The medal is the second highest civilian award in the United States. Joan D’Arc over at Spouse Buzz has more.
One thing I love about being a military spouse is the opportunity to PCS/travel and meet so many different people. Every now and then I have the honor and privilege of meeting someone who is absolutely amazing. I've met politicians, professional athletes, and celebrities. But you're about to meet someone who is truly an inspiration, and heads above any "famous" person I've ever met.
Today at The White House, President Obama awarded the 2010 Presidential Citizens Medal to MaryAnn Phillips. The award is the second highest award a civilian can receive! And if you think this post has nothing to do with milspouses, you couldn't be more wrong. Chances are good that if your spouse has been wounded and routed through Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany, MaryAnn has taken care of him for you. And if, God forbid, your spouse is ever wounded and routed through Landstuhl, you can bet that MaryAnn will be your best line of communication. She will be there for your family when you really, really need someone.
Read the full story here.
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The AP is reporting that the Rolling Stone writer, Michael Hastings, who "torpedoed General McChrystal's three-decade Army career" was denied an embed request to join U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.
Which let's be honest, who cares. What, were there not enough troops stateside for Michael Hastings to write about? It's time to face the facts, if you cause these types of events, what do you expect?
Further investigation is required by the Pentagon behind the Rolling Stone story. Here's an excerpt from the AP story posted over at Military.com.
"There is no right to embed," Lapan said. "It is a choice made between units and individual reporters, and a key element of an embed is having trust that the individuals are going to abide by the ground rules. So in that instance the command in Afghanistan decided there wasn't the trust requisite and denied this request."
Lapan did not say what unit Hastings had asked to accompany or whether he had spelled out his assignment. He is a freelance reporter currently working on a story about helicopters in Afghanistan, but also has signed a book contract that grew out of the McChrystal story.
Maybe Michael Hastings actually thought the Pentagon would welcome him with open arms, they'd all hold hands, and sing Kumbaya - while sharing more stories with him.
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My guess is if you haven't been following Wikileaks news, one of the big headlines you might have missed, is this article that ran on CNET yesterday.
A Republican congressman who's a member of the House Intelligence Committee lashed out at Wikileaks this week, saying the Web site's alleged source should be executed for treason.
Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan told a local radio station on Monday (MP3 audio) that he believes that Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist who is suspected of being a source for the document-sharing Web site, should be charged with treason.
When the WHMI interviewer suggested that treason in war is a capital crime, Rogers replied: "Yes, and I would have absolutely, I would support it 100 percent. He put soldiers at risk who are out there fighting for their country, and he put people who are cooperating with the United States government clearly at risk."
Read the entire story here.
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Sumit Agarwal, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (PA) for Outreach and Social Media, will be answering the top ten questions from commenters on Reddit this Friday – that’s according to the latest post over at one of my favorite new DoD blogs Armed with Science.
As described on the Reddit page - Sumit, who was appointed in January 2010 and is a former Google employee, works in the Department of Defense's Public Affairs department developing policies on how to utilize new media technologies to promote more citizen participation, dialogue, and openness in government.
There are dozens of questions already posted on the Reddit page, some good questions like "I've heard they don't allow soldiers in Iraq or Afganastan to use facebook or other social media site. Is this true?".
But some of the questions already posted, are not so good. Like:
"With your position you can probably leak more than Bradley Manning. Will you step up to the plate and be a true hero?".
One of the most ridiculous twisty questions left by a Reddit user was (be warned, not for the fainthearted): "MR. AGARWAL, WHY DON'T YOU GOOGLE MY BALLS? WE NEED MORE HOT CHICKS FOR THESE THINGS".
A question on the mind of another commenter includes: "Your position , sounds like a PR job. How can make sure thats not what it is? and that you use social media for the truth and not PR".
The thing about the internet, is that anyone can participate on sites like these and you have to give kudos for Mr. Agarwal for stepping up to the plate on a very public forum, especially an “Ask Me Anything” series.
While this is a great opportunity for people to get some questions answered, the Q&A session may backfire if the questions suggested so far are voted to the top 10. Especially considering he plans to film his responses, something I probably couldn’t do with a straight face.
Before the Reddit questions were even posted, a commenter on Armed with science asked the following question: OK, so I just have to ask: Did the hugely successful Old Spice viral ads inspired this video Q&A session?
