Troy Blankenstein
Comm. 130
December 4, 2010
Interview with Mr. Mark R. Phillips of the USO
I conducted my interview with the Vice President of Communications of the United Service Organization, (USO) Mark R. Phillips. Mr. Phillips received his Bachelor of Arts in the field of Art from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Masters in Public Administration from Troy State University. He also graduated from the Air Force Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, Squadron Officer School, and the Defense Information School. Mark R. Phillips became a doctoral candidate through the University of Maryland’s Communication program. He is an accredited public relations practitioner (APR), through the Public Relations Society of America. While in the Air Force, Mr. Phillips served as a Public Affairs Officer with tours in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Bosnia, Croatia, and the United Kingdom. The USO was a great job for Mr. Phillips because he has seen both sides of its organization. As a Public Affairs Officer, Mark Phillips has been evolved in supporting combat, disaster, and humanitarian relief operations along with education, research, development, and acquisition programs. After interviewing Mr. Phillips I could tell how much he loved his job, and his field. He understood that every day is completely different from the next, and could adapt easily. For such an influential and powerful man, he gives you a sense that no matter what you throw his way he will embrace it and create a solution that is inspiring and beneficial to everyone.
A typical day for the Vice President of Communications for the USO is far from most. He says when you manage a program like the USO you are in charge of so many different things that your project list is can have 200 things to be completed that day. Things are set up and plans like segments on the Today Show, or working with the White House on projects for the troops and then you have days where your plan is turned upside down, for example the Shootings at Ft. Hood. Within hours of this event His team had to change their website, send USO units down to work with the media, families, and solders, they were the media outlet to the world. The one promise that Mr. Phillips said is a guarantee is that something will change that same day, and you will always need more money, people, and time than what you have to get it done.
When you are in the Public relations field, especially in the USO, there is no fine line of work from management to a first day intern. Daily Mr. Phillips gets dragged into little things like Press Releases and small work and in the same day has technical/Business work to deal with. As he says you need to be able to speech business and numbers to your bosses, and you need to be able to make a clear and useful message to the press. One way that he credits his skill for such adaption is his career in the Military. As a Lieutenant he was an Operations Management officer. One day his colleague suggested that he try out a new field that was on the rise, Public Affairs. After shadowing his buddy around for a few days he put in his transfer and became a Public Affairs Officer in 1992. After a 15 year career as a PA officer he was looking for a civilian job in the same field in the DC area. His first civilian job was this profession and has enjoyed every day of it.
One big thing that Mark R. Phillips likes about his job is the fact that it is different everyday no matter how much he plans for it. Military speaking he says, a good comparison to his job is a unit commander. There are so many different parts that it reminds him of his days as a Public Affairs Officer. The only down side of his job is that he never has enough resources, and that he constantly has to prove himself to the corporate world that Public Relations is an important asset to business.
When asked about one thing that he would have done different in preparing for his career he gave an interesting answer. He said that when things become hectic you tend to forget about the big picture and start to focus on the little details more than you should. He says that sometimes people don’t need all the details, even if you don’t think so; they just need the basic important “juicy” stuff. Along with that he wished that when he was an undergrad he would have taken more marketing, rhetoric, and business classes do to the fact that they are so closely related in his field. It would have given him a more open mind to exactly how a big business is ran.
His business is one of the most influential companies that support our armed forces. Mr. Phillips is directly working on a few upcoming and current events for our soldiers. He has launched a program to send care packages for female soldiers. He is prepping for the grand opening of the USO for the Congressional Caucus and the Dover Air Force Base mortuary. He has the annual holiday tour for Sergeant Major of the Army, along with a new event. For the fiesta bowl the half time show will be former professional football players will go to southwest Asia and conduct tryouts for troops to participate in a Pro vs. Troops flag football game. Plus many other daily events to make the troops lives a little bit easier.
As a former Officer in the military he believes that it has helped him in the civilian world and with his current position. In the military it is forced into your brain to work and think team and to become a leader. You work together and you make decisions together because your life depends on the guy to the left and right of you. In the military you learn to trust people, delegate and work as a cohesive unit to get the job done. When he came into the civilian world Mr. Phillips said that it takes normal people years to develop a team mentality. They all think about themselves and don’t care who they hurt. That, he said, is a huge difference in having a military background to none.
Mark Philips believes that there are two important rules that people entering in the field of Public Relations should follow. One being that you should always take care of your people. If the people under you are taken care of and believe in you then they will work hard for you. The second is that you should be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes. When you are pitching a story to a reporter they may not be able to understand or think it is as important as you think the topic is. Make pitches to them that are in there language so it can be understood and they feel like it is an important issue too. Talk business to CEO’s and people above you, they want to hear facts and numbers.
Mr. Phillips thought that a good asset would be to prepare yourself for this field as much as you could to do so. He thought that an internship is a very important prerequisite to the real world. He also thought it was key, that you try and get an intern job at a business where you would like to have a career in one day. That way you can see if you are cut out for the work and to see if you really enjoy the job. As a current member of PRSA he thinks that PRSSA is a great organization and would expect that any Public Relations major should be a member of it dude to the fact that it can give you a good network of other Public Relation Students. Mr. Phillips said that the more you can prepare yourself now, the better of a practitioner you will be in the future.
Overall Mark Phillips loves the career he has had so far. He thinks that his job is a really cool job. He enjoys it so much because, he has to deal with some issues that can be hard sometimes and can make things difficult however; the idea behind the USO is a really good mission. The fact that he gets to support the troops and their families, is a wonderful job. He said that this position is a dream job that he is very thankful for. Mr. Phillips doesn’t see himself leaving his position any time soon, however there is one thing he would still like to do. He told me that one thing he really wants to do is teach Communication at the college level.
Mark R. Phillips is one of those people that when you hold a conversation with him, you get the feeling that everything is under control. He shared with me so much information and ideas that it made me want to do anything and everything to prepare myself for a career in Public Relations. One thing that I got from our interview is that he is a straight shooter. He’s the type of man that will tell you exactly what the situation is, good or bad. When he does, Mr. Phillips will explain what’s going good and why, and what needs improvement and how he’s going to do it. I understood how much love he has for is profession and I can only hope that one day I can have an outstanding and powerful career as Mr. Mark R. Phillips.
