Amateur Photographer has the story about Captain Alexander Allan, a former Grenadier Guards officer (now Retired), who took pictures in the Helmand, Afghanistan during a six-month tour in 2007. He has now published the photos in a book called Afghanistan: A Tour of Duty. Profits from sales will go to British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association.
Writing in his forward to the book former Head of the Army Sir Richard Dannatt said Allan's photographs give an 'authentic insight into the realities of life from the British soldier on Afghanistan's front line.'
Dannatt added: 'Along with service, sadly, comes sacrifice, and this photographic record does not flinch from the issue.'
Allan has dedicated his book to Adam 'Goolie' Ball who lost a leg while trying to save two Afghan colleagues injured by landmines.
From the few photos I saw online, they’re stunning. And also, there’s been quite a bit of news lately with people stepping up and donating money to military charities and organizations. Today, it was reported that Bob Barker (ex-host of The Price is Right) donated $3M to the brain trauma center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This is awesome.
I’d probably make a joke about spaying or neutering cats and dogs right about now, but my cat Doritos has basically threatened to kill me if I take him to the vet for the procedure. Doritos full-on scares me and most of the dogs in the neighborhood...
I SEE YOU DORITOS HIDING BEHIND THE BOOKCASE!!! WHAT’S THAT NOISE?? ARE YOU SHARPENING YOUR CLAWS AGAIN?!
Read the entire story here.
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The Toronto Star has an interesting story about Capt. Ray Wiss, a Canadian Military doctor who served two tours in Afghanistan. Emails he sent home while deployed have been published into a book.
Capt. Wiss was posted to several Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) in the Panjwaii, the area of most intense fighting, because of his background. In the 1980s he had served as an infantry officer with the Canadian forces. As a civilian doctor, he is recognized internationally for his use of ultrasound in emergency medicine.
During his first tour in Afghanistan, November 2007 to March 2008, he kept a diary in the form of emails sent home describing his experiences. They have been turned into a book, FOB Doc, published Oct. 3. Book royalties will be donated to the Military Families Fund.
Read the entire story here. The article also includes an online interview with Capt. Wiss.
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If you're looking for military users on Twitter, soon enough you’ll be able to create your own lists and you’ll be able to organize them however you want. Last week Twitter announced the soon to launch Lists feature which is currently in Testing. The twitter blog reports:
The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.
Lists are public by default (but can be made private) and the lists you've created are linked from your profile. Other Twitter users can then subscribe to your lists. This means lists have the potential to be an important new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.
Many military bloggers and twitter users have been organizing lists of military twitter users using various third-party sites and tools. Lists that range from troops on the frontline using twitter to veterans and spouses who tweet. We even began indexing Twitter feeds months ago on Milblogging.com. With the upcoming feature of Twitter lists, you’ll be able to easily organize military twitter users into targeted categories. Several sites like WeFollow.com have been doing this already, but by using Twitter, you can simply sign into one account. And Twitter plans to offer an API to integrate Twitter lists onto your own site.
I plan to create several lists of military users such as veterans, army, frontlines, spouses, supporters and more. I also plan to create a list of the strangest Twitter accounts I follow...
If you happen to be a cheeseburger or a cat reading this and you use Twitter, shoot me an email and I’ll make sure to place you in my upcoming AWESOME list.
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(photo: Cpl Jason M. Bogar)
According to CBS:
Carlene says her son believed in what he was doing. He was "always reaching out to the people and the children," of Afghanistan. She says he constantly volunteered for any humanitarian missions, and he would often try to connect with the children during his time overseas.
Carlene sent CBS News three entries from a journal that Jason kept, and a last letter home. They were on his computer titled, "Afghanistan OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) VIII '07-'08," and "TO MY FAMILY."
Here’s an excerpt from one of Cpl. Jason Bogar’s journal entries dated 8 December 2007:
Coming into Afghanistan again after just finishing a year long tour 6 months ago isn’t the best feeling in the world. But this is the life I expected when I re-enlisted active duty. BAF is still the same every branch of the military there getting the exact same hazard duty and hostile fire pay as the soldiers out in the s--- getting shot at daily, somehow thinking there in danger.