If you’d like to learn more, here's an excerpt from the Armed with Science blog:
Mr. Agarwal will film responses to the top ten questions on Friday, August 6, at 8am eastern, and we will make sure to post the responses on the Armed with Science blog.
Mr. Agarwal hopes that this interview series will continue his mission of using technology to create direct dialogues between the government and the people. As social media and communication technologies become more engrained in our daily lives, we are becoming keenly aware of how important it is for servicemembers and their families to take advantage of this power.
If you'd like to ask a question, you can go to Reddit.com, register your account, and ask him anything. Literally.
Me? I was gonna ask "Boxers or Briefs" but apparently someone already beat me to the punch.
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It's a myth that there are only a few military bloggers writing from the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of policies that confused some, including the news media, many thought troops weren't allowed to blog or didn't have access to computers to post stories.
I regularly receive email inquiries from reporters asking me about military blogs written from the frontlines, and whether troops are still allowed to tell their story - and they're often surprised, when I reply back with: "Of Course."
AfghaniDan, written by Major Dan, is a blog written from Kabul, Afghanistan. And this isn't the first time Major Dan has written a blog from the frontlines. Major Dan blogged in 2006 about his first deployment to Afghanistan - including amazing photos of his journey in Afghanistan.
If you haven't read AfghaniDan, then I encourage you to do so. In 2006, I featured Major Dan's (who was a CAPT at the time) AfghaniDan in my Milblogger of the Week series (a series I plan to start up again).
In mid-April, he wrote about reviving his blog, years after returning home from his first deployment, and years after posting online.
I debated starting a new blog to document my second deployment to Afghanistan, but was encouraged by friends to resume this one. I hope readers come back...it was inspiring how many of you followed the last time, and that motivated me stay up all night posting photos on lousy connections.
In a recent post, he writes about his arrival into Qandahar:
So I finally made it to the south of Afghanistan, albeit briefly. In my head all along was the idea that I just couldn't NOT see Qandahar (preferring the Q spelling over the K, as it sounds more like how Afghans say it), and I even tried every lever I could to serve down here for the last couple of months of my last deployment. This time I traveled for an advisory mission, and wish I could have stayed longer for the 3 days I squeezed in. Above is my first view of the area beyond the gigantic airfield: an expensive-looking foot bridge I deemed the area's own "bridge to nowhere" and the Soviet era apartments beyond, which are used for senior officer (+ families) housing...despite still being visibly bomb-damaged from the war.
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Students at MIT and Boston University are being investigated as possible accomplices in the massive leak of military documents posted on the Wikileaks site, according to officials. The FBI was apparently sicced on the schools in part by blogger Adrian Lamo. He did not reveal the students' names because he said at least one of them threatened his life, reports CNN. The students told Lamo they gave encryption software to soldier Bradley Manning and taught the Army private how to use it to obtain the secret documents he's suspected of providing to Wikileaks, Lamo claims.
(Newser)
New Blog Shares Lessons Learned
For anyone who has served in the U.S. military, whether in uniform or as a family member, the concept of sharing lessons learned is a familiar one. In an effort to bring those lessons to an accessible online platform, Defense Media Activity launched a new blog today at http://lessons.dodlive.mil. Entitled, “In Their Own Words: Lessons Learned in Today’s Military,” the blog aims to provide a platform for servicemembers, veterans and families to share their thoughts and experiences on a variety of topics.
(DoD Live)
SCAMMERS TARGET MILITARY DATING WEBSITES
With the popularity of military dating websites, and civilians who want to date a servicemember growing, more and more people are falling prey to scammers on these sites. Recently, a well-known female media business owner, and single mother, living on the West Coast fell victim to this scam. A frequent visitor of a military dating website, she was enthralled by a handsome Marine, who later turned out to be a fraud.
(The Cypress Times)
The final moments of Nazi Heinrich Himmler revealed in soldier's war diary
The final moments of Nazi Heinrich Himmler can be revealed 65 years after his suicide following the discovery of an old soldier's war diaries. Corporal Harry Oughton Jones wrote an account of his top-secret encounter with the head of Hitler's SS police force while he was stationed at a prison camp at the end of the war.
(Mail Online)
Tomgram: Ann Jones, In Bed With the U.S. Army
Her moving book Kabul in Winter offered us a window into Afghan lives and worries, not American ones. Now, she's arrived at a U.S. military base, bringing Afghan eyes with her. Among all the reporters who have embedded with the U.S. military, that may make her unique -- so prepare yourself for a look at the American way of war on the ground that won't be like anything you've read.
(OpEdNews)
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Captain Marc Rassler, a Blackhawk pilot in the MN Army National Guard is deployed to Afghanistan. And he’s publishing a blog to share his story.
In January 2010, CPT Rassler received a phone call by his Commander, asking him whether he would like to deploy to Afghanistan – three weeks later he posted his first blog entry that described his conversation and thoughts. The post was titled Instant Karma.
By late May, CPT Rassler had arrived in Afghanistan, to begin his 9-month tour, and now he’s keeping an online diary of his thoughts and observations.
His frontline military blog is titled To Afghanistan and Back; my journey with OMLT 47 training Afghan Soldiers. Here’s a brief bio:
I am a Captain in the MN Army National Guard, and Blackhawk pilot. Spent 04/05 deployed to Kosovo and Bosnia, 07/08 deployed to Balad Air Base Iraq. Currently on a deployment to Afghanistan with an Operational Mentor Liason Team from MN to work to train the Afghan National Army.
You can click here to check out Captain Marc Rassler’s military blog.
Thanks to Kathi for submitting the link to Milblogging.com.
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Google Ventures and the investment arm of the CIA funded a company that searches out connections between people, groups, and events, according to a report in Wired. The company, which is called Recorded Future, offers a technology for predictive analysis which lets people to "visualize the future, past, or present."
(CBS News)
The 2010 Rising Stars
Filler’s division is behind the milSuite product line, which provides cutting-edge collaboration technology to DOD personnel. MilSuite includes milWiki, milBlog, and milBook. MilSuite will expand this year with the launch of a new secure video-sharing capability: milTube. The suite has been recognized as a White House Open Government Initiative.
(GCN.com)
Ex-CSO of Facebook Wants 'Cyber Counterinsurgency' Doctrine
Max Kelley, the former chief security officer of Facebook (News - Alert), called for a unified cyber security doctrine among U.S. government agencies and the commercial sector. Kelly, who spent five years building the security team at Facebook before leaving the company three weeks ago, said that the practices of cyber warfare and cyber security are actually the same thing. “Cyber warfare is the thing I know least about,” said Kelly. “The people who talk about it actually don’t know much about it.”
(TMCNet)
Museum Open House
The Wartime Museum, its Chairman, Allan Cors, and its President, Craig Stewart, cordially invite you to attend the Museum’s Open House. Enjoy this rare opportunity to view dozens of vintage and fully operational armored vehicles from World War I to the modern era. The event features vehicle demonstrations, live-action military reenactments, a special activity zone for young children, and more.
(American Wartime Museum)
At war over Wikileaks
WHERE would we be without the internet? All the gritty detail of a near decade-long war is laid bare online, tens of thousands of once secret US military reports made public by a website specially designed to leak classified information. And in this same virtual realm, the top US commander fired back with an angry response to the revelations - via a blunt message on Twitter.
(The Age)
Basil Marceaux, Tennessee Gubernatorial Candidate, Becomes Internet Star
Marceaux is a military veteran and one of the lesser-known Republican candidates for Tennessee governor. At least he was lesser-known until WSMV-TV in Nashville gave him equal time to lay out his platform on air.
(Politics Daily)
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Armed with Science, one of many blogs on the DOD Live blog network, that highlights the importance of science and technology to military operations, has published its Hitchhiker’s Guide to DoD Science and Technology blogs.
Among the listings are Army Technology Live, the official blog of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command - and Marines Magazine, the Marine Corps official magazine. Admittedly, it’s pretty amazing what the DoD has done with its social media program in the last year alone, expanding its DoD Live network with dozens of new military blogs.
Here’s some more information from the post:
One of the unique aspects of Armed with Science is that most of our content is written firsthand by scientists, engineers, and other subject matter experts across the Department of Defense (DoD) and the federal government.
For organizations or programs without their own blog, such as HAARP or the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Armed with Science is a great platform to build more awareness for their work, while also providing researchers an opportunity to get some blogging experience. Other organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Centers of Excellence maintain fantastic blogs, and together, we can highlight joint scientific endeavors and reach entirely new audiences that we might have otherwise missed. Over the last year and a half, we’ve partnered with more than 100 different organizations across DoD, the federal government, academy, and industry.
