For twenty years Paul Mancuso traversed the globe making films, pictures and leading teams of Marine combat photographers, cinematographers, and graphic artists in pursuit of documenting history and telling the Marine Corps story.
In 2003 he started his Combat Camera career in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina with the Second Marine Division where he was deployed to Bagram Afghanistan as an embedded videographer with the Second Battalion of the Eighth Marines (2/8). Over the course of six months in country with his video camera, he captured imagery of 2/8 as they conducted security operations in and around Bagram, Kabul, and Sarawbi.
Later in 2005 he deployed to Fallujah, Iraq attached to Eighth Marine Regiment where he spent nine months assigned to the Third Battalion of the Eighth Marines and the Second Battalion of the Second Marines. In a dual role shooting both photo and video, he documented security and combat operations across the Al Anbar province in Al Kharma, as far east as Abu Gharab, south into the Zaidon and north above Fallujah. During that time his imagery was published by Reuters and the Associated Press; and on occasion he was loaned out to Naval Criminal Investigative Service to conduct forensic photography. Over the course of the deployment he embedded with the infantry, documenting several large scale operations to include, Operation Clear Decision, Operation Trifecta, and the security support to the Iraqi Constitutional Referendum.
With his combat deployments complete, he was assigned to the Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools where he worked with the top creative civilian/military team in the Marine Corps producing training films and Marine Corps command messaging. He gained extensive experience in planning, producing, and directing full scale film productions from concept to delivery.
In 2010 he was selected to attend the Military Motion Media program hosted by Syracuse University in the Newhouse School where he successfully completed a yearlong intensive study of Broadcast Journalism and Television, Radio, Film. Following Syracuse he was transferred to Iwakuni, Japan where he led the Combat Camera detachment for Marine Corps Air Station Japan. During this tenure he was selected for the Marine Corps Warrant Officer program and was sent though the Marine Corps Officer training.
His career as a Warrant Officer started at the Pentagon, where he was a creative director, developing films and graphic design projects for Headquarters Marine Corps. Of note he produced films in support of the Commandants Strategic Initiative Group, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy initiative, and for all the Commandant’s messaging to the force initiatives. He supervised product development for the Commandant’s posture statement to congress.
Following the Pentagon, he returned to North Carolina where he led a team of Marines providing documentation and audio-visual product development for the School of Infantry in North Carolina. He produced several films, two of which were selected for the Cucalorous Film Festival. He took the initiative to interview on camera over fifty female Marines who volunteered to be the first women to go through infantry training in the Marine Corps. One of his images was selected as a cover for Leatherneck magazine.
He returned to the Fleet Marine Force in 2016 to lead the Second Marine Division Combat Camera section. During his time, he re-invigorated the Division Combat Camera team's focus on film and graphic production while supporting the continually rotating photo/video documentation teams that were deployed simultaneously across the globe. He initiated and led a senior staff working group to assess the Division’s communication requirements in order to develop initiatives for the Commanding General. He directed the creative team that produced a nationally recognized series “Gunner Fact or Fiction” in additional to multiple other films and graphic products. Within a year the Second Marine Division social media engagement skyrocketed from less than 2k followers to well over 60,000 and Headquarters Marine Corps was requesting support for enterprise messaging to be included in Second Marine Division films.
His last years in the Marine Corps were spent as a Visual Information Officer, advising both the II and III Marine Expeditionary Force Communication and Strategy directors on training, equipment, and visual information policy development. He conducted an intensive multi-year initiative focused on providing imagery transmission and data storage capabilities for Marine Photographers and Videographers. He also resourced and laid the foundations for the first regional high-end visual production team and training cadre for Marine cameramen and graphic artists in the Pacific theater of operations.
During his career he pursued personal video and photography projects, telling stories and capturing moments in time with friends, family, and throughout his travels.