Over the years I’ve come to accept everyone has there job, but I can’t help but have animosity towards any American fighting age male in shape that doesn’t have the balls to do a job that doesn’t involve working in a building sleeping in a warm bed their whole tour. So I’m not going to the Korengal valley witch is somewhat dissapointing but at the same time a relief.
The whole death thing doesn’t nearly bug me as much as it used to but of course I don’t want to die. What f---- me up in the head is the thought of my Mother, Father, Sisters and whole family dealing with me dying at such a young age. I still believe in this fight and figure it has to be done. My last stent back home in Seattle I was disgusted by how the majority of Americans view the war and oppose Bush so hard. A huge percent of American males my age are just cowardly in my eyes. Enlistment in the Army is way down because Americans are scared of war but enlisting in the Army is no problem for allot of those same types during peace time. My previous 2 tours I’ve really been around the only kind of Americans I want to be around.
To read more go here. God Bless Cpl. Jason Bogar, his family and friends.
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Alex Horton from Army of Dude sent me an email earlier with this sad news:
I regret to inform you that Jordan Shay, the creator of the blog Through Amber Lenses, was killed in Baqubah, Iraq on Wednesday in an apparent rollover accident. The DoD has not confirmed his death but his local newspaper wrote that the police assisted the Army in notifying his family.
Jordan was new to blogging, writing only 16 posts since May. He was in my sister company but I never met him. He was a very talented writer on his third deployment, all at the age of 22. His blog is at:
http://throughamberlenses.blogspot.com/
Alex wrote a wonderful story about Jordan here.
God bless Jordan and his family and friends. In addition to blogging, Jordan also had a Twitter account where he tweeted about his deployment. The official DoD announcement has been released via DefenseLink.
In his most recent tweets, Jordan wrote:
two days off!
12:36 AM Sep 2nd from web
i met a deaf ten year old kid at an iraqi police station in diyala province today. he wanted a watch. we gave him earplugs.
5:49 PM Aug 25th from web
back in iraq for round two, probably won't fire a shot in anger all tour. sucks.
1:18 AM Aug 24th from web
follow my sweet blog @ throughamberlenses.blogspot.com. word.
6:37 PM Aug 17th from web.
------
UPDATE:
Jordan's Twitter page is no longer available online.
Related News Articles:
PHOTOSLIDESHOW: Jordan Shay
Newburyportnews.com
Amesbury Soldier Dies in Iraq
The Boston Globe
Soldier recalled as 'ray of sunshine'
Newburyportnews.com
Newburyport soldier killed in Iraq
WWLP.com
2 Fort Lewis soldiers killed in Iraq
Seattle Post Intelligencer
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According to Price Floyd’s twitter page, he spent yesterday speaking with Google VP, Vint Cerf on how social media can be used. Vint Cerf is the person most often called “The Founding Father of the internet”.
No word on the actual conversations that took place, but needless to say this is good news, and will hopefully help to craft the Pentagon’s final policy on social networking.
Speaking of “The Founding Father of the internet”: what’s Al Gore up to? Rumor has it he’s busy inventing Twitter. And working on a new invention called an: a-i-r-p-l-a-n-e.
Apparently it’ some type of craft that flies through the air that has fixed wings and is powered by propellers... Crazy talk.
UPDATE: I received a tweet from Price Floyd after asking if he could share more about his meeting:
pricefloyd @milblogging The most interesting thing about the meeting was the questions he asked. Ex: Why do you want to use social media?
I know it's short, but that's the thing about twitter: 140 characters or less. For a minute there, I thought I was reading a fortune cookie. Just saying.
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Living on the East Coast, I don’t have an opportunity to meet up with Battle Buddies from the California National Guard – the National Guard Infantry unit I deployed with in 2007/2008. Last Sunday my good friend and Platoon Sergeant Toby Nunn was in town for Soldier’s Angels and we had a chance to grab lunch with my family at one of my favorite restaurants in Arlington: Mexicali Blues. Toby not only supported my blogging during our deployment to Iraq, but he also blogged himself. We even had a chance to make a film with Deborah Scranton called Bad Voodoo’s War which aired nationwide on PBS last year.
