Katy Perry, 'Part of Me': Pop Star's Military-Inspired Video Called 'Propaganda'. Katy Perry's new video for the song "Part of Me" has rubbed some people the wrong way, including Naomi Wolf, feminist author of The Beauty Myth. Wolf took to her Facebook page to take aim at Perry for the video featuring her dressed in military attire. "Have you all seen the Katy Perry Marines video?" Wolf asks in the post. "It is a total piece of propaganda for the Marines... I really want to find out if she was paid by them for making it... it is truly shameful. I would suggest a boycott of this singer whom I really liked -- if you are as offended at this glorification of violence as I am."
(AOL Music Blog)

Tweets land ex-soldier convicted in YouTube case behind bars. YouTube and Facebook helped put this Iraq War veteran in prison. Twitter could send him back. Former Army Sgt. Franklin Delano "Dale" Jeffries, 40, is once again facing federal imprisonment, in large part for viewpoints expressed on social media websites. It is a case poised to test the boundaries of free speech protections granted under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in the Internet age...
(Knoxville News Sentinel)

Israelis, Iranians on Facebook: Make Peace, Not War. Amid the drumbeat of war between Iran and Israel, an Israeli couple has launched an online peace campaign in an effort to reach out to Iranians and say “no” to a military conflict. Forty-one-year-old graphic designer Ronny Edry and his partner, 36-year-old Michal Tamir, launched the initiative last week by posting pictures of themselves with their children on a Facebook page with a simple message: “Iranians, we love you. We don’t want to bomb your country.” Edry wrote, “To the Iranian people, to all the fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters. For there to be a war between us, first we must be afraid of each other. We must hate. I’m not afraid of you. I don’t hate you. I don’t even know you. No Iranian ever did me harm...
(Middle East Voices)

Foreign Spies Are Already Planted Throughout The US Military Computer Networks.  The attack on American military computer networks has been so thorough, and so successful, security experts now say the U.S. should quit trying to stop it, and assume spies are already inside. Security experts testifying before the Senate Armed Services said last week that it's time the U.S. stopped building up its computer defense, and start retaliating against nations accessing U.S. networks...
(Business Insider)

Feds urged to start Facebook password probe.  Two U.S. senators have ask Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether employers who demand the Facebook passwords of job applicants have violated federal law, their offices announced Sunday, March 25.  Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they contacted the Justice Department and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  On Friday, Facebook warned employers not to ask job applicants for their passwords in order to check on their profiles. Personal information such as gender, race, religion and age are often displayed on a Facebook profile - all details that are protected by federal employment law...
(TwinCities.com)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

The Sixth Annual Milbloggies are right around the corner, so keep an eye out here and on the Milblog Conference website throughout the month for more information.

Winners will be presented Milbloggie Awards during the 2012 Official Milblog Conference being held in Arlington, Virginia, on May 11-12.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

How Facebook Gets Troops Killed. The U.S. Army is warning its troops to be careful what they post to on social networking sites (like Facebook). When they post photos of themselves they often reveal militarily useful information. This was discovered in Iraq, where a lot of tech savvy people working with terrorists were able to compile information from what troops posted. This sometimes led to attacks, and this was discovered from interrogating captured terrorists and captured documents and computer data. The background of pictures often indicated targets for the terrorists, or details of base defenses and American tactics. Islamic terrorists have been quick to use the Internet and other modern technology to plan and carry out their attacks...
(Strategy Page)

Bahraini Dissident Blogger Ali Abdulemam Missing For One Year. One year ago this month, Ali Abdulemam, a champion of free speech in Bahrain, disappeared. In an interview with an Egyptian newspaper shortly before he vanished, he recalled how a police officer had told him, “I’ve been wanting to drink your blood since the 1990s.” His offense was setting up Bahrain Online, a web forum where, using pseudonyms, ordinary people could post views about the harsh policies of the royal government...
(The Daily Beast)

Army Facebook probe finds just one culprit. Only one serving soldier had posted inappropriate comments on the ''RAR Buddies'' Facebook page outed on 7.30 last month, an Army investigation has revealed. Chief of Army Lieutenant-General David Morrison said despite this he took the matter very seriously. ''I am taking action - against that one person - as I said I would,'' he told The Canberra Times in an exclusive interview...
(Canberra Times)

