Armed Forces Journal Armed Forces Journal ( " AFJ " ) is a monthly journal for American military officers and leaders in government and industry . Founded in 1863 as a weekly newspaper , " AFJ " is published today by Gannett Government Media , part of Gannett Company ( NYSE : GCI ) . History . 1800s . It was founded by a pair of brothers , Francis Pharcellus Church and William Conant Church . William was a newspaperman and American Civil War veteran . In his youth , he had helped his father edit and publish the " New York Chronicle " ; in 1860 , aged 24 , he became publisher of the " New York Sun " , and the following year , took a job as the Washington correspondent of the " New York Times " . In 1862 , he was appointed a captain in the United States Volunteers ; he served for one year , receiving brevet s of major and lieutenant colonel . Francis , who had covered the Civil War as a reporter for the New York Times , would go on to write for the " Sun " , where he penned one of the most famous editorials in American journalism : " Yes , Virginia , there is a Santa Claus " . On August 29 , 1863 , the Churches published the inaugural issue of " The Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces " , a weekly newspaper printed in New York City . The paper ' s first issue carried this motto : " Established in obedience to an insistent demand for an official organ for members of the American Defense and those concerned with it . " The paper included news of the Civil War , then in its third year , along with " important official reports , lists of promotions , discussions upon the various appliances and methods of war , editorial comments upon the various naval and military questions of the day , and a great mass of information for the use of professional and non - professional readers . " A single copy cost 10 cents ; an annual subscription was five dollars . Two years later , the " New York Times " noted the publication of the second annual bound volume of the newspaper ' s issues . " The proprietors of the " Army and Navy Journal " , in commencing the publication of their paper two years ago , sought to supply what hitherto we had been without – an organ devoted to the military and naval history and organizations of the United States . That they have fully succeeded , the great mass of material in the volume before us amply proves . " In the decade after the war , the " Army and Navy Journal " played a role in the increasing professionalization of the U . S . military . It was not a professional journal like several others that appeared after the war , but " . . . along with its social and other items about service personnel it carried articles , correspondence , and news of interest to military people that helped bind its readers together in a common professional fraternity . " Church would go on to help found the National Rifle Association in 1871 ; he and his newspaper remained fixtures in the political firmament for decades . From 1894 - 95 , the newspaper ' s naval editor was Winston Churchill — not the future British prime minister , but rather a recent graduate of the U . S . Naval Academy who had organized the first 8 - man rowing squad there and who would go on to a celebrated career as a novelist . 1900s . On January 19 , 1903 , Church was the guest of honor at a dinner at Delmonico ' s restaurant in New York . Speakers at the dinner included Gen . Adna Chaffee , soon to become Chief of Staff of the U . S . Army , and New York mayor Seth Low ; letters of regret were read from President Theodore Roosevelt , Navy Secretary William Henry Moody , Secretary of State John Hay , and financier J . Pierpont Morgan . After Church died in 1917 , the editorship was taken up for a few years by Willard Church . 1921 brought a new publisher , Franklin Coe , and a new editor , retired Brig . Gen . Henry J . Reilly . Reilly was a West Point graduate who had commanded an artillery regiment in France during World War I , and who would go on to co - found and lead the Reserve Officers Association . The name of the newspaper changed as well , achieving its all - time longest length as " The American Army and Navy Journal , and Gazette of the Regular , National Guard and Reserve Forces . " In 1922 , a year ' s subscription was still $ 6 , unchanged in more than half a century . Circulation was 20 , 293 and the home office was located at 20 Vesey Street in New York . That same year , the paper absorbed " National Service " , the official publication of the Military Training Camps Association . Through the years , the newspaper and its parent company have published several books . Perhaps the earliest was " The Eclipse of American Sea Power " by Captain Dudley W . Knox , then the newspaper ' s naval correspondent ( 1920 – 23 ) and ultimately one of the most influential historians to wear a U . S . Navy uniform . The book , Knox ' s first , was published in 1922 by J . J . Little & Ives Co . under the copyright of The American Army & Navy Journal Inc . In 1924 , the newspaper ' s name was truncated to simply " The Army and Navy Journal " . O ' Laughlin era . In 1925 , the newspaper was purchased by John Callan O ' Laughlin , a former Associated Press reporter who served during World War I as a major in the U . S . Army ' s Quartermaster Corps . He was an intimate of Roosevelt ' s , having worked as a go - between with the Russians in arranging the Russo - Japanese peaces , and later serving briefly as the president ' s first assistant secretary of state . O ' Laughlin installed himself as editor and publisher , and changed the newspaper ' s name to the " Army and Navy Journal ; The Gazette of the Land , Sea , and Air . " Five years later , O ' Laughlin appointed LeRoy Whitman as editor . In 1933 , the newspaper changed format , from a broadsheet to a smaller tabloid . Its offices were then located at 1701 Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington , D . C . O ' Laughlin