Aerospace and AZ Days - Davis Monthan - DISCUSSION THREAD

[redsox223]

Thank you, and have a pleasant tomorrow, photographing airplanes.

Well said, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[cpasley]

Thank you Bill ,good to see someone else feels how I do ,just with a little more wording 

[Joe Copalman]

Bill, you're like Dr. Phil and Yoda rolled into one.  

Many many many good points.  

[Jay Beckman]

Well Put Bill...

Just to be clear, my initial response to John Wright was specific to how they chose to treat the Media and not just the general public.

[David Loera]

I think we found a handle for Bill "Yoda"

I agree with everything Bill, good job.

[redsox223]

or go Spaceballs and call him Yogurt.

[Jay Beckman]

"Use The Schwartz!"

[JWright]

My beef is with the Public Affairs Office and the command structure at D-M for their media treatment.  I spoke to a colleague that lives in Phoenix and he told me that the D-M PAO is chronically difficult to work with.   

I, too, attended the show at Luke last year and their handling of the media was very different.  I was mailed a parking pass that allowed me to park on the base a short walk from the flight line and I was allowed free run of the show area and access to the shooting platform.  When I covered the show at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside in 2008, we had a covered area right at the show line to shoot from and water was privided.  Again, we had the run of the show area.

In my experience, by far the best treatment of media by the military is provided by the Marines at Miramar.  They provide a designated parking lot, rides from the lot to the media chalet, food, water, a covered area and a raised shooting platform.

[Joe Copalman]

Take into consideration that D-M is under constant siege from Tucsonians complaining about noise (which, seriously - A-10s?  Noise?), that it's a frequently-reported and passionately-argued issue in local media, and that D-M public affairs is probably a bit obsessive about control of the messages put out to the public about the base.  Applying for credentials, even if you're not planning on publishing a single  word or image about the show, sends the signal to public affairs that you are going to publish and put a message out there, since that's kinda-sorta what the media does.  I'm not trying to justify it, but when you consider these factors, it makes a bit more sense. The bottom line though, whether you're attending as media, a VIP, or Joe Schmoe with a camera, you're still their guest.   But yeah - placing media in a corral and assigning them babysitters is probably not a good way to ensure a positive message being sent.

Funny that Miramar is so media-friendly when they have a reputation for being among the most tenaciously hostile bases for photography.  And food, water, shade, and a special parking lot aside, you're still at Miramar, shooting into the sun like everybody else.   

[JWright]

I'm on the base at Miramar at least once a week, but I don't go there with the intention of taking pictures.  Even among the members of our local club here in San Diego, I've only heard of one incident where someone trying to shoot from off base was approached by the Marines.

Something you have to remember is that all the vacant land to the East, West and South of the base still belongs to the Marines.  Anywhere you might want to go to shoot is going to be on their property. 

Miramar took a lot of flak over the crash of an F/A-18 in a residential neighborhood in December 2008, yet there was no change in their media procedures at the air show last year. 

By the way, there are Ospreys at Miramar.  I saw one making an approach a couple of weeks ago.

[jslugman]

Yes, e-mail was out for many days prior to the airshow making communications, as well as the rather fast pace of day-to-day operations, somewhat problematic.