While it seems the mainstream media is sometimes quick to dismiss the efforts of military bloggers for their raw frontline stories, they’re also quick to take credit for breaking stories, that were breaking on the internet long before they made news headlines. Great work by Mark and dozens of other military bloggers who helped take down this imposter. Here’s the newest story online by the Navy Seals blog:
It is certainly interesting to note how, despite the growing number of people who are working towards exposing military fakers and the increasing number of bloggers who document the efforts of these volunteers, there are still people with the audacity to try and masquerade as the heroes that they are not.
Case in point is an article on the Army Times that shared how another hero-wannabe was exposed. One cannot help but think: when will they ever learn?
It was, however, another accomplishment for the POW Network as well as blogger Mark Seavey, who, along with fellow bloggers, posted a photo of a self-proclaimed “Army General,” bedecked with all sorts of medallions imaginable.
Read the entire story here.
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Hat tip to Boston Maggie for sharing the frontline military blog of Rajiv Srinivasan, a Soldier who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. He also tweets from the frontlines. You can check out his blog here which is loaded with great photos of Afghanistan.
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While the plans are to continue to use the Milblogging.com nomination and voting system for this years’ Milbloggies, plans are still on the drawing board for other systems. If you have suggestions for web-based nomination/voting systems, feel free to drop me a line: milblogging@gmail.com or leave your thoughts in the comments.
This year’s Milbloggies will be handled a little bit differently, too. While nominations and voting will be public, the winners will be revealed at the Milblog Conference taking place in Virginia.
Have a fear of speaking in public? Your prayers have been answered. Winners will also get a chance to speak in front of a big crowd while accepting their award during Saturday night's Dinner and Party.
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"Accurate and timely information has always been critical to the military but its importance is increasing as societies become more networked," he said. "This is intimately linked to developments in cyberspace; as we saw in the conflict in Gaza in early 2009, operations on the ground were paralleled by operations in cyber-space and an 'info ops' campaign that was fought across the internet: the Israeli Air Force downloaded sensor imagery onto YouTube, tweets warned of rocket attacks and the 'help-us-win.com' blog was used to mobilise public support."
Read the entire story here.
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Just over a year ago I started regularly using Twitter. It started as an experiment more than anything else, to see if Twitter could be a useful tool for interacting with other people to discuss military topics particularly around the DoD and Social Media. I also tweet about personal things too, but usually conversations around my likes on movies or just things I’m doing from day to day. My first mobile tweeting experience occurred last February when I got an invite to the National Press club in D.C. for a pre-screening of Brothers at War. I didn't even know what a retweet was at the time.
In the past year, the number of followers to my Twitter account has skyrocketed, reaching over 80,000 followers as of last week, which puts @Milblogging near the top 1,000 twitter accounts online according to Twitterholic.com (a website that tracks twitter statistics and rankings).
For what seemed like months, I had regularly tweeted on a daily basis. #MilitaryMon on Mondays to #FollowFriday on Fridays. It’s been a lot of fun, and rewarding. I’ve met new people, discovered a whole new community of military supporters, and it’s even helped drive traffic back to the Milblogging.com website.
Like any of the popular social networking tools, tweeting just like blogging takes time. And over the last several weeks I’ve been staying very busy with family, work and blogging in case you’ve noticed a drop in my tweeting activity. For those of you who have written me personally and asked about my whereabouts, I have plans to get back on Twitter very soon. I dig it and have had some great conversations over the last year – and yes, I miss it.
If you still don’t believe that Twitter is that big of a deal, you should give it a shot.
For those of you interested in driving traffic back to your main website, or if you’re just looking to have conversations with like-minded folks, it’s a great social networking tool. And while I don’t run any ads on my Twitter account, Twitter advertising is also getting big, with companies like Ad.ly and Sponsored Tweets growing in use. It’s so clever. I set up an account with these companies as a test, and even had companies willing to pay me well over $100 for me to send a single tweet. That’s right: one tweet under 140 characters for over $100. While I have no plans of ever running sponsored tweets on @Milblogging, if you run a Twitter account, there’s even money to be made with companies looking to advertise.
On a side note, what’s up with Ashton Kutcher and his 4 million followers? This guy is killing it on Twitter. I just can’t believe millions people find tweets about beer bong and tattoos of his face that interesting.
Damn, really makes me think I need to step up my game a bit.
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The DoD announced the latest developments of the military in the social media world, with the January launch of a blog that highlights the importance of science and technology to military operations. The blog’s name: Armed with Science. Here’s what the DoD had to say about their newest adventure in the blogosphere:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2010 – Science has seized the popular imagination. There are magazines, popular books, Web sites, webcasts, blogs, documentary films, and even television channels devoted to science and technology.
