Public Affairs Community Brief This community brief has been generated by the community leaders, including detailers and community managers.

Public Affairs Career Progression PAO BILLETS BY LOCATION Misc Conus: CO, CT, GA, IL, KS, MD, NE, NY, RI, TX, WA YCS 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 APAO CVN, ESG, Numbered Fleet (sea duty) TYCOM Numbered FLT CHINFO Redesig & Appren-tice tour Train in URL This slide represents the PAO career paths. The vast majority of URL enter as ENS, thereby having a common starting point making career gates easier to plan out. However, the PAO community relies heavily on assessing at 3-7 YCS so common career gates are more difficult to achieve. Associate PAO tours for new accessions are designed to provide mentoring from experienced senior PAOs. These billets typically include Carrier Strike Groups division officers , Navy Public Affairs Centers, CHINFO, Navy Offices of Information and the Defense Media Activity Washington, DC. - Defense information School is our community’s initial school, at the senior LT/junior 0-4 we send our officers to SDSU to get their masters in Communications. We also have two seats at the War College that we fill annually. MAJOR STAFF UNIFIED CMD JOINT 2nd & 3rd Tour: Independent Duty Value Warfare Qualified Officers Examples USFFC C3F USS Carl Vinson ESG2 Dep C7F/C6F SURFLANT Dep PACFLT EUCOM PACOM JCS CSG/ESG NPASE CHINFO CNI Naples NAVCENT Staff Professional Education War College Graduate Education DC / JOINT Defense Information School San Diego State University

Public Affairs CATEGORY O-3 O-4 Lieutenant Commander OFFICER INVENTORY 84 63 INDEPENDENT DUTY 30/36% 42/66% OVERSEAS DUTY 29/35% 21/33% JOINT DUTY 1/2% 8/13% CVN/SEA FLEET/ESG 13/15% 37/58% Success in challenging fleet jobs reporting directly to the Flag/Commanding Officers as well as outstanding performance when competing with their peers at Chief of Information (CHINFO) and CHINFO Field Activities is noteworthy. Many PAO assignments are in small or single person shops, it is not uncommon to see multiple non-competitive, 1 of 1 reports. "Soft" breakouts when compared with peers in "all designators" may be the only basis for relative comparison of performance. Gaining experience is a key factor in developing a successful career-oriented PAO. Special consideration should be given to ensure that senior O-3 lateral transfers receive the opportunity through training and assignment to challenging billets to maintain positive career progression.

Public Affairs CATEGORY O-4 O-5 Commander OFFICER INVENTORY 63 43 INDEPENDENT DUTY 42/66% 38/100% OVERSEAS DUTY 21/33% 26/64% JOINT DUTY 8/13% 17/45% CVN/SEA FLEET/ESG 37/58% 37/97% WAR COLLEGE 3/6% 13/34% Emphasis should also be given to assignments of increasing responsibility. While an assignment to a Public Affairs Staff is useful for career development, successful tours as the Public Affairs Officer reporting directly to the Commander are most notable. It is not the number of tours as a PAO that is critical…it is the best performance in the most demanding jobs. Successful tours with a Carrier Strike Group, Expeditionary Strike Group or deputy numbered Fleet are critical to gain the knowledge and experience to serve successfully in our most demanding senior public affairs billets. These are milestones for O-5s. Commander PAOs should have a variety of challenging operational and headquarters-level assignments. Continued exceptional service is an indicator of future success in the senior ranks.

Public Affairs CATEGORY O-5 O-6 Captain OFFICER INVENTORY 43 21 INDEPENDENT DUTY 38/100% 21/100% OVERSEAS DUTY 26/68% 14/82% JOINT DUTY 17/44% CVN/SEA FLEET/ESG 37/97% 15/89% WAR COLLEGE 17/39% 17/76% O-6 Public Affairs Officers are expected to provide strategic communication counsel at the four-star and above level. This requires broad and geographically varied operational experience at the three-star level, such as senior HQ staffs, OPNAV, OLA, and OCONUS staffs where opportunities exist to collaborate with other government staffs and personnel. Graduate education is desired for selection to O-6, but lack of a funded graduate degree in itself should not be a distraction from sustained superior performance in a variety of challenging operational assignments. The small size of the public affairs community and the fact that most 1650’s provide direct support to Flag Officers and Commanders often requires higher than normal assignment turnover and more limited opportunities to participate in post-graduate programs whether Navy funded or at personal expense. Foreign language proficiency is not a requisite skill though the ability to learn and understand regional culture is critically important as most overseas senior PAO billets have regional responsibility. Joint experience is desired. However, PAOs are not required to have the Joint Qualified Officer (JQO) designation for selection to flag officer, falling into the DoD technical waiver category. Because of the waiver, the PAO community is provided limited JPME opportunities.

Public Affairs Assistant PAO tour Initial independent duty tour Community Values Valuable achievements prior to LIEUTENANT COMMANDER Assistant PAO tour Initial independent duty tour Valuable achievements prior to COMMANDER CVN/Fleet Deputy/ESG PAO Valuable achievements prior to CAPTAIN Numbered Fleet, TYCOM Major staff (CFFC, Washington DC, CPF, CHINFO) JPME (many get JPME after selected for O-6)