With coup, #Mali generates noise on Twitter. On Tuesday, while reporting on breaking news in Mali from studios in Atlanta, CNN Wire Newsdesk Editor Faith Karimi made an ominous observation that presaged the outcome of developments unfolding 5,000 miles away. "#Mali president @PresidenceMali has not tweeted in 10 hours after reports of gunfire and a coup attempt," she tweeted...
(Christian Science Monitor)

WWII combat veteran shares his story with Eliot students. Forty eighth-grade students sat in a classroom at Marshwood Middle School on Friday morning, glued to their seats as World War II veterans shared their stories, some harrowing, some heartfelt, some bringing tears. The storytelling was part of the annual World War II Day at the school, which brings together local veterans and students. The event was first held in 1993. In addition to listening to the veterans, students watched cartoons from the era, and educational and propaganda films made by Walt Disney designed to enlist Americans into the war effort and convince them of the brutality of the Germans and Japanese...
(SeacoastOnline.com)

Civil War Soldier Tells His Story. During the Civil War, when Grafton's population was 4,000, nearly 400 local men enlisted to defend the Union. Sixty-four were killed or died of their wounds and are listed on the Civil War monument near Grafton Common. The Grafton Historical Society's March program will introduce visitors to one Civil War soldier. Bill Cutler, a local Civil War re-enactor, will talk about the experiences of ordinary soldiers. He will describe the equipment, the uniforms, the individual battles, the prison camps and the other hardships of military life...
(Grafton Patch)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

The video of an AH-64 Apache helicopter crash in Afghanistan is going viral across the internet.

On YouTube alone, it has nearly 250,000 views.

According to Military.com, the crash took place in Sharana, Afghanistan while the pilot was executing a maneuver known as "return to target".

As one Military.com commenter points out, "If you look real close around 24 seconds, a guy hits the deck and the tail section misses him by like 4 feet."

The good news is no one on the ground was killed and both pilots survived according to reports.

You can watch the video here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Marine sergeant being dismissed for criticizing Obama. The Marine Corps is moving to boot out a Marine for having made "political statements" about the commander-in-chief on a Facebook page. Sgt. Gary Stein, 26, a nine-year veteran, put comments on a Facebook page called the Armed Forces Tea Party page that said he would not follow unlawful orders from President Obama such as ordering the killing of Americans or taking guns away from Americans. He also criticized comments made by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about Syria. The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits uniformed personnel from making comments critical of their chain of command, including the commander-in-chief, or engaging in political activity in a context that suggests that are acting as military members...
(Los Angeles Times)

Combat journalist shares harrowing journey. Most people who have career epiphanies go back to school or start their own businesses. Sebastian Junger went to war. After a workplace accident during his tenure as a “climber” for a tree-services company, the man who would later become a best-selling author, journalist and documentary filmmaker said he had a revelation. “I had just turned 30, and I thought, ‘I have got to jumpstart my career, Maybe I’ll go to a war,’” Junger told an audience of almost 200 at MTSU’s Tucker Theatre Tuesday. “I got a backpack and a sleeping bag, some notebooks and a box of pens. I saved up about five grand and I bought a ticket and I wound up in Bosnia with a bunch of other freelancers...
(The Daily News Journal)

Army launches app store prototype. Soldiers can now access 12 mobile applications on personal smart phones and tablets as part of the Army’s latest efforts in establishing an online storefront for mobile software. The Army Software Marketplace is a prototype for a future one-stop shop where soldiers can access and download applications to any device that’s been approved to run on the Army’s under-construction common operating environment. “The Apps Marketplace is at the center of Army efforts to radically reduce the time to deliver applications across the force,” Army CIO/G-6 Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence said in a March 20 blog post...
(FCW)

The Long Road Home Project. The Long Road Home Project was founded to help our troops overcome some of their obstacles as they return home. Starting in Seattle in July 2012 and ending in our nation’s capital about four months later, four US veterans will go on a life changing, cross-country bicycle ride. During their inspirational journey, a small film crew will document the healing power long-distance cycling has on the human spirit. Along the way, we will meet, stay, and speak with hundreds of other veterans, shedding light on the question...
(Home page)

