In a first for the Army Public Affairs Association, two recipients have been awarded the Joe Galloway Lifetime AchievemenAward for 2021. The association is delighted to recognize Ms. Tansill R Johnson and retired Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis, each for their exceptional accomplishments and contributions to the Army Public Affairs community. "No recipient was awarded for 2020 due to the many impacts during that year, so it is very special for us to be able to recognize together these ver finest among our public affairs community," said John Harlow, president of the Army Public Affairs Association, which hosts/sponsors the award.
According to her award nomination, Tansill Johnson is the gold standard of a public affairs professional who has positivel impacted the lives of numerous military and civilian public affairs officers throughout her stellar career. In 1985, she served as the first spokesperson directly assigned to the Surgeon General of the Army. Johnson planned and implemented a communication program for the worldwide medical system and advised on the implication of new policies on issues such as AIDS research, medical malpractice and environmental health concerns. Her communication work in that role resulted in an award to the Army for excellence in marketing communication, given by the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
In 1990, Johnson became the Army's Chief of Community Relations. During Operation Desert Storm, she managed the 24-hour-a-day toll-free hotline for general information, ultimately totaling over 175,000 calls. Johnson also supervised the overall participation in community homecoming events to honor those who served during Desert Storm. For her efforts, she was awarded the
DoD Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service.
In 1992, Johnson was appointed Chief of Command Information for the Department of the Army, the first civilian to hold this position. She was responsible for the Army's flagship publication Soldiers magazine, Soldiers Radio and Television, Army Hometown News Service, Army News Service and oversaw the publishing of over 250 internal newspapers. She directed the redesign of Soldiers magazine and supervised the creation of the first monthly Army television news program "Army Newswatch," where the best of the Army's broadcast journalists honed their craft. Always giving back to the community, Johnson also created communication products such as a coloring book to inform children about the Army's work in cleaning up and protecting the environment.
Johnson accomplished another first when in 1994 she completed the two- year Correspondence Studies Program of the U.S. Army War College and became the first civilian in Army public affairs to achieve that accomplishment.
As a result of her superior communication and leadership skills, she was selected to be the first Chief of Public Communication in 2002 under a major headquarters redesign at the U.S. Army Materiel Command. This was a merger of public affairs, industry liaison and congressional liaison. Her ability to manage change and successfully lead this new organization resulted in her receiving the Army's top award for civilians, the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service.
Johnson's enduring impact to the Army public affairs community is a legacy that embodies the highest ideals of the prestigious Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lt. Col. Yantis is also credited with many firsts during his public affairs career along with his leadership style and innovative approaches to getting the mission accomplished.
According to his award nomination, Yantis' work ethic and positive attitude were infectious. He always tried to build what he called 'coalitions of the willing' with other organizations and public affairs officers, and when there was no budget, he usually managed to find a stakeholder and convince them to help, which he jovially referred to as 'other peoples' money." Like Johnson's, Yantis' public affairs accomplishments were many.
As the acting director of the Army Chief of Public Affairs' (OCPA) office in New York, MTV reached out to him in November 1999 and asked for Army advisory support for an upcoming reality Internet broadcast called the "MTV Bunker Project." The program would air the last two weeks of December 1999 and the theme was that Y2K would bring down most power grids and computers around the world. The plan was to put three young men and three young women in a small bunker-facility under Times Square with 24/7 live broadcasts via the MTV Web Site. This was new ground for the Army: a sustained live-streamed event with Soldiers and civilian teenagers interacting over a two-week period with an audience of millions of people. The set beneath Times Square had several cameras in each room. Yantis prepped the battle space by purchasing a case of MREs and took the MTV staff to lunch. There were only 12 courses on the MRE menu in 1999. Yantis demonstrated how Soldiers made their own variations of the short menu by making items like "Ranger pudding" and explained how Soldiers would save and trade condiments, crackers and desserts in the field. With no budget for this event, Yantis reached out to Army Recruiting Command and obtained $5,000 and several dozen "Go Army" Tee shirts. He then reached out to Fort Bragg and got an NCO Academy instructor and U.S. Army Ranger instructor (both staff sergeants) and allocated the recruiting money for their trip to New York. The NCOs visited the bunker every day for several hours, teaching survival, physical training and the Army Core Values to the MTV team, and their average daily viewership of several million teenagers - everyone wore Army branded shirts every day and each live stream display on the MTV website had links to goarmy.com. On New Year's Eve, the MTV Bunker team appeared on the MTV New Year's Eve Special with Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Carson Daly. The bunker crew spoke warmly of their bunker-time on national TV and that "thanks to Army training, they understood how to survive a catastrophe." During this time, U.S. Army Recruiting Command counted more than 1 million redirects from mtv.com to goarmy.com.
As then Director of OCPA New York, Yantis led the effort to host the 225th Army Birthday in New York City. Army Birthday events began with Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera ringing the bell at the New York City Stock Exchange, followed by a breakfast in which Soldiers were paired with board members of the stock exchange. Activities also included a life-sized HMM birthday cake with camouflage icing near the Times Square Recruiting Station where about 12,000 pedestrians were given free cake. The event also featured the USO Singers and more than 100 active duty Soldiers from Fort Drum, West Point and Fort Hamilton. The day also featured several media events with the Sergeant Major of the Army, the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Secretary of the Army.
Based on his successes in New York, Yantis was given the mission to stand up the Army Chief of Public Affairs' office in the Midwest, not just as a satellite outreach office but also as a member of the Chicago city community. Working with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Army Reserve, Army National Guard, the U.S Marine Corps Reserve, U.S. Coast Guard and other public affairs offices, Yantis created a Public Affairs Coordination Group that shared resources, contacts, queries, and streamlined operations. It was much like the OCPA New York model, but on a larger scale. In May 2004, Yantis orchestrated media events for Col. Jim Hickey, the commander of the Joint Task Force that captured Saddam Hussein, and Col. Joe Anderson and 200+ troops from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) that killed Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in a firefight. These warriors spent 10 days in Chicago in parades, interviews, speeches, and outreach telling the Army and Soldiers' story. In 2005, in preparation for the annual Chicago Auto Show, Yantis answered the phone and was asked by Paul Brian, Army veteran and Chicago Auto Show public affairs officer, how they might get a tank to the auto show. Yantis explained a tank would not be possible but that a Stryker would be there for it. As was his hallmark, with other peoples' money, Army Recruiting and others paying the way, Yantis made it happen in about six weeks. The Army/OCPA Chicago office still participates annually in the Chicago Auto Show. Based on Yantis' accomplishments there, the Army became the dominant service for public affairs in Chicago, a prominence in the Midwest it had not enjoyed since Fort Sheridan closed.
The Joe Gallowav Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual award recognizes a lifetime of sustained support to the U.S. Army and to the Army public affairs community, through extraordinary contributions to the mission and profession of public affairs. 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.
"These two exceptional public affairs leaders and innovators join the elite among us as Joe Galloway Lifetime Award recipients," Harlow said. "They always put Soldiers and their Families first, as Joe Galloway did. They are the best of us, and we are thrilled to recognize their lifetime of achievement and service to the U.S. Army and to the nation. Please join us in congratulating2021's Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award recipients - the exceptional, the accomplished Tansill R. Johnson and Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis."