Credit yourself for newspaper’s recent success

By David W. Kuhns Sr., Northwest Guardian

We received some pretty exciting news Monday: The Northwest Guardian — Fort Lewis’ authorized newspaper — was named the winner of the Major General Keith L. Ware Award for Journalistic Excellence as the best full-sized newspaper in the U.S. Army.

This marks the fifth year in a row that the Fort Lewis newspaper has been so honored. That is pretty remarkable, if we do say so ourselves. As near as we can determine, no other Army newspaper has ever won the award more than two years running.

There are a lot of people responsible for the success we have enjoyed. Nothing is ever constant around the Army, and the Northwest Guardian is no exception. More than 20 names have appeared in the masthead as staff members over those five years. There have been dozens of other contributors, too. This issue of the paper is typical. In its pages you will find stories and photographs produced by deployed public affairs detachments, unit public affairs representatives and even from a civilian blogger who granted us permission to run his work.

The paper has served a variety of masters, too. We have had four public affairs officers over those five years, and three garrison commanders. Three I Corps commanding generals have used the Northwest Guardian to speak with the Fort Lewis community. More than 100 brigade and battalion commanders have made use of our pages to tell others about their Soldiers and to keep their Soldiers informed.

The one constant over those five years of excellence has been you, the Fort Lewis community. Surveys for years have highlighted Fort Lewis for its quality of life and challenging training environment. While that reputation for has remained constant, conditions have been anything but static. The directorates on post have all worked tirelessly to improve every facet of life — we have reported those stories.

As a major power projection installation, this post has deployed almost 70,000 Soldiers to combat over the course of the last five years. They have served our nation in Stryker brigade combat teams, as combat engineers, in logistical and maintenance units, as air cavalry and in small combat service support detachments. They have been from Special Forces, Rangers, infantry, artillery, medical, explosive ordnance, Adjutant General, and every other branch. Even our own Marines and Air Force personnel have graced our pages.

The qualities of the Soldiers, civilian workers, retirees and family members about whom we write come through in the stories we tell. With that sort material to work with, it is no wonder the Northwest Guardian has been successful. So here we are, just like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the only five-time champions in our league. And each one of you can take a little piece of the credit.