Milblogs Go Silent

I have written about CJ Grisham before and the problems he is having not only with the local school board in his community, but also the problems he is facing from within the Army community and chain of command. Well milbloggers are staging a day of protest today, refusing to post any new articles to show their support for one of their own. I support their efforts.

On Wednesday 16 December 2009, many milblogs — including This Ain’t Hell, From My Position, Blackfive, Miss Ladybug, Boston Maggie, Grim’s Hall, and those participating in the Wednesday Hero program — are going silent for the day. Some are choosing to go silent for a longer period of time.

The reason for this is two-fold. First, milblogs are facing an increasingly hostile environment from within the military. While senior leadership has embraced blogging and social media, many field grade officers and senior NCOs do not embrace the concept. From general apathy in not wanting to deal with the issue to outright hositility to it, many commands are not only failing to support such activities, but are aggressively acting against active duty milbloggers, milspouses, and others. The number of such incidents appears to be growing, with milbloggers receiving reprimands, verbal and written, not only for their activities but those of spouses and supporters.

The catalyst has been the treatment of milblogger C.J. Grisham of A Soldier’s Perspective . C.J. has earned accolades and respect, from the White House on down for his honest, and sometimes blunt, discussion of issues — particularly PTSD. In the last few months, C.J. has seen an issue with a local school taken to his command who failed to back him, and has even seen his effort to deal with PTSD, and lead his men in same by example, used against him as a part of this. Ultimately, C.J. has had to sell his blog to help raise funds for his defense in this matter.

The milbloggers are also asking those who regularly read their blogs, or anybody who is interested in preserving some semblance of First Amendment rights for those in the military to contact their elected officials and let them know that milbloggers have provided a valuable service reporting on military matters and the Global War on Terror by filling the gap that our mainstream media has created.

A Tree Grows in the Park

What is so important about posting a picture of a bunch of people in a park? It is where that park is located. Without me telling you you might think it is anywhere in the world. Well it is in Baghdad. Feel free to distribute this to your favorite liberal. I am not asking you to take my word for it either. This picture was taken on May 27 and here is the original source, an Iraqi newspaper.
Just so you know, I don't spend my days poring over foreign language publications, Nahh, I have a better source. Our deployed soldiers who blog in their free time. In this case it is Greyhawk.

NBC Atones and a request for the milblog type

There is a show on NBC called "Clash of the Choirs".
The basic premise is that some celebrity singers go to their hometowns and put together a 20 person choir to compete with the viewers voting. All of the choirs are competing for charity. Last night was the first episode and with nothing else on decided to watch it.

There is a choir that is organized by Blake Shelton from Oklahoma. In the choir he has two guys from Ft Sill, OK. Before the choir performed last night an executive from GE, the parent company of NBC, came on stage and announced that they were contributing $250,000 to the Disabled Veterans Association. Now I jumped on NBC, like a bunch of other folks, over their refusal to air the ad from Freedoms Watch thanking the troops.

They have since backed off that position. It is only fair that if I am going to criticise them for something like that then attention needs to be given for this charitable act also.

Additionally the group from OK is performing for the MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) fund, which is used to fund projects on base for the military for relaxation and leisure. In order to win they need your vote. It is too late to vote based on last nights performance since voting is only open for 2 hours after the show.

The competition is going to be on all week live so if the OK group makes it past the first round, this is where the milbloggers come in, we need to get the word out for military families and supporters to watch the show and vote.

Band of Bloggers

What if I told you to film a one hour documentary on military bloggers, milbloggers, but told you you were not allowed to use the phrase dot com? Well that is exactly what the History Channel did.
I watched their presentation of Band of Bloggers last night and I don't recall a single time where they gave any of the people interviewed screen names or web site address of their blog. Now some of the folks I have heard of others I hadn't. So I will try to do what they didn't and give you some of the names and sites that go with the faces they presented.
One of their central members was a guy named Colby Buzzell who also wrote a book that they displayed on screen. So using that as a clue I decided to try and track down his blog. Okay so here is his Wiki page.
And I found his blog although most of the entries are now gone. It is entitled the same as his book My War: Killing Time in Iraq.

J D Johannes' blog is called Outside the Wire He is a former Marine and now spends his time as an embedded reporter still bringing home the stories of what is happening in Iraq.

And that unfortunately all I have been able to come with so far. I wasn't taking notes during the show so I don't recall the names of the other folks that appeared. And that is my point. They did a show about bloggers and either failed to comprehend what the main point was, mainly that regular soldiers could commit their thoughts to paper, or web pages in this case, and give their side of a story completely ignored by traditional media. The History channel then commits the same sin.
While I liked their interviews with the folks their failure to promote any resources for the blogs so that we can go read for ourselves left me very dissatisfied.
My central source for milbloggers is The Mudville Gazette.
See how that works. Anybody at the History Channel listening, er reading?
I was left with one sobering thought from one of the folks interviewed. He was a LT from 1-18 Infantry I believe, wish I could remember his name. Anyway he took a picture at a memorial service for 4 fallen soldiers from his unit. A LTC (Lieutenant Colonel), 2 CPT's (Captains) and a SPC (Specialist 4th Class). He said he still has the picture on the door of his office with the caption "What have you done for your country today?" The picture is one of the boots with the M16 thrust between them and the Kevlar resting on top with the dog tags of the deceased draped around them.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Remember those who serve.