>>3688647 (way old bread)

Just saw this post from an old bread re: 55th Signal Company Combat Camera's deployment to the border. Having a bit of first hand knowledge about these operations, these individuals and of DINFOS on the whole; I wanted to deepen the understanding just a tad.

First off, all four branches have Combat Camera detachments which do double duty as both military journalists AND acting in an archival function for the DOD and .gov. Combat Camera soldiers and teams deploy with nearly every kinetic operation, including those involving special operations forces. This includes CC members who complete special training such as BUD/S so they may operate from the top of the stack. These folks (men and women) are some of the most dedicated and talented journalists this country has to offer, and a great many of them become members of the Fourth Estate's "better half" of dedicated journalists. (For the record, remember that not all journalists or members of the media are corrupt. Many fight the good fight as best we can behind the scenes.) Perhaps coolest, virtually every tweet from the services or DOD which has been notable and contains a photo, is a photo taken by a CC soldier.

Notable here, the Army has always had their own thing going as far as Combat Camera goes. Last time I checked, they don't do their Advanced training at SI Newhouse with the other three branches, and are somewhat separate on the whole, acting a bit more like PR than journalists. But this doesn't lessen their impact, just a little different. The CC programs of the Navy, USMC and USAF are a bit more spread out through their respective servcies and bases, with greater integration into daily operations in the form of story-telling.

What I'd really like to say however, is that these folks are some of the bravest soldiers we have in service. They go to war with a camera, putting their lives at risk so that others may have a visual record of what our country does around the world. These soldiers, nearly without exception, are some of the best human beings this country has to offer. We should be proud of them, because without their work, Anons would be able to access less of a wealth of first hand visual content and insight.

Final point. Anons should remember that all the materials (photos, etc.) produced by CC are public domain and can be used without copyright concerns. The two sources below are very good repositories of photos, and are usually very responsive to requests for things like high resolution files for publication.

Good sources for these are:

https://www.defense.gov/observe/photo-gallery/

https://www.dvidshub.net/

More can be found here in the form of a PDF of an operations Briefing:

http://www.dimoc.mil/Portals/64/docs/DVI%20docs/COMCAM_Capabilities_Brief_APR_2018.pdf?ver=2018-04-13-150801-487

Also here:

http://www.dinfos.dma.mil/combatcamera/

https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/MarineCorpsCombatCamera

https://www.publicaffairs.af.mil/What-We-Do/Combat-Camera/