The Army Public Affairs Association is proud to announce retired Col. David R. Kiernan as our 2025 recipient of the Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award for his exceptional lifetime of accomplishments and contributions to the Army Public Affairs community.
The Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual award that recognizes a lifetime of sustained extraordinary support to the U.S. Army and to the Army Public Affairs and Visual Information community. The award is presented to a practitioner whose accomplishments broke new ground for Army Public Affairs, who gave selflessly to the community of practice, and who made major and lasting contributions to the profession.
“Colonel Kiernan was the consummate public affairs professional in every way throughout his entire Army career. Decades of unparalleled dedication to and passion for the public affairs profession, in uniform and afterward, define his enduring impact as a leader and practitioner," said Rebecca Wriggle, Army Public Affairs Association president. "His fingerprints of expertise and professional ethos are etched across our career field on so many still serving today and those already retired. We are supremely honored this year to recognize him with our association's highest honor, the Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Kiernan’s nomination package illustrated his remarkable contributions and legacy in Army Public Affair and beyond. Kiernan has lived a life in the service of public affairs and public relations since his initial involvement in the field as an Army Public Affairs Officer at Fort Wainwright, AK, in 1977. He has traversed the universal sphere of communications and marketing operating at every level with an expertise seldom witnessed. His impact on the Army and Army Public Affairs has been immense.
Kiernan's 26-year Army career afforded him the opportunity to serve his country in both war and peace, and he followed that with a further vocation that led to a bountiful number of public affairs opportunities after he transitioned to civilian life. It was while teaching Army ROTC that he had his first initiation to marketing and advertising where he learned the value of targeting an audience to achieve goals in communication. His influence over a great many cadets, their parents, school organizations and the regional media inspired genuine interest in Army ROTC and the Army at large.
Following a distinguished early career in the Army with a variety of Infantry assignments across the globe, Kiernan charged into his initial public affairs endeavor coordinating with the media in Alaska and publishing the Yukon Sentinel, his first military newspaper, which was selected as the Army Newspaper of the Year in 1978. It was in Alaska that he received the first of three Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Awards for newspapers. Kiernan's next foray into his chosen profession was as editor of the Army’s oldest military journal, Infantry Magazine, in 1981 where he reviewed and edited articles published to advance and expound on the Infantry branch throughout the Army and Department of Defense.
He then stepped into the role of serving as Fort Jackson's public affairs officer coordinating with the media at the Army’s largest basic training post where over 50% of new recruits are trained, disciplined and motivated to become team-focused Soldiers. Not wanting to remain ‘grounded’ as a public affairs officer, at 43-years-old he took the challenge of becoming airborne qualified as one of the oldest officers to go through Parachute School as a lieutenant colonel in 1985.
Jumping into his follow-on assignment, he served with the XVIII Airborne Corps, ready to respond to any potential threat to U.S. security within 18 hours. As the chief spokesman, he was the face of the XVIII Airborne Corps.
From there he made his move to the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs at the Pentagon as the principal Army spokesperson and division chief for Army media relations. It was there that he had daily interface with 42 journalists representing the key radio, television and newspaper outlets in the United States. He made sure that those national and international media, there to cover the Pentagon beat and always on deadline, received accurate and timely feedback. In a true 24-hour operation, Kiernan always ensured the challenge of Army Media Relations operated smoothly and efficiently. He enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with his media colleagues and provided each journalist with access to the issue at hand, ensuring they, in turn, carried the Army’s message to the Soldiers, their families and the American people.
Army leadership recognized Kiernan's innate navigation of the complexities of communication at the highest levels and deployed him to Saudi Arabia in August 1990 as the Director of the Joint Information Bureau and spokesman for General Schwarzkopf and coalition forces during Operational Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield. Kiernan was responsible for coordinating media Interviews for 400 journalists and maintained daily liaison with DoD Public Affairs and the Department of the Army.
Showing his undeniable versatility, Kiernan then returned to Army Public Affairs and assumed the role of Chief of the U.S. Army’s Command Information Division where he mentored dozens of Army communicators, both military and civilian. He made it his mission to ensure the internal flow of information reached out to every Soldier and family member across the widest stretches of the Army.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it was evident that the U.S. and Russia had to ‘normalize’ relations if there was ever going to be lasting peace and detente in the world. Kiernan was sent on a mission to engage with Russia’s Ministry of Defense-Director of Information, Lieutenant-General Valery L. Manilov, to develop an intense educational program for Russian media officials that could direct them away from the state-sponsored propaganda to a freer media. Kiernan was on the forefront of witnessing Russia transform into a more balanced and free society and the dissemination of government information made widely public, and information from a freely elected government to a free media, in turn to a broad electorate, with every sentence spoken and written in ways to avoid the possibility of information being misperceived. That Kiernan would be one of America’s “point-men” for a Russian leap from propagandized information to production and deliverance of truth, especially within Russia’s armed forces, just adds to Kiernan's remarkable career.
For his final assignment and to complete his resume in military public affairs, Kiernan assumed the role of Chief of Public Affairs for U.S. Army Pacific. It was there that he refined his goal of training to equip both subordinates and superiors alike with the necessary skills, knowledge and experiences to perform effectively in every role or task.
Retiring from the Army after 26 years of dedicated service (including three wars – the Cold War, Vietnam and the Gulf War), Kiernan took his multiple firsthand experiences that no amount of schooling could ever provide and transitioned to civilian life once again. But he took with him the culture, language, personal experiences and interpersonal communications skills that followed him throughout his military career.
From 1993 to 1996 he performed as the Director of Press Operations for the Atlanta Olympics, responsible for supporting 4,000 journalists from 190 countries. With his staff of 1,200 personnel. He expertly managed media relations at thirty venues throughout Georgia and the Olympic Stadium. And it was here that he adapted to civilian work practices which contrasted with the structured environment of the military culture. He smoothly transitioned into the requirements of resource allocation and funding procedures combined with the transition to computers and online communication that was required of current public communications operations. Much of the success of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the 23rd Olympiad, can be traced to Kiernan's expert marketing and branding efforts.
Not quite ready to move into the twilight of his amazing career, Kiernan took his proficiency in current strategic communications and applied it to practical situational planning in the corporate world. He served for 15 years as a Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications and Corporate Spokesman for Military Personnel Resources Incorporated, (MPRI), the first private military company in America. Kiernan was the confident and transparent voice of a multibillion-dollar company in the highly competitive defense contracting arena. In support of this contracting mission, he was the spokesman and communicator on over 432 contracts in 42 countries with 4,000 employees. Additionally, he came back to his military roots as a program manager for government contracts, providing the Defense Information School Commandant with 48 contract instructors teaching students of all military services (and international military members) in public affairs and media relations. Another of those specific contracts was to provide Army Public Affairs' Policy and Plans Division with a number of experienced personnel to augment the division’s mission during a period of downsizing military personnel.
Still reaching for more, Kiernan donated his personal time to be an academic advisor to 25 Interns from colleges across America over a period of 15 years. This was vocational training at its best. Simultaneously, Kiernan took on the responsibility of providing media training for the American Society for International Security where he trained security professionals who would appear before Congress with testimony following the tragic events of 9/11.
To bring his professional expertise full circle, Kiernan served as an academic lecturer at Georgetown, American and George Mason Universities, offering his lifetime of experiences to the next generation of communicators and corporate leaders.
“Rick has given so much of his life in selfless service to our public affairs community, our Army and to our nation," Wriggle said. “Even beyond his stellar Army career, he has tirelessly leaned in to serve every community in every sector, military and civilian, with the same positive passion and energy, dedication, and commitment to excellence. On behalf of our entire Board of Directors and the membership of the association, I offer our sincere and most enthusiastic congratulations!"
Kiernan will receive the award at the association's annual awards reception Oct. 14th in Crystal City, Arlington, Va.