Using Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Other Internet Tools, Pakistani Terrorist Group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Incites Violence against Shi'ite Muslims and Engenders Antisemitism. This paper examines the role of Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) – the military arm of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) – and how the LeJ/SSP duo is using U.S.-based social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other Internet tools, along with its own dedicated websites and print magazines, to incite violence against Shi'ite Muslims, and also how it is engendering Antisemitism in order to promote its ideological agenda.  The LeJ has figured in several recent attacks in Pakistan...
(MEMRI)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Early bird pricing for the 2012 Milblog Conference is available to attendees who register by April 20, 2012.  The cost is only $89 and includes the Friday night Dinner Reception & Milbloggie Awards, Saturday Breakfast, Lunch (sponsored by Wal-Mart) and the 7^th annual Conference.

To register for this year’s conference or to learn more go to:

Registration

Agenda

Conference Panels

Sponsorship Opportunities

To keep updated on this year’s event , visit the Milblog Conference website.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

As Israel’s Military Pursues Enemies on Twitter, Some Citizens Reach Out on Facebook. Last week, as rockets were fired into and out of Gaza, the Israeli military also moved to take the high ground on what an official described as the “second battlefield” of social networking sites, by beginning a campaign to discredit Palestinian bloggers who had misidentified images on Twitter. In this virtual campaign, bloggers for the Israel Defense Forces made some gains — successfully drawing attention to the fact that two activists had mistakenly identified an image of an injured girl who was hurt in an accident in 2006 as a victim of a recent Israeli attack, while another erroneously claimed that a Reuters photograph of an Israeli air strike taken in 2009 was new — but they also suffered some setbacks...
(The New York Times)

Minn. cop's Facebook post about upside-down flag scrutinized.  A 15-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department is under investigation after he allegedly posted on his Facebook page that while on duty, he saw an upside-down American flag near a "Somali hangout spot" and demanded the owner hang the flag right-side up. "If I find it upside down the next time I work, the (expletive) will hit the fan and there will be trouble," the officer, Steve Loeding, warned Sunday night on his page. "Let me know and I will go with you Steve!!" one of his friends replied. The message was posted sometime after 8:30 p.m. Sunday, March 18, but it appears Loeding, 40, had removed it by Monday morning. During that time, some people who saw it forwarded screen images of it to police and city officials, including the office of Mayor R.T. Rybak...
(PoliceOne)

For posterity’s sake, leave a written record. John R. McNeill made a good point about collecting soldiers’ memories in his March 18 op-ed, “Save the war stories before it’s too late.” But his lesson should be broadened. Every grandparent should heed the late Harold L. Ickes’s advice, “I have often wished that my father, and his father . . . had left some written record, however brief, of their lives and times. To most of us . . . our ancestors are only names . . . . (E)xcept for an occasional isolated and unconnected fact or legend they are to us total strangers.” Even if you didn’t fight a war, take the time now to prepare a “written record, however brief.” It’s fun to do. And someday your grandchildren, or their children, will be glad you did...
(The Washington Post)

Great mil-blogging by Wired mag. I was reading this pretty good story today by David Axe, a blogger and writer with Wired Magazine's Danger Room blog. His latest story is on on his thoughts after an embed with the 10th Special Forces Group based in Germany. First off, how cool do you have to be in order to get an embed (he was asked) with the SF guys. I can't even get love from the local Reserve units sometimes so I can't imagine the juice this guy carries. He has his own blog, btw, called War is Boring...
(Peoria Journal Star)

ALL NEW EPISODES OF G4'S BOMB PATROL: AFGHANISTAN - START TUESDAY 10PM ET. The boys are back with more episodes of "Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan" starting this Tuesday at 10 PM ET on G4...
(YouTube)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Are you or your organization interested in sponsoring the 2012 Milblog Conference?

The 7th Annual MilBlog Conference is the premiere event of the year for the military blogging community. The 2012 MilBlog Conference will offer the perfect environment to reach the most influential writers inside the milblog community, and their readership. Military bloggers are comprised of active-duty service members, veterans, military spouses, military parents and military supporters. Support this group of citizen journalists and become a sponsor today!