The practical applications of science and technology also can be found in almost every aspect of military operations, a topic that is discussed in great detail in the award-winning weekly webcast "Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military," produced by the Defense Media Activity.
The popularity of the Armed with Science webcast in its first year has prompted the Defense Media Activity to expand its on-line presence. A new Armed with Science blog, http://science.dodlive.mil, premiered in late January. The new blog includes articles, archived webcast episodes, transcripts, images, and videos.
"Expanding into the blogosphere will allow us to develop a dialogue between our listeners and the scientists, engineers, operators and administrators who are involved in DoD science," said Brian Natwick, general manager of The Pentagon Channel and acting director of DoD’s Emerging Media Directorate. The new blog will provide a better forum to highlight the critical role of science and technology in military operations, Natwick said, while demonstrating how research conducted to meet military requirements often benefits society as a whole.
According to the story, science isn’t just for scientists anymore. I’m actually pretty excited about this site so I can finally get answers to some of my unanswered questions like, “What really goes in to MREs?” And I mean, honestly, how is it that road marches in the Army are uphill, both ways?
Science, folks. Science.
Read the entire DoD story here.
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Lance Corporal Adam Wiles, of 2nd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, is working with the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) a unit that trains and mentors the Afghan National Army in the Babaji area of Helmand province.
Read the entire story here.
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And there are those who cannot forgive, who say the movie is ruined by inaccuracies, ranging from the wrong shade of uniform to a scene in which three soldiers run through Baghdad alleyways alone looking for insurgents.
"(No one) would go down an alley in Iraq by himself in 2004 at night. No one, not ever," writes Troy Steward, 40, a retired Army veteran of Afghanistan and Desert Storm, who panned the movie in his popular military blog, bouhammer.com. "I was amazed that a movie so bad could get any kind of accolades."
Read the entire USA Today story here, then pay Bouhammer a visit and share your thoughts on his blog.
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My good Military.com pal Andi gave me a tip on a story today that ran on Army.mil about the Commanding General of Fort Irwin/NTC, Brig. Gen. Robert Abrams who used Twitter and Facebook during a radio broadcast to take questions from listeners. The use of Twitter and other popular social networking tools by the different branches of the military is fast-growing and this story is another good example of how the Army is using it.
FORT IRWIN, Calif.- Fort Irwin/National Training Center Commanding General Brig. Gen. Robert "Abe" Abrams is a regular on 88.3FM KNTC, Fort Irwin and the National Training Center's post radio station, but his Wednesday morning appearance wasn't his usual show.
Instead of just fielding questions from callers, Brig. Gen. Abrams, who has a Twitter page himself, took questions from the Fort Irwin/National Training Center Facebook page and Twitter page, demonstrating yet another way the installation is using Social Media.
As he spoke about a wide variety of topics ranging from the value of Social Media to the current Canadian rotation and the installation's DUI prevention and awareness efforts, Brig. Gen. Abrams fielded a question from the Fort Irwin/NTC Facebook page about one of the many on-going construction projects on the installation.
A Brigadier General who fields questions using Twitter and Facebook? Seriously, what could be more convincing than this, that officers in the upper ranks support social media?? Nothing that’s what!
Unless of course during his next broadcast he tweets messages on his Twitter page like: OMG I LUV TWITTER, TTYL TWEEPS J B4N BG ABRAMS
Read the entire story here on Army.mil.
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The elder Liss arrived in Palestine as World War I was winding down and spent most of the following year guarding prisoners of war.
But it turned out that Yitzak Jacov Liss — later known to generations of Houston residents as dentist Jack Liss — was engaged in something equally momentous: serving in Palestine with other Jewish soldiers committed to the cause of a Jewish homeland.
More than 90 years later, Shelly Liss, a retired Houston doctor, and his sister, now Vickie Herzberg, have produced a translation of their father's wartime diaries, giving scholars new insight into the Jewish Legion, in which he was serving and which was organized by the British Army during World War I.
The diary, translated from the original Yiddish, eventually will be posted on the Web site of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Read the entire story here.
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Kurtis and his group created a blog called the Truth About War in hopes that military bloggers will take some time to give their thoughts, feedback or experiences on the subject.
As someone who has blogged from both Afghanistan and Iraq while deployed, I can tell you firsthand the mainstream media doesn’t always get it right. Of course, some might say this research is a waste of time, since we’ve all known for years that military blogs serve up one of the best forms of alternative journalism when it comes to reporting on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now I’m not saying it’s not worthwhile to run this study, but seriously, trying to figure out if military blogs are a good form of alternative journalism, is like researching if buying stocks low and selling them high is probably a good idea.
You can provide information to Kurtis and his group over at their blog.
