Writestream Radio Network

A question. What individual within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) do you think has the toughest job day-to-day? The Secretary of Defense? A U.S. Navy SEAL? Or perhaps a pilot flying a F-22A Raptor fighter-bomber? For those of us who have the job of actually covering operations/personnel of DoD, many of us would nominate  RAdm. John Kirby, the department's official spokesman, for that title. Adm. Kirby, along with the rest of the DoD's Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) are a carefully selected, highly trained and skilled group of professionals, that have the often thankless job of being the face of the department to the world's press. And like  Adm. Kirby, they often are tasked to deliver some of the most important and difficult stories of a given day. Trained at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Meade, MD, these "DINFOS Trained Killers" as they are known, are seeded throughout DoD from program offices in the Pentagon, to Carrier/Expeditary Strike Groups forward deployed in the Persian Gulf.