Here are just a few of the benefits to your organization for sponsoring this event.

Platinum Sponsorship $6,000
- Your company’s promotional items distributed in attendee gift bags
- Company logo and link featured on the official conference website
- Company logo featured in the official conference program
- Breakfast Sponsor. Your company logo featured on signage at the breakfast*
- Booth at Friday reception and Saturday conference
- Full page 4-color advertisement in official conference program

Gold Sponsorship $4,000
- Your company’s promotional items distributed in attendee gift bags
- Company logo and link featured on the official conference website
- Company logo featured in the official conference program
- Breakfast Sponsor. Your company logo featured on signage at the breakfast*
- Booth in the reception area the day of the conference**
- Half page 4-color ad in official conference program

Table Only $500
- Booth in the reception area the day of the conference (Saturday)

Full Page Advertisement $500
- Full page 4-color advertisement in the official conference program.
- Companies may add a Full-Page ad to the Table Only Sponsorship or purchase an ad separately

Half Page Advertisement $350
- Half page 4-color advertisement in the official conference program.
- Companies may add a Half page ad to the Table Only Sponsorship or purchase an ad separately

Please complete this form and Sarah Blansett will contact you to follow up on the details.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Save the war stories — before it’s too late. My 94-year-old father and two of my uncles were among the 16.5 million men and women who served in the American armed forces during World War II. Both uncles, and another who served with the Canadian military in the war, are now dead. I have only snippets of information about their lives in uniform. At my urging, my father recently wrote the story of his life on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1940 to 1946. My reasons for pushing him to do it were personal...
(The Washington Post)

Soldier 'bans' Prime Minister from IDF's Facebook page. When then IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu told the Herzliya Conference that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered his unit to train soldiers to be "new media warriors," he probably never imagined that a year later one of those keyboard warriors would brazenly block the prime minister on Facebook. Netanyahu has a number of Facebook pages: three official pages representing "The Prime Minister of Israel," in Hebrew, English and Arabic, which are run by editors inside the Prime Minister's Office, as well a political page run by Likud party spokespeople...
(Haaretz Daily Newspaper)

Israeli Ambassador Demands U.N. Employee Be Fired Over Tweet. Khulood Badawi is a United Nations employee working in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and she has come under fire in the last few days for tweeting a photo of a dead Palestinian girl and attributing it to a casualty of Israeli military forces. The tweet has now resulted in the Israeli ambassador the United Nations demanding that OCHA fire her...
(Mediaite)

Journalists will bring stories, photos from front lines of war. Even before a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier allegedly murdered 16 Afghanistan civilians, a deployment there came with risks for any U.S. personnel. Since the unexplained killings, it has grown considerably more dangerous. That is the tense war zone environment into which our military reporter Adam Ashton and photographer Peter Haley will spend the next six weeks. The two veteran war correspondents are embedding with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in Zabul Province, and also with I Corps in Kabul...
(The Olympian)

Syria's Assad rewrites rules of war reporting. THE crisis in Syria poses a strange dilemma for the media: how to cover one of the biggest stories of the year when journalists have been locked out. If the role of journalists is to write the first draft of history, then Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is distorting that traditional role...
(The Australian)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

A preliminary report has been issued on the jet crash that killed military blogger Captain Carroll “Lex” Lefon, USN (ret).

Via the Lahontan Valley News:

According to the NTSB, LeFon's flight had left NAS Fallon at 7:52 a.m., and after an adverse training mission, LeFon attempted to return to the field. The NTSB reports LeFon tried to make two Ground Control Approach radar approaches to NAS Fallon, but because of the weather, LeFon attempted to divert to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Reno-Tahoe reported minimal weather conditions, and as a result, LeFon returned to NAS Fallon and told air traffic controllers he was in a “critical fuel state.”

The report further stated LeFon descended and maneuvered first toward runway 31 and then runway 13 before the F-21 the accident.

“The airplane struck the ground in an open field in the northwest corner of the airport property and impacted a concrete building on the field,” stated the NTSB report.

LeFon was killed, and the jet sustained significant damage upon impact. Federal firefighters from NAS Fallon responded to the crash scene, while Fallon Churchill firefighters waited on stand-by.