And remember folks, never drive with your eyes closed. I’ve done my research on this. That’s all I’m saying.
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Looking to hear about the war in Afghanistan? Check out Capt. Mark Martin’s military blog: 270 Days in Afghanistan. Capt. Martin started his military blog when he learned of his deployment to Afghanistan in June 2009 which he wrote about in a post titled, “Congratulations...you’re going to Afghanistan!”. He’s been writing ever since. Capt. Martin also served as a Company Commander for the Red Bulls in Iraq from 2006 to 2007, but this looks to be his first crack at blogging.
I learned about his story through the Star Tribune which did a brief write up about his blog:
For an excellent blog on dealing with the Afghan Army, this National Guard captain's observations are spot on. Capt. Mark Martin is one of a dozen members of the Minnesota National Guard working as part of a training and liaison team to help make the Afghan Army more independent. They are stationed in northern Afghanistan.
Read the entire story here. Get all the details on Capt. Martin’s blog HERE.
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I get asked often by people looking to start a military blog, which program they should use. There are a lot of options online, from Blogger to MySpace, but if you’re looking for the best platform (in my opinion) you should go with WordPress. WordPress has tons of free features that you can use, and the best part is, you don’t have to know anything about web development. WordPress developers offer tons of free themes that you can use to tailor the look-and-feel of your website, just type in “free WordPress themes” into any search engine and take a look. There are also thousands of plug-ins that make it easy to enhance your blog. Wanna display your Twitter feed on your blog? Type in “twitter WordPress plug-in” and you’ll get tons of results.
Even the DoD uses WordPress for several of their social media sites. See the screenshot above? DoD Live is built on WordPress. So is there Social Media website and literally hundreds more.
I custom programmed Milblogging.com including the blog section of the website with the help of some developers going back to 2005, and believe me, it’s not easy to make changes or enhancements when you build things from the ground up. I’m fairly confident if I wanted to add a Retweet button within each of my stories, my laptop would get the blue screen of death. Or worse, catch fire.
Fair warning, I added a “Follow Us Baby” Twitter graphic on the left sidebar. It hasn’t been fully tested. Just saying.
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Read the entire story here.
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We have sold out of our room block at The Westin Arlington Gateway. However, between now and March 19, the hotel will permit you to make reservations at our contracted rate of $150/night, on a space-available basis.
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We are pleased to announce the addition of the following sponsors for the upcoming 2010 MILblog Conference:
Pin-Ups for Vets
Vets4Vets
Without their support, the conference wouldn't be possible. We greatly appreciate all of our sponsors! For a list of more sponsors, click here.
We have a variety of sponsorships available, several options can be mixed and matched. Our packages can accommodate the smallest of budgets and are constructed so that both large and small organizations can participate. For more information on sponsorships, click here.
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By Andi
Mrs. G, one of the hardest working milbloggers around, has created a fantastic FaceBook hangout for milbloggers. The Fan of Milblogs page is full of great information. You can click here to see a comprehensive list of milbloggers, by category. Also at that link, you'll find a host of video reports from previous MilBlog Conferences. In addition to sharing information of interest to the military community, the page also features an event section designed specifically for The 2010 MilBlog Conference. If you're on FaceBook, and plan to attend the conference, click here to publicly RSVP for the conference. This is a great feature as attendees can see who is planning to come to the big, fifth anniversary bash.
Thanks, Mrs. G!
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High school students in Belgium are setting up Facebook pages for nearly 30,000 Allied soldiers who were killed in Belgium while liberating the country during WWII. The effort to memorialize the soldiers is part of a project called “Live and Remember” that will help to tell the story of each individual soldier. Students are retracing the lives of each soldier including information about the soldier’s family, life before the war, military record, and more. It’s a pretty amazing undertaking and one that will help remember the sacrifice of each of these individuals. The Associated Press covered the story:
The first Facebook page created as part of that project honors Lance Cpl. Thomas Leslie Cartwright of High Wycombe, England. Cartwright was killed in fighting in 1944 and is buried in the Kasterlee War Cemetery in northern Belgium along with 99 comrades of the British Army's Royal Scots.
The plan is to have each soldier documented on Facebook by 2014, when the country will mark the 70th anniversary of Belgium's liberation.
"You are only dead if no one talks about you anymore," said Pol Van Den Driessche, a Belgian senator who launched the project, known as "Live and Remember."
Read more here. If you’d like to learn more about the project, jump over to the Live and Remember web site. The site is written in French, so you’ll need to use Google Translate if you don’t speak French.
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"We do not want to be a closed institution," U.S. Army commanding general Benjamin C. Freakley said. "In our history we have been."
That history is changing.
Read the entire story here including a video news clip.
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