New York Life, Insurance Magazine, 1942

[Cross-posted in RexBlog.com]

For some reason, every few months or so, a reporter will discover that a consumer or business product company has launched a magazine or web property designed to communicate directly with its customers — and will write about it as if this were some newly discovered form of marketing. As launching and managing such media properties is what I have done for much of the past 25 years, I am pleased that such an approach to marketing is continuously treated as something new and fresh and cutting-edged, despite having been around since the 1800s.

Hammock provides content marketing services, which includes publishing print and digital magazines customized to meet our clients’ objectives. We study those objectives and work to ensure each issue of a client’s publication meets their specific goals. We accomplish this with expert writing about topics of interest to our clients’ target audience—and compelling design that brings to vivid life our writers’ stories. In the last month, these stories have included everything from historic re-enactors to the U.S. Marine Corps special ops and from the latest in pharmaceutical innovations to how health-care reform will affect supply chain managers. No matter the topic, our storytelling is tailored to the interests and passions of our clients’ customers and members. But we don’t just tell you that’s what we do—we’re always eager to show you. View our latest work for some of the publications we publish for our clients, including American Spirit, Semper Fi, The Source and Pharmaceutical Commerce.

Last week senior graphic designer Lynne Boyer and I took a couple of hours to shoot Nashville landmarks for a Lena Anthony-penned travel story for American Spirit, the magazine Hammock publishes for the Daughters of the American Revolution. Since the May floods, city leaders and volunteers have been doing their best to entice visitors to Nashville and try to recover economically. We thought the DAR magazine would be a fitting place to promote the city’s restoration–and spotlight the history that few outside the region know.

With Lynne, a native Nashvillian, in the driver’s seat, I jumped out and grabbed shots all around downtown, including at the State Capitol, Ryman Auditorium (Mother Church of Country Music), Fort Nashborough and historic City Cemetery. Caveat: I’m not a great photographer, but I’m building off a class I took a local art college and trying to improve! Check out some of the photos on my flickr page (still in process).

The November-December issue of Semper Fi, The Magazine of the Marine Corps League, celebrates the 235th birthday of the Corps’ founding, as tradition has it, in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia on 10 November 1775. The cover shows a Marine Corps color guard participating in a Sunset Parade at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I in Washington, DC.
If you know a Marine, bid him or her happy birthday!
The Marine Corps starts its 236th year with a new Commandant, General James Amos, who assumed command on 22 October. We present excerpts from his testimony before Congress in this issue.
Marine Corps Special Ops comprise an elite group of warriors chosen from among America’s elite armed service. Relatively new to the SpecOps segment of our military, the Marines have quickly reached the upper echelon of this select group.
In September, the Marine Corps League put on its 30th annual Modern Day Marine Expo, a gathering of Marines and defense industry suppliers held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA. Held under looming budget cuts and a drawdown in size, the Expo was the largest yet, with more than 8,500 visitors and 500 exhibits.
The Marine Corps Commandant’s annual birthday message is below. To view it, go here.

There are history buffs, and then there are re-enactors. Obsessive about getting every historical detail just right, these dedicated men and women volunteer their time and money to re-enact important events in our nation’s history. Whether it’s a Revolutionary War skirmish or a War of 1812 battle, the re-enactors in the November/December issue of American Spirit, which we publish for the Daughters of the American Revolution, serve as examples of how rewarding this hobby can be.
The DAR Magazine National Chairman, Pamela Marshall, and her family have been dedicated Civil War re-enactors for 15 years. “Our oldest sons took this hobby to a new level and became U.S. Army Artillery Officers,” she says. “One served in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq.”
Ms. Marshall’s sons are two of the brave military service members American Spirit salutes this Veterans Day for sacrificing so much for our freedom and the cause of liberty around the world.

Although a deluge of rain on the last day of the 30th Annual Modern Day Marine Expo threatened to close the show early, Marines, vendors and attendees gutted out the rough weather to bring the event to a record-breaking close.
The first exposition was held in one tent in Tucson, AZ, on 18 August 1981. More than 8,500 attendees perused over 500 exhibits at this year’s Expo, held 28–30 September aboard MCB Quantico.
The most sought-after visitors were the Marines whose lives and fighting capabilities depend on the equipment displayed at the show. From socks to computer servers, the Marines gave the suppliers incisive critiques on what works, what doesn’t and what they need.
This year’s Expo took place under the shadow of looming defense spending cuts and reductions in manpower, exacerbated by a renewed debate over whether America needs a Marine Corps.
Present at the opening on 28 September was Lieutenant General George J. Flynn, Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, who was “on his way to Capitol Hill to save the Marine Corps,” from extensive budget cuts, said Lieutenant General (Ret.) Ronald Coleman, MCL Exposition Coordinator, during his introduction.
Lieutenant General Flynn recalled that the late Lieutenant General Victor “Brute” Krulak wrote that “the United States does not need a Marine Corps … the United States wants a Marine Corps.” The Marine Corps, he added, “will continue to be ready when the nation is least ready … it will remain naval in character and will be truly expeditionary” in protecting America and her interests.
Innovation was a key theme of the show. Lieutenant General Flynn noted that much of the Corps’ success in battle has been due to equipment first seen at the Expos. “You can never get the future 100 percent right, but you can’t afford to get it 100 percent wrong,” he reminded the crowd.

