Documenting history, mentoring the next generation

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Master Sgt. Zane Craig can tell you the exact moment history stopped feeling like something in a textbook. He grew up close enough to Gettysburg's battlefield to walk it. That proximity to one of the most consequential days in American history shaped the way he thinks about telling stories today.

Craig, a senior public affairs specialist with the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, currently deployed to Germany in support of U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, knows that short-term actions can resonate for decades and centuries.

"Being that close to such a pivotal battlefield gave me a deep appreciation for history and the decisive role a single battle can play in how everyone experiences their lives today," Craig said. "You don't necessarily know which events are the most important until years later."

That instinct, to document now because you can't always tell what will matter later, eventually pointed him toward a degree and a career built on paying attention. At Penn State Harrisburg, he settled on public policy after a long search for the right major, drawn in by politics and the idea of shaping the laws that affect people's daily lives.

"I've always been interested in politics and wanted the chance to help make people's lives better by influencing how elected officials develop the bills that become law," Craig said. "I'm always looking at the news, which is an important part of public affairs, and thinking about how any given new government policy will affect myself, the PA Guard, the military, the state, our nation and the world."

Craig didn't arrive at public affairs with a plan though. Halfway through college in 2009, unsure of his direction and looking for a way to pay for school and live independently, he enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard on the strength of a recruiter's pitch.

"I had no idea what public affairs was or what it would entail," Craig said. "It sounded like the best option my recruiter presented."

Full-time, Craig now works for the Pennsylvania National Guard in the state public affairs office as a civilian employee. Before that, Craig spent two years as a research analyst for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The job dropped him into a world of white-collar office norms he had never encountered growing up.

"I learned all the norms of professional white-collar office work, which I had no experience with in my previous jobs or from my parents, who never went to college and worked with their hands," Craig said.

During his deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, Craig said the day-to-day reality wasn't glamorous. But time has a way of reshaping memory.

"At the time I mostly experienced the deployment as boredom and routine," Craig said. "Looking back more than 15 years now, the memories that stand out are of the great people I met and the interesting things I saw there, like Saddam's palace, the ancient ziggurat of Ur and my two-week leave in New Zealand."

It was a very different mission, years later, that reshaped how Craig understood the Guard's larger purpose. His first annual training in Lithuania in 2014, supporting Operation Atlantic Resolve, put him on the ground in Pennsylvania's first international partner nation, a former Soviet republic bordering Russia at a moment when the region was anything but calm.

"Russia had just taken Crimea and the Donbass region, so you could really feel the tension," Craig said. "That is the event that foreshadowed the larger invasion of Ukraine in 2022."

Looking back now, with a deployment to Germany on his résumé, that early experience in the Baltics feels less like a stand-alone trip and more like a preview of the stakes the Guard's state partnership mission carries today. More than a decade after his first trip to Lithuania, Craig’s deployment to Germany has widened his perspective beyond Pennsylvania and the National Guard. Working in support of SOCEUR has allowed him to see how the individual missions he documents fit into a broader military presence across the region.

“Public affairs is already a unique military occupational specialty, in being able to see and understand and explain to different audiences how a diverse range of roles in the military contribute to our overall security,” Craig said. “Being here expanded that even more.”

That expanded perspective has also brought him back to the history that first shaped his interest in documentation. During the deployment, Craig helped cover commemorations of the Normandy landings, an experience that connected the military’s present-day mission in Europe to the events that brought American forces to the continent more than eight decades earlier.

During one of the commemorative events, Craig and Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Nelson, another 109th MPAD NCO, reenlisted at Omaha Beach.

“Reenlisting at Omaha Beach, seeing the actual beaches and cemeteries, and seeing the formal ceremonies with the remaining centenarian World War II veterans and high-level U.S. and French officials, it was definitely an event to remember and reiterated how the U.S. arrived in Europe to begin with,” Craig said.

Craig has also been part of teams that earned multiple Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Communications Awards, recognition that does not come easily. With the 109th MPAD, he was part of teams that earned National Guard Bureau-level Organization of the Year and Publication of the Year honors.

In 2023, Craig was part of the Pennsylvania National Guard state public affairs office team that won the U.S. Army-level Organization of the Year award.

"Winning in the Keith L. Ware competition takes a whole confluence of factors, from leaders being motivated throughout the year to making sure everyone on the team produces the required type and quality of product," Craig said. "I'm very proud of being on two teams, at the 109th MPAD and Joint Force Headquarters, that met these standards and beat out competition from around the country."

Ask him to pick a favorite story or photo from his career though, and Craig comes up empty. Not because nothing stands out but because his pride has shifted toward something less tangible. He says that seeing the success of younger Soldiers that he has mentored gives him all the pride and satisfaction he needs.

Nelson said Craig’s influence comes less from seeking attention and more from the consistent professionalism he brings to the team.

“MSG Craig is a quiet professional,” Nelson said. “He encourages open communication through all levels of the unit. I think his biggest influence is the fact he also works full time at the state office and lets his experience showcase his talents.”

For a public affairs team responsible for accurately documenting the mission, Craig’s attention to detail has become part of the standard. Nelson said Craig’s copyediting can be intimidating, but it is meant to make every Soldier’s work better.

“We are all scared of his copyediting skills,” Nelson said. “They are brutal. Even after multiple peer reviews and edits, he can make you feel like a fifth grader. It’s not a bad thing. He sets the bar high, and we all have to elevate our skills to reach it.”

Nelson said Craig’s calm demeanor is equally valuable during deployment, when tight timelines and competing personalities can add pressure to the mission.

“His temperament is even keel all the time, and that helps smooth the bumps from other personalities or stressful situations,” Nelson said.

That mentorship mindset ties directly into what keeps him going after a decade of full-time service since 2016. For Craig, it comes down to contrast. As in, what his job offers compared to what he hears from friends outside the Guard.

"I get to see different and interesting things on a regular basis that most people don't get to experience," Craig said. "The work offers a good balance between stability and predictability on the one hand, and change, excitement and travel on the other. It provides enough time and money to pursue things outside of work that matter to me, which I think is increasingly rare."

His advice to Soldiers just starting out in the field is equally grounded. Don't let the creative side of the job overshadow the basics of being a Soldier.

"Always keep growing," Craig said. "To be successful in this job, you need to not only work toward perfecting your photography, videography, writing, social media and graphic design skills—you need to put a lot of work into being a Soldier and maintaining physical readiness."

From a kid walking Gettysburg's battlefield to a public affairs NCO watching history unfold in real time from Lithuania to Germany, Craig's throughline is consistent.

Pay attention, document what matters and help the next generation see the value in doing the same.

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