It’s always a little awkward talking buddy-buddy to your Infantry Platoon Sergeant. It makes me kind of nervous even though we’re great friends.
I mean, I didn't stand at parade rest or anything during lunch, but I did knockout fifty pushups after forgetting to order enough guacamole for the table. Then had to knock out another fifty after trying to blame it on my Wife. Pfftt.
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Read the entire story here.
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There are several media stories online today discussing the “draft” policy on Social Networking by the Department of Defense. NextGov apparently got their hands on the draft memo...
The Defense Department, which had seen some services ban the use of social networking sites, will allow troops and their families to use the popular online communication tools such as Facebook and Twitter on its unclassified networks, according to a draft memo obtained by Nextgov.
The memo, written by Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn III and due out in days, solidly backs the use of social network sites, which Lynn calls "Internet capabilities," for both official and unofficial purposes and envisions these tools as providing an information advantage for Defense.
Even though several news outlets are reporting the story, Price Floyd the Military’s New Social Networking Guru is tweeting that no final decision or deadline has been made, but “the review and policy should be done and out sometime in the next few weeks”.
Let’s face it, social networking is here to stay and this discussion has been brewing for months. Although truthfully, whether or not NextGov really got their hands on the memo, really doesn’t matter until the official policy is published. I mean, I could start a rumor suggesting I got my hands on the “draft” policy and that it says the DoD plans to invest $10 million in Twitter. You know, to show it’s commitment to social networking.
There is even talk of the Pentagon giving free iPods to everyone serving in uniform. I'm not talking iPod Shuffle, I'm talking iPod Touch. 64GB. True story.
Related News Stories:
NextGov
Defense to allow troops, family members to use social network sites
VatorNews
Defense Dept. may OK social media surfing
Switched
Pentagon Might Soon Give Troops the Okay to Tweet
Zikkir World
Draft Policy Would OK Troops’ Tweets
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Military Blogger Armed and Curious has an interesting story online today that asks the question whether the military really knows how to use social networking to engage the public.
Today a growing number of military units and organizations have an official presence in social media and especially on Facebook. Unfortunately, it seems that most organizations just seem to think that being there is good enough. Their fan pages are nothing more than a place to push the same news releases and self congratulatory comments.
A perusal of many major organizational pages shows that administrators don't seem to have an idea how to truly build a community and leverage the power of social media and its ability to engage the public in ways unimaginable through traditional means. It truly seems that most military organizations are just happy to have finally built a page and that is the extent of the progress.
The last year has seen an explosion of organizations building outposts in the social media world and specifically a wave of Facebook fan pages. Some are having a measure of success in a large number of friends and followers who are linking to the pages.
I dunno, I’d have to say the military is trying better. It’s kinda like my Mom and social media... Social networking is still pretty new to her, but she’s catching up. In the beginning she was forwarding me emails about pleas for help from Nigerian princesses, now she writes about her cats: they eat people food. Only 2 weeks ago, I explained to her what a Twitter is.
It takes time, just throwing that out there.
Read the entire post here.
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The Defense Department may allow troops and military employees to freely access social networks — if a draft policy circulating around the Pentagon gets approved, that is.
Read the entire story here.
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It's #MilitaryMon every Monday on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, remember to send a tweet to a service member, veteran, or supporter using the #MilitaryMon hashtag. Twitter has been a great way to show appreciation for the military and the trend continues to spread each and every Monday across the globe.
I know what you're thinking, but no, that picture up above is a hashtag (#), not a gang sign. But I must warn you, you probably don't want to stop by a MySpace Meetup and throw a hashtag sign. Just saying. You could run into some trouble... One minute you’ll be throwing a hashtag, the next minute you’ll be getting insulted by a bunch of teenagers.
Or worse: a wedgy.
Here are links to previous posts about #MilitaryMon: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and more.
