Public Affairs has been a critical issue for the United States Army almost from the very moment the Continental Congress established it in reponse to the British army's advance on Boston. If you need to be persuaded, simply consider the words of John Adams after learning of the pay rates Congress had established for officers in the Continental Army on June 16, 1775: “The pay which has been voted to all the officers, which the Continental Congress intends to choose, is so large, that I fear our people will think it extravagant and be uneasy.”
Adams knew just how much of an impact that public opinion—or, to be more precise, public perception—could have on the development, planning, and execution of military matters. And as the war progressed, newspapers throughout the colonies boosted or slagged the commanders they supported or opposed, often hurling invectives without even a semblance of a firm foundation on which to form an opinion. In the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and so forth, the power of public opinion exerted tremendous influence on both policy makers and military planners. Simply put, it is one of the attendant effects of an open and free press, consumed by a population unafraid to exercise its rights to free speech.
Given that reality, it is hard to overestimate how important it is for the Army to provide the news media and the general public with information that is as accurate and as transparent as possible. Before 1990, the enlisted Soldiers asked to gather this information and ensure it met both transparency and security standards were typically drawn from the Adjutant General’s Corps or Signal Corps, but had no unique insignia to indicate their contribution to the Army’s overall mission.
But as new personnel standards were being crafted in 1989, the Chief of Public Affairs made an historic request: the establishment of collar insignia for enlisted men serving in the Public Affairs Career Management Field (CMF 46). What made the request so groundbreaking is that there would be no insignia designed for officers assigned to serve in Public Affairs: they would wear the insignia of the basic branch in which they had been commissioned.
On October 18, 1989, the Army Chief of Staff and the Sergeant Major of the Army approved the Public Affairs insignia for specialists in CMF 46: a broadsword superimposed over a quill pen crossed with a lightning flash. The pen is emblematic of the transmittal of information through public affairs media and journalism, while the lightning flash indicates the speed at which information can be relayed via radio, TV, and network communications. Of course, the broadsword symbolizes the important role that Public Affairs specialists plays in accomplishing the combat mission, and helps emphasize the fact that they are, first and foremost, soldiers.