National Guard

Hynes takes Prairies Soldier to the front: J school grad wins awards as editor of National Gaurd paper

By Dane Stickney
J Alumni News staff

Some people who know Kevin Hynes say they could be in a room with him and not even know he’s there.

Because he is quiet and soft-spoken, Hynes doesn’t make a big impression. But his work for the Prairie Soldier, the Nebraska National Guard’s newspaper, has made people take notice.

Hynes, a 1994 NU graduate, has almost complete control over the newspaper, designing the publication, assigning all the stories, mentoring the staff and doing much of the writing and photography.

Through his hard work, Hynes has quietly transformed the Prairie Soldier from a newsletter to a quality newspaper, said Susan Ranta, an NU J school graduate who has worked for the Prairie Soldier.

“He has done a whole lot with not much in the way of supplies or manpower (at the Prairie Soldier),” Ranta said. “It is really an impressive newspaper.”

The paper, which comes out every other month, is so good, in fact, that it has won a variety of national awards for military publications. In 1998, it was voted the top publication in the Army. In 1999, it was named the Army’s second-best publication. Both years, the Prairie Soldier was voted the best National Guard Publication.

Despite all the accolades the Prairie Soldier has received, Hynes remains low-key about his success.

“I think the paper has done more for me than I’ve done for it,” Hynes said. “Having this much control and being able to experience all aspects of a newspaper has been a great learning experience for me.”

But Hynes can also thank other journalism experiences for his success. His first lesson in journalism came when he was a paperboy, delivering his hometown paper, the Crofton Journal.

“I think that’s what really opened my eyes to journalism,” Hynes said. “I enjoyed reading the paper, and I took pride in delivering them.

When I got older, it was just something I had been familiar with.”

The day Hynes graduated from high school in 1986, he also shipped out for duty in the Army National Guard. His childhood interest in delivering newspapers prompted Hynes to attend the Department of Defense’s school of journalism, then in Indianapolis.

“It was a 10-week program where they just shoved journalism down your throat,” Hynes said. “That really taught me a lot.”

After the rigid Army education, Hynes began working as a reporter and photographer on various Army National Guard publications, including a newspaper at Fort Rucker, Ala.
In 1990, Hynes decided to study journalism at NU, but before he attended any classes, Hynes went to work for the Crofton Journal that summer. Hynes said the Journal’s publisher, Kevin Henseler, had been an important mentor in his life.

“I was at a point in my life where I needed some journalism experience outside of the military,” Hynes said. “Kevin took me in and really showed me a lot about design and the business workings of a newspaper. I owe him a great deal for everything he taught me.” Henseler said Hynes’ work and character were, and still are, first-rate.

“He was always a good, solid worker,” Henseler said. “He would take on as many stories as you needed him to, and he’d always get them done on time.”

Henseler said he had a feeling Hynes would be successful in the journalism field.

“You could tell he was going to be a good one,” Henseler said. “His work with the Prairie Soldier is proof of that. I don’t know that much about the National Guard, but I still love to see what’s in there each edition. It is a darn good paper.”

After his summer experience at the Crofton Journal, Hynes began his four-year stay at NU. He said his time at the university helped him fine-tune his skills.

Hynes said he was thankful for what his professors taught him. His education helped pave the way for him to combine his love for journalism and the military when he was hired as the editor of the Prairie Soldier after he graduated in 1994.

“I knew quite a bit about journalism from my previous experience, but the professors at NU helped fill in the areas the military couldn’t,” he said. “The thing they really helped me the most with was teaching me how to mentor other writers and editors.”

As much as Hynes learned from his professors at NU, his quiet demeanor kept him from standing out. George Tuck, a news-editorial professor at NU, said he remembered Hynes’ work but never learned much about him.

“He has done really outstanding work now, and he did the same then, but I can’t say I knew him because he never really said much,” Tuck said.

Ranta said Hynes’ soft-spoken tendencies were refreshing.

“I’ve never heard him talk about himself,” she said. “He lets his work and his character do the talking, and they speak very loudly.”