WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense has launched a new effort to educate the public and address what the Pentagon calls “the growing civilian-military divide.”
“The campaign will introduce the public to the real lives of individuals that are currently serving in an attempt to correct common myths about military life,” said Amber Smith, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for outreach.
Most young Americans today mistakenly “feel that if you serve in the military, upon getting out you’re going to leave with a physical injury, an emotional or a psychological injury,” Smith said.
Research, she said, also indicates that many people “associate military service with being lonely, not being compatible to having a family or pets.”
The effort, called This Is Your Military, includes a Pentagon YouTube channel and is not designed to recruit people for military service. “We want to introduce the 99 percent of the American people not serving to the one percent that are serving,” said Smith.
Primarily utilizing social media engagement each month during 2018, DoD will focus on a particular theme and include a related series of videos, as well as other written and graphic products.