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Embedded in Afghanistan who recently returned home from deployment where he served as an embedded trainer with the Afghan National Army, offers insight on the Pentagon’s concerns with social networking and blogging. His military blog recently appeared in The New York Times and on NPR. From an entry posted this past Friday:
I can see where concerns about blogging on the part of the Pentagon would come in, as they have every right to be concerned with the information that comes out of theater, given how important public opinion is in sustaining the war effort. Service members who are bloggers would seem to have a more authoritative voice on the war than an embedded reporter given their status, but then service members who blog don't really reach very many people. Even with the New York Times linking to this site recently, I've never had more than 300 unique visitors in a day and I average about 50, of whom I probably know a third personally. In short, a site like this reaches such a small proportion of the populace that it simply wouldn't be worth the effort on the part of the Pentagon to try to control it, which was the conclusion the military seems to have reached on the censoring of letters sent from soldiers home during prior conflicts.
The Stars and Stripes recently had an article about the Pentagon profiling reporters. I found the article quite lacking in substance and have no qualms whatsoever about a private consulting group being used to check the accuracy of information being presented to the public by reporters. The Pentagon claims they profile reporters on the accuracy of their reporting, not the content, which is something I believe.
On a related note, the Pentagon will be publishing their policy on social networking very very soon. Will sites like Twitter and Facebook be blocked on military computers? Will blogs be put under a microscope? Only time will tell.
I haven’t been this excited since my 3-year old went poopoo in the potty, then decided to finger paint the walls instead of using wipeys. Yay!
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Single-space typing with small pica font allowed for many more details about what was going on in the City of Fontana as well as in some families and personalities the corporal knew.
Milton preserved his position as family correspondent and counselor to his son, thousands of miles away. He felt it was his duty as a father. The first letter, which was saved in a diary-like booklet, was dated Sept. 29, 1943.
Read the entire story here.
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CNET has an interesting story that discusses employers and how they’re grappling with social networking, just like the Military. It looks like companies are having about as much trouble with Social Networking as the DoD has in making a decision. Maybe when the DoD issues their policy on social networking in the next few weeks, some businesses will craft their policies based partly on what the DoD decides to do. Here’s an excerpt from the CNET story:
Typically, companies shy away from restricting an employee's actions off the job. But businesses are concerned about employees who use social networking and reveal private details or post inappropriate pictures that could embarrass the company.
Some organizations, such as the U.S. Marines, have already banned their recruits from using Facebook and Twitter. But the survey found that many businesses aren't sure what to do to restrict or monitor such usage.
I say, if you don’t like your job at all, you could patiently schedule a meeting to talk things over with your boss. Or hop on a computer and start tweeting from work about the situation, like a moth to a flame. Either one.
If you do the latter, you probably won’t have a job, but lots more followers. High five!
There’s always a silver lining.
You can read the entire story here.
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Yesterday on NPR, Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs discussed “the questions of security, resources and censorship when it comes to social media and the military”. Also involved in the discussion were Noah Shachtman, editor of Danger Room. During the show, Rebecca Roberts the host, asked Mr. FLOYD what is the current Pentagon policy on social media?
Mr. Floyd responded:
It currently doesn't exist. Right now, there is no policy on working with or in social networking sites or media. It's currently under review. It's on course to be finished within about two weeks, or at the end of the month, it's supposed to be done, presented to the leadership and a decision made. And that decision is supposed to be pushed out to all the combatant commands and all the people in the Defense Department soon after.
It might be wrong for me to just assume the the DoD is going to fully support Social Media, but considering they’ve launched a kajillion social media pages on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other places on the web, I'm probably not gonna be that far off. Plus I think I got a Friend Request earlier from Price, so things are looking pretty good…
Now we’re having a snowball fight on Facebook. Hit, or Get Hit! Wheeee!
You can read a full transcript of the show here.
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Tessa Long is a graduate student in Technical Communication at Missouri University of Science & Technology. She's also been a civilian her whole life, but now she’s cracking the mystery of the military. According to her blog:
In July of 2009 I was hired by the U.S. Army as a student worker/intern to research and write for the Maneuver Support Center at Fort Leonard Wood. Since then I've been exploring Fort Leonard Wood's facilities and functions to get a better idea of what happens here. As a life-long civilian, I came in completely uneducated about the Army and the military. I'll be maintaining this blog as a means to document and share my experiences with others along the way.
