ASY.mil used DOD program designed to educate civilians on Military Life as ASY recruiting tool to spread propaganda

Specifically the Department of Defense Joint Civilian Orientation Conferences (JCOC) was used as a recruiting tool for the ASY not to directly support Our Troops.

If anything it was Our Troops who provided support for JCOC and ASY.

Each year DOD holds a civilian employee orientation conference that was never intended to promote partisan political ideologies or propaganda, but to educate, orient civilians to a few days of what it would be like to be in the Armed Forces. That is to give civilians in the academic, corporate, social, and cultural communities the opportunity to see, touch and feel what life would be like if they joined the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, or Coast Guard.

The DOD/IG found that ASY had manipulated JCOC for propaganda purposes intended to sell the ASY program more so than support our troops. In fact, it was our troops that were used and exploited to support the ASY propaganda effort as the below photos will confirm.

This is the continuation of an in-depth, multi-post expose on what the Department of Defense Inspector General found distasteful about America Supports You.mil operations and fraud, waste, and abuse of tax payer dollars.

To read the introduction and earlier post on this topic go to these LINKS:

• AmericaSupportsYou.mil Survives Investigation by the Pentagon
• Link to Actual DOD/IG Report on America Supports You Irregularities
• Specific Findings of the America Supports You IG Report
• DOD Inspector General Finds that America Supports You Solicited Support from Corporations in Violation of Pentagon Conduct and Ethics Rules
• DOD Inspector General finds that America Supports You.mil paid celebrites for their support
• America Supports You.mil Bought Mainstream Media Support in violation of DOD ethics rules.

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TO THOSE AMERICANS WHO SINCERELY SUPPORT OUR TROOPS WITHOUT GETTING PAID TO DO SO, I say

Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
     MISUSING CIVILIAN PUBLIC DEFENSE ORIENTATION PROGRAMS TO SELL ASY

According to the official DOD Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) website (about JCOC – link) it has been a program sponsored by the Secretary of Defense long before the birth of American Support You, for educating civilian public opinion leaders interested in expanding their knowledge of the military and national defense issues. JCOC is the oldest existing Pentagon outreach program having been held more than 73 times since 1948. In fact, the last JCOC was held from [you got it] September 19-26 to exploit 9/11 one last time – we hope and pray. Anyway, that was number 76 as in 1776 or 911-76. When is the Pentagon going to be hold 9/11 orientation conferences? (wink)

What is the objective of JCOC?
The purpose of JCOC is to increase public awareness of national defense through a forum of free exchange among influential citizens, DoD officials, and military leadership.[Where this takes a twist, turn, and spin is when ASY gets to screen which civilians get to play. Major Hanafin].

Specific objectives were to:

• Acquaint participants with the strength and readiness of the U.S. armed forces through personal observation of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard activities; (sort of like a Soviet Red Square display for only a select few in all fairness our Armed Forces does hold many open houses to the general public)
• Help the American public obtain a better understanding of national defense policies and programs through opinion leaders who return to their communities and share firsthand observations and knowledge gained during the Conference; and [well that sounds as if selling America Support You is OK as long as our tax dollars were not spent on it. Reading this, I frankly do not see what’s the beef the DOD/IG had with ASY? Read on]. Facilitate the candid exchange of information on defense matters [such as ASY] between the Secretary of Defense and JCOC participants.

JCOC is managed by the office of Community Relations and Public Liaison (CRPL), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. [translation the same culprit Allison Barber that the DOD/IG blames for all the corruption within ASY owned the JCOC program as well, so she was also able to corrupt JCOC as well].

Participants attend Pentagon briefings by DoD military and civilian leadership and then join the military in the field observing exercises, firing weapons, and participating in training. JCOC alumni are encouraged to share their experiences with their circles of influence when they return home.

It is DoD policy that fostering and furthering good relations with communities at home and abroad is in the best interest of the Department of Defense. A principal goal of all CRPL activity is to increase understanding of the mission of the Department of Defense and the U.S. defense posture and capabilities by increasing public exposure to, and understanding of, military personnel, facilities, equipment, and programs.

[That is what U.S. tax payers may accept as the IDEAL. In reality, since the birth of America Support You that has not been the case. Keep in mind also that, just like Bush bashing, focusing all blame for corruption on one influential individual diverts attention away from the systematic corruption and the vast number of people involved in the corruption within the Pentagon and home ‘front’ organizations that collaborated with ASY leadership. Take torture as an analogy, focusing anger, attention, or frustration on G.W. Bush or even Bush and Dick Cheney, diverts attention away from all the enablers and collaborators who made what Bush/Cheney ordered not only acceptable as being an All American pastime like football and baseball, but without the COOPERATION of a vast network of people, including military people, and yes, Democrats, who cooperated in making torture a reality frankly debate over Americans torture people would not exist period.

Same goes for America Supports You, yes Allison Barber should be prosecuted for her role in leading corruption if that be the case, but folks do not lose sight of the vast network of people in the Pentagon and outside it, and even within Congress, who not only benefitted from this corruption but enabled Allison Barber, like G.W. Bush, to be able to do what they allegedly did WRONG.

The 2008 JCOC76 (76 in number of yearly orientations held) was hosted by the U.S. European Command [shortly after the 9/11 observances within the Armed Forces]. ASY inappropriately used the JCOC venues to promote ASY – the propaganda program, NOT directly support our troops and military families. In fact, all one needs do is skim each JCOC since the birth of ASY to see for yourself just how these conferences were manipulated for propaganda.

Abuse of the DoD Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) intended for educating influential public opinion movers and shakers via hands on training and orientation were contrary to the overall mission of the JCOC program, which was used inappropriately to solicit support and promote the ASY program.

[What the DOD/IG is actually saying is that a long lived program, JCOC, born way before the partisan political motivation to create ASY was bastardized and JCOC’s credibility damaged by the overspill of corruption from within the ASY program. Keep in mind that JCOC was during this time of corruption subordinate to the crooks that ran ASY and that there were more culprits than only Allison Barber. That is why it is important for the Justice Department or Congress to subpoena Ms. Barber to allow her to tell her side of the story and of course name – names.]

DOD/IG Report Figure 8. JCOC 72 and 73 Members Working With ASY Banners [LINK to JCOC 72 photo essays]

Participants of JCOC 72 and 73 posed for various photo ops promoting the ASY banner while visiting Iraq and Afghanistan. [Photo courtesy of DOD/ASY public realease photos that appear in their IG Report.]

To add emphasis to their finding the DOD/IG included a photo of JCOC participatants helping to prepare a ASY banner by adding their signitures. Readers be mindful that if there was nothing WRONG with this, these photos would not appear in any IG report as evidence to support the IG’s findings. [Photo courtesy of DOD/ASY public realease photos that appear in their IG Report.]

Photo at left shows how a vast number of senior military officers helped to promote the ASY program and ASY’s focus on making a relatonship between September 11th and the Iraq War that never existed. The scope of people who ENABLED Allison Barber and ASY goes far beyond Ms. Barber. [Photo courtesy of ASY public release photos]

Lt Gen Steven Whitcomb, Commanding General of the Third U.S. Army, U.S. Army Forces Central Command, Coalition Forces Land Component Command, receives an America Supports You banner signed by members of the 72nd Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.