STORY CATEGORIES

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Identify the most common hometown news story categories and the appropriate and inappropriate hometown ties.

Hometown news stories usually fall into one of three categories - military achievement, personal achievement or participation stories. These categories are explained in the following text.

MILITARY ACHIEVEMENT

Military achievements are those personal newsworthy accomplishments that are job related. Consider the following examples:

l School graduation (NOTE: To avoid embarrassment in case of early dismissal, the FHTNC does not process stories about individuals reporting to schools. Additionally, this category applies only to formal training four weeks in length or longer, such as "A" and "C" schools.)

l Personal award

l Advancement or promotion

l Qualification (JOOD, OOD, EAWS, ESWS, etc.)

l Honors earned in school or in training

l Reenlistment

l Lifesaving effort or rescue

l Retirement

PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT

Personal achievements are those personal newsworthy accomplishments realized during off-duty hours. Consider the following examples: 

l College degree or high school diploma earned 

l Award received from the Navy League of the United States or other civic organization, but riot commercial firms

PARTICIPATION STORIES

Participation stories result from an individual's being a part of his command's activities. Consider the following examples:

. Reporting aboard

. Deployment or a change in the location of the unit

l Port visit

l Participation in an exercise or operation

l Participation in evacuation operations

l Active duty for training (ACDUTRA)

NOTE: The FHTNC does not process feature stories.

APPROPRIATE HOMETOWN TIES

For purposes of this section, the term hometown refers to the place of residence of the sea service member's immediate next of kin, a spouse's immediate next of kin, and when appropriate, college alumni publication. Other suitable hometown ties include another blood relative, or an in-law or legal guardian living in a community in the United States or its possessions.

INAPPROPRIATE HOMETOWN TIES

You must not use spouses, dependent children or friends as hometown ties. This will eliminate the possibility of harassment if official duties require the service member to be away from his residence on a regular basis.