Thanks to @ArmedwScience (the official Twitter account for Armed with Science) for tweeting me the post. You can read the entire story here.
I have to admit, I’m not a big science fan only because I never did well in school when it came to Biology or Physics and those types of classes. My 9 year old asks me questions all the time for school like “Who invented the light bulb?” or “Who discovered DNA?” – and I can’t even count the number of times my answer has been: Daddy Did.
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Military researchers are embarking on a project designed to provide social media users on Facebook or even Google for that matter, greater privacy. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) this week issued a call for information on how it can help develop technology to best protect the rich private details that are often available on social media sites. Better anonymization algorithms and other technology to hide data seems to be a key component of what DARPA is looking to develop, though it notes: Anonymization techniques for social network data can also be more challenging than those for relational data.
(Network World)
On WikiLeaks scandal, hacker says he didn't want to be a 'coward'
A California hacker said he doesn't regret going to federal officials to show them alleged confessions an Army private made about leaking more than 90,000 documents that reveal secret information about U.S. war strategy.
(CNN)
Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition Photos
Army Reserve’s Best Warriors Battle to be Named Top Soldier and NCO
(My Army Reserve's Photostream)
Top Five Apps for the Army Winners Recognized at LandWarNet Conference
The top five winners of the Apps for the Army (A4A) application development challenge will be recognized at the LandWarNet Conference, Thursday, August 5th in Tampa, FL. Launched on March 1, A4A is the Army’s first internal application development challenge. In 75 days, 141 Soldiers and Army civilians registered in teams or as individuals to participate in the A4A challenge. By the May 15th deadline, 53 web and mobile applications were developed and submitted.
(Army Chief Information Officer/G-6)
Twitter empire strikes back with 'WookieLeaks'
Just days after the close of Comic-Con, the annual ultimate geek fest in San Diego, nerdlingers are invading the microblogging service with a slight variation on the 91,000-odd secret U.S. military documents posted on WikiLeaks. While the government, military and news outlets attempt to assess the fallout from the formerly top secret documents, the tweeting public is turning its attention to a topic that —admit it — is never very far from any true American's heart or mind: "Star Wars."
(MSNBC)
EXCLUSIVE: Sophisticated Network Helps AWOL Afghans Make Trip to Canada
The Afghans who have made it to Canada appear to be living comfortably there -- and many have put themselves on Facebook, where they connect with other Afghan dissenters and active U.S. and Afghan military personnel, including members of the Afghan military currently attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland or receiving training at other military bases in the U.S.
(FOX News)
LEBANON: Arrests over alleged Facebook slander of president
When it comes to tolerating free speech and outspoken media, Lebanon's track record is often quite better than many other countries in the region where reporters are thrown in prison and bloggers are tortured for their dissenting opinions.
(Los Angeles Times)
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CNN is reporting what Master Sgt. CJ Grisham is doing to put a stop to it.
Last Christmas, Stacey Chapman hung a stocking, anxiously awaiting the homecoming of the all-American soldier she had met online and planned to marry.
But he never came home. After some research, Chapman discovered the 20-year-old blond in fatigues pictured in the online dating profile, Spc. Brian Browning, had died in Iraq three years ago. And the man she had been e-mailing and chatting with for the last six months, who went by the name "Christain Browning," was really a scammer posing as an American soldier.
"He made me believe he was falling for me, that he was completely in love with me, that he was a soldier over there defending our country," said Chapman, a recently separated mother of two. "I think I had a big red flag on me that said, 'very lonely, very vulnerable.'
Read the entire story here.
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A new study finds that careless government and military personnel are compromising national security by sharing confidential information on social networking sites. Provide Security created fake profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn under the alias "Robin Sage" to see how vulnerable the government was.
(The Detroit News)
Iranian Social Networking, Hard-Line Style
"The website of the followers of Khamenei has been created. Please enter with your hijab and after completing your ablution." With that Facebook post, 29-year-old Iranian Ahmad heralded the arrival of a new social networking site, called Velayatmadaran, launched by the Iranian establishment.
(Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)
Lost diary comes to life in local author's book
Retired Dickson County schoolteacher Dena Croft Sullivan is now a published author. But it’s only by happenchance. Her book, “The Civil War Diaries and Letters of a Confederate Soldier,” is about her great-great grandfather, Roysdon Roberson Etter, who served as a private in the 16th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, Company H., Confederate States of America and kept the diaries and wrote the letters.
(The Tennessean)
Ivy Bean, 'world's oldest Twitter user,' dead at 104
From the two-story care home where she lived in the northern English city of Bradford, 104-year-old Ivy Bean would tell her nearly 57,000 Twitter followers around the world what she did each day -- from eating fish and chips to sitting in the garden.
(CNN)
WikiLeaks upends digital security assumptions
As pundits debate the military, legal and political fallout from thousands of classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan being made public by WikiLeaks, one conclusion seems indisputable: information technology has changed the nature of the government leak. In announcing the release of the documents, the Web site WikiLeaks said they were in several computer languages (HTML, CSV and SQL), as well as rendered in KML to be compatible with Google Earth.
(FCW.com)
US military combats Wikileaks via Twitter
How does the US military's public relations combat the release of 91,000 gruesome war logs from Afghanistan through the Wikileaks website? By opening a new front on the social media battleground.
(Guardian)
Local vets react to Wikileaks dump
Here in Madison some mixed reaction from vets over the massive leak. There was concern and anger among some former soldiers, and the opposite reaction from at least one other. But all the vets shared one idea - they want our troops home.
(WKOW)
Bombshell claim that friendly fire killed Canadian soldiers unravels
Military blogs and Twitter postings Tuesday contained first-hand statements from some of the 50 or so Canadians who were at the scene, asserting the American operations report released by the website WikiLeaks wrongly categorizes the casualties as "friendly fire, blue-blue."
(Calgary Herald)
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Doonesbury’s The Sandbox, which features stories from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (and from those who have returned home), is a must read that has received excellent reviews over the years by readers and military bloggers.
If you’ve beep-bopping around the web for first hand accounts from those serving in the military, particularly from the frontlines, David Stanford the editor of The Sandbox, does a great job of gathering and posting stories from a wide variety of writers.
Of course there are tons of stories here on Milblogging.com that you can read from frontline bloggers, but The Sandbox is a great resource for news. And the website often has stories that cannot be found anywhere else on the internet.
I’ll be honest, I’m a little biased towards reading military blogs since I wrote from Afghanistan and Iraq. Plus, I assume what I read on frontline military blogs is actually the truth about the wars since the writers are actually there.
God, remember when there was no internet and we had to get our news from newspapers.
About The Sandbox
Welcome to The Sandbox, our command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is GWOT-lit's forward position, offering those in-country a chance to share their experiences and reflections with the rest of us. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship (go to our Blowback page for that), but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. The Sandbox is a clean, lightly-edited debriefing environment where all correspondence is read, and as much as possible is posted. And contributors may rest assured that all content, no matter how robust, is currently secured by the First Amendment.
If you’re interested in seeing your story published on The Sandbox, you can submit a post here.
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People are asking "Is WikiLeaks going to be shut down again?" and "Are U.S. troops and others' lives in danger as a result of the leaked documents?" Those questions are yet to be answered.
(Examiner)
Leaked Afghan war logs 'potentially damaging'
More than 90,000 leaked US military records have been published on the website Wikileaks, reportedly revealing hidden details of the Afghanistan war.
(BBC)
UPDATE: Milblogger Bill Roggio on Mullah Omar Capture
In a recent post, respected milblogger Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal had this to say about Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s status, a story we have been discussing since May..
(Big Journalism)
Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan
A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.
(New York Times)
Will the Air Force really prick you there?
You may want to cross your legs before you read this. For years, a rumor has percolated among Air Force recruits about a particularly painful shot they must get when they join the service, involving a square needle inserted into the scrotum.
(Stripes)
Federal Register Gets Web 2.0 Makeover
A long-overdue and anticipated update of the Federal Register -- the federal government's daily newspaper and source for information about federal legislation and presidential documents -- went live on Monday just in time for the site's 75th anniversary.
(InformationWeek)
Divisive ex-Thai leader marks birthday on Twitter
Thailand's deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra marked his 61st birthday Monday with tweets from exile that called for peace, a day after a grenade exploded in downtown Bangkok that left one person dead and 10 wounded.
(WashPo)
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I have to tell you, I will miss so much of what the military has given me over the years, especially the camaraderie and the experience of serving with the greatest military in the world.