The September-October issue of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, highlights two extremes of military might: the stealthy, lethal sniper and the massive force of tanks, amtracks and other armored vehicles.
Today’s Marine Corps snipers carry on a lengthy military tradition – that of the solitary elite marksman patiently stalking his quarry often behind enemy lines. Today’s Devil Dog snipers usually work in small teams, and may spend as much time gathering intel on shadowy terrorists as getting into place for a lethal shot.
Marine Corps armor also bears a proud tradition, one that made its legendary battles in the Pacific in WWII unforgettable as amphibious vehicles and tanks fought their way ashore. Today’s tankers operate the mighty M1A1 Abrams; the Corps has upgraded and refitted its old amphibian assault vehicles to meet modern needs as a stopgap for the next generation of amphibs.
Also in this issue of Semper Fi which we produce for the Marine Corps League is a look back 60 years to another famous Marine flag raising, this one above the US Ambassador’s residence in Seoul, South Korea. And we report on the 87th National MCL Convention, held this past August in Greensboro, NC.

Traditionally known for their ability to do much with little and to improvise, the United States Marine Corps is nevertheless going on a diet. During it time as a “second land army” In Iraq, the Corps “got heavy” as its leaders express it, relying on massively mine-resistant vehicles to protect its warriors, who also strapped on personal armor and other gear often weighing 90 pounds or more.
All this extra mass required correspondingly greater amounts of fuel and electricity to run. Now, eying a return to its seafaring roots, the Corps is slimming down. From battlefield to base barracks, the Corps is particularly interested in curbing its appetite for fuel and power. The July-August issue of Semper Fi, the magazine of the Marine Corps League, examines how the Marines plan to get back into fighting trim.
Some of that new equipment was on display at the recent Marine South Military Expo aboard Camp Lejeune, NC. Sponsored by the Marine Corps League the Expos showcase the finest gear available to the military in the world.
Elsewhere in this issue, we meet a Marine veteran who did a tour in Korea during that “Forgotten War,” leading a squad of airplane mechanics who kept Marine aviators in the air around the clock. Flight mechanics had to go up with pilots to check out repairs, leading to some hair-raising moments – and a very personal commitment to do it right – first time, every time.
Semper Fi also remembers the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, who used their native language to transmit unbreakable messages during the bloody battles with the Japanese on remote Pacific Islands. With only a few left, they are pursuing a new goal: To build a museum and veterans center honoring their legacy.
The new issue also coincides with the League’s 87th National Convention in August in Greensboro, NC, and the magazines salutes retiring National Commandant Jim Laskey.
The issue also reports on progress toward a cherished League objective — redesignating the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Though approved by the House and with most of the Senate signed on as cosponsors, the effort still faces potentially stiff opposition when debate starts sometime this summer.

“A veteran – whether active duty, retired, National Guard or Reserve – is someone who, at one point in his (or her) life, wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America for an amount of ‘up to and including my life’.”
Memorial Day has been set aside as a time to remember those who have paid that ultimate price, and also to honor and thank those who returned from their time of service.
We think often of our military serving overseas, but time and again, they have come to aid citizens here when floods, blizzards, hurricanes and other disasters strike. It matters not whether they faced combat or served in a time of – always relative – peace. What matters is that they were willing to put their lives between us and our enemies in serving America.
Hammock Inc. has the privilege of publishing the member magazine for the Marine Corps League. None of us is a veteran, but as we tell members who ask, we try to be a friend. And though most of the rest of the year we’d argue that the Marines are America’s best, on Memorial Day, and Veterans’ Day, we lay that aside to honor all equally.
In the 4 years that we have worked with the League and heard amazing stories of heroism and hardship, I’ve often thought back to the immortal speech William Shakespeare gave Henry V before that battle on St. Crispian’s Day. It’s worth repeating part of it here, as a reminder of why veterans deserve honor not due to us civilians:
” We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
(Photo At Top: Airman Jacob Proffer, a member of the Air Force Honor Guard, pauses to salute a grave after placing a miniature flag at its base during the “Flags In” tribute at Arlington National Cemetery, May 21, 2009. “When I do this, it makes me take a lot more pride every time I put on my uniform, seeing the measure of sacrifice so many have made,” he said. DoD photo by Donna Miles”)

Next week the May/June 2010 issue of American Spirit, and its member companion, Daughters newsletter, will begin arriving in mailboxes of all 165,000 members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The increased circulation of the magazine and newsletter for this special issue enable NSDAR to promote subscriptions, encourage membership development and recount the achievements of the past three years of President General Linda Gist Calvin’s administration.