At the time of the accident the reported weather at NAS Fallon indicated a temperate of 31 degrees (F), with winds blowing from the northwest at 20.6 miles per hour and gusting to 30.4.

The NTSB said the visibility at NAS Fallon at the time of the crash was between one-half and one-and-a-half miles with fog and snow reported. However, the NTSB is reporting northerly winds were reported at 23 (34.73 mph) knots gusting to 34 (51.3 mph) knots.

Full story here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer has launched his very own blog called Actions Not Words.

He announced the news through his Twitter account (@Dakota_Meyer) yesterday tweeting, "Check out my new blog dakotalmeyer.blogspot.com".

In his first post titled “Welcome”, he writes about being new to blogging and his plans for the website.

“I hope to use this blog to share my life experiences with others.  I'm new to blogging, so for all you veteran bloggers out there, please have patience as I learn the ropes.

I'm preparing for a trip to West Liberty, KY to help with the recovery efforts from the deadly tornadoes that recently swept through the community.  As you can see in the picture above, many people lost everything and the entire town is devastated.  Myself, along with three close friends, decided we couldn't sit around and do nothing when so many people need our help.  We have packed up our equipment, rented some heavy lifting machinery and we're headed east.

I'll use this blog to keep everyone engaged with the efforts in West Liberty so continue to check in for updates, but please don't stop there.  I encourage everyone to do their part to help their neighbors; donate food, clothes, money; volunteer to help with the clean-up; at the least, send your prayers to the victims of the tornadoes. 

We'll be doing our part... I hope you'll join us.

See you in West Liberty!
Dakota”

Thanks to War on Terror News for the tip.

Image credit: Department of Defense

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

You have no doubt by now heard the terrible news of the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians.  The American soldier accused of the killings has been named as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. 

While Robert Bales’ wife, Karilyn, and two young children have been moved to Joint Base Lewis-McChord for safety reasons, what’s getting more coverage in the media as news sites try to dig deeper into his life is the fact that Karilyn was a blogger.

Karilyn wrote about military life on at least two blogs called “The Bales Family Adventures" and “BabyBales”.

I've been able to find both blogs online, despite news reports not providing the web address.

But since the time SSG Bales was publicly named as the suspect, the blogs have switched to "invite only".

Using Google’s cache, news organizations have been able to retrieve information and learn about the family life as written by Karilyn.

BabyBales has posts up through 2009.

Here’s an excerpt from a highly cited story that appeared in The New York Times:

She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion.

But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments.

“Bob left for Iraq this morning,” she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. “Quincy slept in our bed last night.”

Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad.

A little less than a year ago, in March 2011, Ms. Bales wrote on her blog that her husband had not received a promotion to E-7, sergeant first class. The family was disappointed, she said, “after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.”

You can read more here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Social Media Eases Military Redeployments. With multiple missions underway around the world, the U.S. military is constantly shuffling personnel (and their families) between locations all over the planet. And while moving thousands of people long distances poses any number of logistical challenges, it’s no surprise that the human element -- feelings of dislocation, loneliness, homesickness, or just not knowing your way around a new place -- has often been neglected as a touchy-feely “non-mission critical” issue. That’s changing, however, thanks to the military’s adoption of social media: over the last couple years, loosening restrictions and new guidelines have made it easier for personnel to engage in private social media activity and leadership to implement broad-ranging social media initiatives...
(MediaPost)

Wartime diary reveals mum's heartache over lost soldier son. A DIARY kept by a worried mother as she waited for news of her son missing in action in World War One is among items of memorabilia being gathered across Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war in 1914. Mary Martin of Monkstown, Co Dublin, was a widowed mother of 12 when she learned in December 1915 that her 20-year-old son Charlie, a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was wounded and missing in Gallipoli. "Dear Charlie," she began, "Since I heard you are missing as well as wounded it has occurred to me to write this diary in the form of a letter...
(Independent.ie)

Last words hang frozen for all time. Look, they may not be the most famous and beloved words ever uttered in the English language but it's just that I can't think of any words that outdo them right now. And as today is the centenary of when they were uttered, it is worth looking at them again. But already, we're ahead of ourselves …For, you see, in the middle of March 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his three companions were fighting for their lives on their return from the South Pole...
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