I just wanted to say thanks to all my family, friends and readers who have supported me through my deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and throughout my career in the Army National Guard.
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As much as we don't want our enlisted loved ones in the military to be deployed and leave us, it's a very different world that we live in today as opposed to the Korean War, Vietnam and even Desert Storm. With the help of technology we are looking at and speaking to our family members via Skype instead of waiting weeks for a picture or video.
(syracuse.com)
Corporal Joe Wrightsman, United States Marine
On July 18, Cpl Wrightsman was part of a patrol crossing the Helmand river when an ANP (Afghan National Police) was swept away in the river behind him. Without hesitation, Cpl Wrightsman, in full personal protective gear, dove into the water in an effort to rescue the ANP. He was last seen about 50 ft downstream when he surfaced briefly.
(Castra Praetoria)
US Military and Security fooled by Internet ‘Friends’ hoax
Robin Sage, an attractive MIT graduate with solid career experience in computer security, made lots of useful professional contacts using social networking sites. But things were not quite as they seemed.
(Digital Journal)
Wikileaks Releases 'The Afghan War Diary'
WikiLeaks has done it again; over 90,000 documents from the war in Afghanistan have been released to the public. Wikileaks called, The Afghan War Diary (AWD), "An extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
(Salem-News)
Putting lives in danger
On July 25, 2010, with Taliban remnants still threatening Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden still ordering attacks around the world, American troops are fighting valiantly to accomplish a mission now set by President Barack Obama. On this same date, an organization called WikiLeaks put the lives of our brave men and women in danger, as well as the civilians they are ordered to protect.
(The Unknown Soldiers)
Military wrestles with cyber war battle planning
Militaries have long sought to seize the advantages and exploit the vulnerabilities that information technology brings to the battlefield. Now, more than ever, that duality of advantage and vulnerability sums up the U.S. military’s deep dependence on IT.
(FCW)
Military Nerds Put Our Nation at Risk By Befriending Hot Girls on Facebook
Nerds never change. If they get a friend request from a hot girl on a social-networking site, they'll always accept. Even if they happen to be military or intelligence personnel. One security expert proved this with an experiment.
(Gawker)
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Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t need a new domain, especially one that’s intended for Colombia.”
But before you shoot down the idea, think about this. The .co domain is very similar to the popular .com domain – and you can actually find names that mean something, say for example: ArmyReserves.co (yep, still available).
The registry that operates the .CO domain, is even marketing the domain as a good fit for Companies, since .CO is often used as the abbreviation for the term Company. So if you run a company that sells Army Uniforms, a domain like ArmyUniforms.co might be worth something to you.
More importantly, if you’re familiar with Search Engine Optimization, Google has already announced that it will treat the domain name as a global name. What does that mean? It means that when you go to Google.com in the future and search on a term like “Army Reserves”, if you owned ArmyReserves.co and put up a website with content about the Army Reserves, you won’t just show up in Google’s search engine in Colombia, you might just show up in their search engines around the world, including the United States. People might not immediately type in ArmyReserves.co into their browser, but they may find your website by using Google Search.
If you’re spending the time to setup and maintain a blog or website dealing with the military, you might want to consider checking to see if the domain name that best describes your site’s content is available. Having an easy-to-spell, memorable domain name is important when it comes to separating your site from the thousands of other websites on the internet. And if you’re familiar with SEO, you’d know that your web address is one of the key factors search engines use to rank your website. Names like Infantry.co and SpecialForces.co are already taken, but if you’re fortunate enough to find the one name you’ve always wanted, this might be your last chance – unless you have thousands to pay for the name to its current owner in the .com version.
I’m not telling you to go out and buy a bunch of domain names, but what I’m telling you is that it’s something to consider, given all the hype about .co this past week, and the news about Google planning to give .co a chance in the search engines. Even Twitter is using T.co for its URL shortening service.
I did a quick scan of military .co domains that are still available, surprisingly, here’s what I found.
ArmyReserves.co
MilitaryNews.co
FrontLines.co
AirForceReserves.co
AfghanistanWar.co
MilitaryHistory.co
MilitaryService.co
MilitaryRecords.co
Even MarineCorps.co is still available.
