08/27/2026
A word from our President, Brian S. Brooks.
“I had the pleasure of serving as editor of the European edition of Stars and Stripes in the late 1990s, a period during which the newspaper and its website operated as a First Amendment publication free of military control. That came after multiple attempts by military officers to influence or even censor content during the latter half of the 20th century.
Military interference in Stripes’ content ended in 1993, when Congress and the Department of Defense issued a regulation mandating civilian control of the newspaper’s news department. A military officer ran the business operations, but he was prohibited from influencing news content in any way. I worked with two military commanders while editor, and both were totally committed to showing the world that a newspaper owned and subsidized by DoD could operate as a First Amendment publication. That demonstrated that the United States truly believed in Freedom of the Press.
By the time I arrived at Stripes in 1997, almost the entire editorial staff was manned by civilians. There were still a few reporters who were active duty enlisted men, but the 1993 regulation protected their editorial independence by mandating that they wear civilian clothes while reporting and ensuring that no military officer could interfere with them in any way.
One example illustrates how that worked. A Navy reporter in Sigonella, Sicily, called me one morning and told me the commanding officer there had ordered him to report in uniform that afternoon to answer for a story the commander didn’t like. I told the reporter I would call him back. I then placed a call to the Navy captain in London who was in charge of all public affairs personnel in Europe. I explained the situation, then said, “You need to call off that order for my reporter to appear. If that doesn’t happen, I’m calling Washington and that commander could be relieved of duty for violating a DoD directive.” A half hour later, the captain in London called me back and said the reporter would not have to appear. It turned out that the Sigonella commander simply wasn’t aware of the DoD directive.
That’s the way Stripes should be allowed to work. It’s the way General Ulysses S. Grant viewed the role of Stars and Stripes in the Civil War, and that’s the way General John J. Pershing viewed Stripes in World War I. In World War II, when General George S. Patton tried to reign in Stripes cartoonist Bill Mauldin, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stepped in and told Patton, “Stars and Stripes is the soldiers’ newspaper. We won’t interfere.”
In many locations worldwide, Stripes is the only First Amendment publication to which our troops have access. There may be American Forces Network access, and there may be post or unit newspapers, but all those are command controlled. Stripes is (or was) the only one that could tell it like it is. Our troops and their dependents overseas deserve access to truthful, unbiased reporting. That is exactly the role that Stripes plays.
The Pentagon has now assumed control of Stripes and clearly plans to operate it as its mouthpiece. One can only assume that those running the show in Washington have a lot to hide. Why else would they mandate the draconian changes now in place?
I hope that Congress will get involved and reverse the changes recently made at Stripes. After all, it was Congress that in 1993 demanded that Stripes be operated as a First Amendment publication free of military control of editorial operations.”
