Ironsides" (here in the Bay State!) , The Star Spangled Banner (Ft McHenry in Baltimore) and maybe for those old enough - the goofy song "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_iRIcxsz0.

Good luck with this - I'm not sure how much history resonates with the American public unfortunately. I also wonder if the Navy itself doesn't have a hard time internally articulating it's mission and relevance- the current ad campaign "A Global Force for Good" is really horrible in my humble opinion and more suited to a recruiting campaign for the Salvation Army or the American Red Cross.

Faced with little public understanding of its modern mission, the U.S. Navy is reaching back 200 years to the War of 1812 in the hopes of bolstering its standing with the American people.

This week it launches an ambitious, three-year commemoration to mark the bicentennial of the often overlooked war. Beginning Tuesday in New Orleans, and continuing through the summer in New York, Norfolk, Baltimore and Boston, tall ships and warships from around the world will parade through American ports.
But unlike previous commemorations, the Navy wants to reap lasting benefits from the War of 1812 and plans to immerse the public in a flood of information and events, including educational outreach, Web sites, social media, online games, books and museum displays.

Polling for the Navy by Gallup has shown that less than 9 percent of Americans understand its mission. Equally worrisome, the public ranks the Navy ahead of only the Coast Guard in its importance to national defense, and well behind the Army, Marines and Air Force....

 

[Bullet]

Well, if the Navy really wanted to commemorate the War of 1812 in a way that the makes the American public understand why they were so important then (and still are), they should just board some merchant vessels off of our coasts and press the crews into enlisted service.

Not only would it teach the public a little history, it could help ease any recruitment issues and thus nullify the need for the advertising campaign you don't like. BTW, you may not like their new campaign, but remember the target audience for these commercials. Some 18-year olds sitting at home want to feel they are part of something bigger than themselves, doing something good for the world...

 

[LineInTheSand]

This year long War of 1812 celebration has been an absolutely WASTE. You should hear what military historians think.

Maybe the Navy should lose the "Global Force for Good" motto.... and start explaining why it actually has guns and bombs and missiles.