Wow, what a year it has been for DoDLive video! Big thank you to you, Audience, for making our YouTube channel one of the most popular government channels. We crossed the 4,000 subscriber milestone in mid-December, and have nearly 12.5 million views to date!
This year we uploaded 470 videos, and shared many, many more from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps and The Pentagon Channel.
Instead of creating a video montage of nearly 500 videos that would take hours and hours of research, editing and producing, we decided to highlight the most popular videos on our channel this year.
Video topics ranged from breaking news and messages from DoD leadership to messages of support from athletes and Olympians and stories about service members.
One of the first videos uploaded was this photo essay from Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa about a bridge built in Ethiopia by the military allowing residents a safer passage across the river.
U.S. Forces were also hard at work in Afghanistan, planning and preparing for President Obama’s expected drawdown in 2014. Service members have been busy ensuring that their legacy of a safer Afghanistan continues by empowering Afghan people to thrive and demonstrating a show of force, all while taking care of their own.
On the home front, service members were busy this fall supporting relief efforts following Hurricane Sandy. The National Guard was on hand for several emergency situations, including helping the people of Cordova, Ala., dig out following winter blizzards earlier in the year.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta started the year off with a press conference declaring sexual assault has no place in the Defense Department, a sentiment echoed in this video by the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia. Secretary Panetta also recorded a message of thanks to lesbian and gay service members, encouraged troops to vote and wished service members and their families a happy holiday season.
Not to be outdone, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey also spoke sang to the troops this year in several of his own speeches and video messages including at the eighth annual Tribute to the Coast Guard, on Sesame Street with a furry little friend honoring military families and with his grandsons about Christmas in Killarney. He might have enough songs for his own album now, wouldn’t you say? He did manage to put out one video without breaking into song, but do you think we could get him to sing “Hail to the Redskins” if when they make it to the Super Bowl?
Our sister blog Armed with Science had a couple of hits this year as well, including this one about robots and a couple they borrowed from The Pentagon Channel about a superhero bug designed to wipeout disease and another about acupuncture.
Our most popular video in 2012 was this segment from our Dec. 7, podcast honoring the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor which garnered a whopping 9,343 views.
None of this would be possible, of course, without the sacrifice and service of the men and women who make up our diverse fighting force.
Be sure to check out the playlist we created highlighting the most popular DoDLive videos (not all of them could make it into one blog post); you just might shed a tear, be amazed or be inspired by what you see.
What were your favorite videos from 2012?
Happy New Year to all our fans and here’s a little something for 2013.
Written by Nicole McFarland, DoDLive
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