wrote to Gen . Douglas MacArthur , then the Army chief of staff and acting Secretary of War , offering to have his newspaper make and award medals for the best - run camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps . MacArthur accepted the offer , writing back , " In accepting your generous offer permit me to express my appreciation of the cooperative attitude that has always characterized your contacts with the War Department . " By 1938 , when the magazine celebrated its 75th anniversary , it had added a motto : " Spokesman of the Services Since 1863 " . In January 1945 , " Time " magazine decided to take the " jovial , rosy - cheeked " O ' Laughlin and his newspaper down a peg . Soviet state - controlled press had recently decried the " Journal ' s " call for Moscow to establish a second front against Nazi Germany in Poland . " All this attention from Russia was due not to the " Army & Navy Journal ' s " circulation ( 27 , 568 weekly ) but to its reputation as an ' unofficial but authoritative ' spokesman for the U . S . Army & Navy . The " Journal " itself likes to foster this impression . . . Actually , the " Journal " is not in the least official . Nor is it always authoritative . " O ' Laughlin , the newsweekly sniffed , " still does much of its leg work . He has five assistants , only one of whom ( a former chaplain ) has a military background . " Post - O ' Laughlin era . In March 1949 , O ' Laughlin died with no immediate survivors . A member of the Gridiron Club , he bequeathed the " Journal " to that Washington , D . C . , journalists organization . News reports valued the publication , " regarded almost as an official organ of the armed forces " , at $ 500 , 000 ( $ today ) . But the bequest , made in the form of a trust to be administered by the club , created a conundrum for the social organization . As one newspaper reported , " Publishing magazines is completely out of the club ' s line . " On May 13 , 1950 , the name changed to " The Army , Navy , Air Force Journal " . In March 1958 , the trustees of O ' Laughlin ' s Gridiron Club trust sold the " Journal " to its long - time editor , LeRoy Whitman , and its general manager , Dorothy Cone Brown . On January 4 , 1962 , the publication was sold to the Military Service Publishing Company of Harrisburg , Pennsylvania . In 1962 , the " Journal " absorbed the " The Army - Navy - Air Force Register " . One of the oldest military - themed publications , the " Register " was first published December 13 , 1879 , as " The Army and Navy Register " . On March 17 , the merged publication was renamed " The Army - Navy - Air Force Journal & Register " . That name lasted two years . Starting with the issue of July 8 , 1964 , the magazine was renamed " The Journal of the Armed Forces " . In January 1965 , LeRoy Whitman stepped down after 35 years as editor . His successor was Daniel Z . Henkin , who had joined the staff in 1948 as assistant editor . Henkin left after just nine months to become the director of operations for the Pentagon ' s press office . From 1963 to 1967 , the publisher was James A . Donovan , a retired Marine Corps colonel . Schemmer era . By the late 1960s , the newspaper was known and read mostly for its social news of the U . S . officer corps . That changed in 1968 , when it was purchased by Benjamin F . Schemmer . A 1954 graduate of West Point , Schemmer had served five years as an infantry officer , worked for Boeing until 1965 , then become the director of land force weapon systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense ( Systems Analysis ) . On July 6 , 1968 , Schemmer renamed the publication " Armed Forces Journal " and turned it into a weekly magazine with a new focus : in - depth analytical coverage of defense issues . It also received a new subhead : " Defense Weekly " replaced " Spokesman of the Services Since 1863 " . In August 1971 , the weekly became a monthly . In February 1974 , Schemmer added a word to the title , dubbing the publication " Armed Forces Journal International " . LuAnne K . Levens , Schemmer ' s second wife , became publisher in 1977 . Noted defense expert Anthony Cordesman served as AFJ ' s international editor until about April 1984 . In March 1988 , Schemmer and Levens sold AFJI to Pergamon - Brassey ' s Defense Publishers of Greenwich , Connecticut , a U . S . subsidiary of Britain ' s Maxwell Communications . Various newspapers reported the magazine ' s circulation at that time as about 42 , 500 or 45 , 000 , with about half paid and half sent free to key leaders . " The publication covers the international defense arena , weapons and research , electronics , the Soviet military and military issues in Congress , the Pentagon and the White House , " the " Washington Post " said . Schemmer , who stayed on as editor , said the larger company had first approached him about five years previously , and that he and Levens had finally sold because they believed Maxwell offered " enormous possibilities for international expansion . " Schemmer resigned in 1992 , citing health reasons . Next to occupy the editor ' s chair was John Roos , a retired major with 21 years of service in the U . S . Army . In 1993 , the magazine was purchased by Donald Fruehling , who had run the U . S . division of Maxwell Communications when it acquired AFJI , and his wife Gudrun . Maxwell Communications had gone bankrupt and was broken up . 2000s . Gannett era . In September 2002 , Armed Forces Journal International Publishing Co . was purchased by Army Times Publishing Company , a division of Gannett . An Associated Press report described " AFJ " as a magazine that " gives military officers analysis , insight and commentary on the latest technological and strategic developments . " In November 2005 , Thomas Donnelly became editor . Eleven months later , Karen Walker , formerly managing editor , replaced Donnelly as editor . In 2011 , Bradley Peniston took over as editor .