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Agencies have been pretty much experimenting with social media for the past two years, writing blogs (that are mostly routine), Tweeting (mostly press releases) and conducting an occasional town hall meeting (that is typically very orderly). It's understandable that many of the attempts have been carefully orchestrated offerings, given the novelty of the technology and the risk-averse nature of bureaucracies.
(NextGov)
Top US General in Iraq Uses Facebook to Fight Impostors
The top U.S. general in Iraq says he's using his Facebook page to combat scammers who have impersonated him online. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters at a breakfast today in Washington, D.C., that there are four or five sites that have used his picture to ask people to send money.
(AOL News)
Wild Gun Battle Between Afghan, U.S. troops and Taliban in Kandahar [Video]
A frontline U.S. military base in southwest Afghanistan was the scene of a wild gun battle Saturday morning, initiated by Taliban insurgents against a private Afghan security convoy, but which quickly drew in Afghan National Army troops and U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.
(CBS News)
Army Testing Patriot Missile Android App
Communication on the battlefield is key. More and more, U.S. armed services are looking at consumer technology to help them to just that. Defense contractor Raytheon is working with Google's Android operating system and putting its tech prowess to the test with a new application that interacts with Raytheon's Patriot missile system.
(InformationWeek)
In Kashmir, YouTube generation defines new struggle
Born during the insurgency like most of the under-20 protestors -- tech-savvy Internet users who are harnessing Facebook and YouTube to highlight their struggle -- he has known nothing but violence and turmoil in Kashmir.
(AFP)
For The Record: Mullah Omar Still in Pakistani Custody
So, based on Bartholomew and Media Matters, who both picked up the meme from something called Instaputz, we’re to believe that Omar is not only free, but that he has done a complete 180 from eleven months ago and now doesn’t care how many Afghans get splashed? In fact, he’s actively encouraging the Taliban to toss out last summer’s “Code of Conduct” and slaughter them? I guess with Instaputz, Bartholomew, and Media Matters on the scene, the rest of the milblogging community can finally hang up their cleats. The cavalry has arrived!
(Big Journalism)
US Army's next secret weapon: an Android phone?
As smartphones get more versatile by the day, they're getting attention from unexpected places. Case in point: a defense contractor is working with Google to develop a device for soldiers that would display real-time battlefield intel — powered by Android.
(DVICE)
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Social networking sites have been confronting the difficult subject matter of what happens to your account when you die. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube all have policies in place to address what happens to accounts of deceased users, but new social media sites like Twitter still have no policy in place – something you would think would be one of the first considerations for a website that now has millions of users.
Instead, Twitter puts out new enhancements dealing with location based tweets, lists, even a site dedicated to the World Cup, while Twitter pages of deceased users, including “fallen military” remain online with no indication of what’s happened to the user. No way for families or friends to setup a memorial page.
It’s a topic I’ve discussed here on Milblogging.com a number of times [here and here] and a topic recently discussed by Voice of America News in a story titled “Virtual Life and Digital Death” that examines what happens to your digital life when you die.
It is likely that you may come across news stories of the fallen - stories that often talk about how families have now set up memorial pages to remember their loved ones. It’s a fact that many of the troops deployed, stay in touch with loved ones through social media sites. And it’s a fact that millions of people around the world use sites like Facebook. It’s reported that over 100 million people use Twitter alone. According to Twitter’s own About page:
At Twitter, we often think about what it means to build a company today and our role in making our community and the world a better place. We believe that the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact and will actively work to support this principal in everything that we do.
This is a lofty goal for a San Francisco start-up. But, interestingly, we’ve found that this open exchange also has the impact of making the world a smaller, more attainable place.
For a website that claims to help you follow people and stay informed, Twitter really needs to get its act together soon.
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The DoD’s Social Media Hub has a new look and feel (yes, again) that was unveiled yesterday as you can see from the screenshot above. The home page of the Hub was previously a WordPress blog, which now appears to have faded into the background and recent blog posts have been removed. The redesign of the website focuses on the resources the site has to offer – particularly the policies and procedures.
The brand new look and feel and the launch of a number of blogs on the DoD Live network is part of the DoD’s launch into Social Media, which is even being emulated by the Ministry of Defence.
According to the Hub’s new home page:
Social media is an integral part of Department of Defense operations. This site is designed to help the DoD community use social media and other internet-based capabilities to share responsibly and effectively, both in official and unofficial capacities.
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