New Haven Independent

Scavetta spoke in the library’s community room Thursday night. He is a 15-year veteran of the Army. He joined at 17, describing himself as a working- class “above average under-achiever” who wasn’t going to college and joined the military to get money for school. He served in Europe, then joined the Reserves while in college. In civilian life he became a journalist, working a stint at the New Haven Register. Then he got a job with the Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper, and covered GIs in 30 countries, including Iraq. With less than a year to go on his Reserve commitment, he was activated under stop-loss and sent to Afghanistan for 15 months, where he became director of media relations. He retired as a Sergeant 1st Class in 2005.

He currently works in public relations at a local hospital.

Scavetta is a good storyteller. When he spoke at the library a couple of weeks ago, he focused on Iraq. This time it was Afghanistan. He said he wanted his listeners to know what the wars are like from the soldiers’ point of view — not what’s usually reported in the media — and how to help returning vets. In his time handling reporters from 250 news agencies from around the world, he said he had to kick out just two for breaking the ground rules, such as sneaking into restricted areas on their own. Some were embedded, some were not.

He contrasted the work of two female reporters, one for CNN and one for the Washington Post. The first one said she wanted to get the soldiers’ story, but when she interviewed soldiers “she sounded like she was talking to someone inside the Beltway [in Washington, D.C.],” Scavetta said. She didn’t get the soldiers’ story, because she didn’t ask, which infuriated Scavetta. “There are folks who we hold accountable as our media who are supposed to be out there explaining to my mother [representing regular Americans] what’s happening in the war.” When they don’t, he said, “That’s shameful.” Click here to hear more of his thoughts.

In contrast, Scavetta said when the Post reporter arrived in Afghanistan, she told him right away, “I know nothing about military operations, but I want to be embedded and write about soldiers.” So she listened to him for two days as he explained everything about the military he could tell her “” about weapons, about the roles of the different types of soldiers and the military hierarchy. Click here to listen to why he spent so much time with her.

During the Q&A, Scavetta said one of the things he detested was the instructions he received to describe American soldiers killed or injured in Afghanistan as “coalition soldiers.” He refused, because he wanted folks back home to know the price young Americans were paying in the war in Afghanistan. He won over his boss, but he said when he left, in February, 2005, the Army reverted to the practice.

He was also highly critical of the public relations staffer for the Connecticut National Guard for not making people at home more aware of the 700 members of the Guard who are currently fighting in Afghanistan. And he referred several times, tongue in cheek, to civilians going about “important” tasks in their daily lives, like downloading new tunes to their I-Pods or “watching ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ reruns.”

In answer to a question about Osama bin Laden from New Haven activist George Edwards, Scavetta said that in his time doing media relations in Afghanistan, interacting with many high-level officers, “I never heard Osama bin Laden mentioned as a target, a credible threat to what was going on in Afghanistan.”