Her school also featured her in an article that appeared online. She's even quoted in the article as saying, "My blog can help educate people about what the Army really does." She shares photos of her experiences, and already has a couple posts online that discuss the upcoming Warfighter Challenge and Military Police Training at Fort Leonard Wood.
More pictures of Tessa being shot out of a cannon here.
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MAJ C, who regularly blogs and tweets, is deploying to Afghanistan. This will be his third deployment. He posted the following news on his site yesterday:
I, and my Blog will be deploying back to Afghanistan for my third deployment. I am honored and completely excited to be given the honor of serving my Country once again in harms way.
Nothing will change. I can not promise that I will have the connectivity that I have now. But, I will strive to live up to my mission statement that I wrote when I started this endeavor almost a year and a half ago. To bring you the truth of what is happening overseas with America's Sons and Daughters. To tell you the good news stories that America's precious treasure is accomplishing. To tell you why it is vitally and critically important for us to finish the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As you can see, MAJ C is planning to keep up with his blogging and tweeting. Connectivity depends on where you’re at in country, but with two ways of communicating, hopefully his writing won’t skip a beat. If you want to get a firsthand account of the war by an Infantry officer, make sure to check out his blog. You can follow him on Twitter here. Like me, he follows most everyone back.
Also, a ham sandwich and a unicorn are on my Twitter list. I’m pretty sure the ham sandwich is a fake, but the unicorn... He does tweet about frolicking in meadows. And dreams of rainbows made of puppies. Just saying.
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The Pentagon Channel’s "For the New Guy" broadcasts military news to members of the U.S. Armed Forces. I just found it this weekend. In their latest Episode, the hosts put together their own top ten list of stupid things people do in social media. The video goes on to include photos and commentary about why doing these things if you’re in the military is not a good idea. I took the liberty of typing up the top ten list while watching the video. Here's a look at the list:
10 Posting an inappropriate or stupid picture on facebook.
9 Posting info that gives bad guys a chance to do bad things.
8 Posting photos to the web that should only be shared privately and NOT WITH THE WHOLE “friickin” WORLD.
7 Tweeting extremely personal or private information.
6 Posting an embarrassing video.
5 Blogging about THINGS you don’t know.
4 Endorsing a product or company.
3 Posting personal comments, feelings, or conversations.
2 Posting any info that compromises military people or operations.
1 Posting SOMETHING AND REGRETTING IT.
I’m not going to go into detail, but according to this list, I’m feeling pretty stupid right about now. I’ve never violated #2 or # 9 in all my years with the military, but I’ve got to warn you I occasionally do STUPID things...
As a matter of fact, I helped paint my Mom’s family room this weekend. Painting is hardwork, folks. I only splattered the paint four times on the ceiling. The dripped paint on the floor was more art than anything...
Honestly though, getting her cat to stay still while I painted him blue was the toughest part (sorry, no pictures).
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Afghanistan My Last Tour: Bullseye - Today we woke up before the sun rose to prepare for an important mission. We were returning to the shooting range. As I have mentioned before, working in the joint environment has its challenges. Today’s mission was to resolve another one of those unique service peculiarities. Despite going through Army training at Fort Riley and being trained on crew serve weapons (.50 cal, M-240 Machine gun, etc); the Air Force does not recognize this type of training, even though the Army training is much harder and more realistic. So today we set out to meet the Air Force shooting requirement. As we drove towards the range, we made a short halt (short stop). For 15 minutes I watched a boy tend to his herd of sheep. I’m certain he is a Bedouin (nomad) and these tribes wonder the country side and raise their livestock. They are basically a race without a country. He sat down and stared at our armored vehicles and we watched him carefully so he would not approach our vehicles.
(READ MORE)
Thanks to David for all his hard work, and others like Mudville Gazette who put alot of effort into these.
Speaking of roundups, I tried it earlier this week. But after realizing roundups took a bunch of time, I asked my wife to help. It hasn't worked out too well based on the Blog Post Titles submitted so far: "Try putting the toilet seat down for once, and other pet peeves" and "Gifts 101: Flowers would be nice!"...
The idea to ask her sounded alot better in my head..
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