Postings on Twitter are stirring Mideast tension.  Photographs posted on opposite sides of the Twitter divide are reigniting online tension between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activists, even as the recent spate of violence has calmed. The shaky truce established by Israel and the Hamas authority that controls Gaza gave hope to many that the latest round of violence between the groups might have ended for the time being. But online, activists on either side are raging as accusations fly over allegations of propaganda used to curry favor and sympathy with audiences on the Web...
(stltoday.com)

Post reporter leads way on Afghan bomb coverage. A Yorkshire Post reporter embedded with British troops in Afghanistan led the way in covering the aftermath of the car bomb which claimed the lives of six soldiers. Five of the six men killed in last week’s explosion were from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. Post reporter Joe Shute, pictured left, has spent the past few weeks embedded with the regiment and other Yorkshire soldiers in military bases across Helmand Province. One of the men who died, Pte Anthony Frampton, had done his pre-deployment training alongside Joe Shute in December and had given him an interview in which he discussed his worries about going to Helmand and his pride at being a soldier...
(HoldtheFrontPage)

USACE Galveston District Public Affairs Office earns Army’s top community relations award. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District captured the Department of the Army’s top public affairs honor, winning first place in the community relations program category of the 2011 Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Public Affairs and Communications Competition. The first-place award recognizes the district’s aggressive water safety community outreach and public information campaign, launched in 2011, following a number of water-related fatalities at USACE recreational facilities nationwide...
(DVIDS)

Army: Soldier Who Leaked Documents Aided al-Qaida.  Military prosecutors say a U.S. Army private aided al-Qaida by leaking hundreds of thousands of military and other government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Pfc. Bradley Manning had been charged with aiding the enemy among a total of 22 counts, but on Thursday the military publicly identified the enemy Manning's actions aided. Manning and his attorneys are appearing at a hearing in a military courtroom at Fort Meade, near Baltimore, for two days of hearings in the case...
(My Fox Phoenix)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Via Army.mil:

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea (March 15, 2012) -- The U.S. Army recognized Camp Humphreys today with a first place award in the 2011 Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Public Affairs Competition for "Outstanding Initiatives in New Media."

"I couldn't be more proud of the teamwork it took to make this achievement possible," said Col. Joseph P. Moore, USAG-Humphreys commander. "And our team doesn't just include members of the garrison staff -- it's also about our community, because without their involvement the success of our social media program wouldn't be possible."

According to Debra D. Zedalis, IMCOM-Pacific region director, the USAG-Humphreys social media network is made up of some of the most active and heavily visited social media sites in the Army.

"The success of Humphreys' social media program is due in large part to the personal involvement taken by the garrison's commander and staff in communicating directly with community members using tools like Facebook and Twitter," added Zedalis.

Steven Hoover, the garrison's chief of command information and Facebook guru, sees the use of social media as an effective way to rapidly communicate with the Soldiers, families and civilians stationed here.

"I started my Army career as a public affairs Soldier -- in the field, covering stories for the newspaper," said Hoover. "To be honest with you, I wasn't convinced social media could be as effective as traditional media."

"Now that I've been doing this for a few years, I definitely see the value of social media. It's a game changer," added Hoover. "And it's not just about the technology -- while that's important, it's more about the people and helping to facilitate a two-way conversation between our community and those who support it."

The ability to communicate rapidly via social media has proved particularly important for the garrison, as it transforms to become the largest Army installation in Asia.

Full story here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

NASA Mars rover @MarsCuriosity tweets the darndest things. Welcome to the Twitter, NASA style. In this social media society of Facebook, YouTube and the new Pinterest, Twitter has found an omnipresent niche beyond the stereotypical guilty pleasures of sharing your view of the world 140 characters at a time or simply following your favorite gossip. Because of Twitter and because NASA has not only embraced Twitter but wrapped it in a bear hug, you have a window beyond the world via @MarsCuriosity, which is scheduled to land on Mars in August. But not only in the first-person accounts of an interplanetary rover hurtling across the Milky Way, Twitter has essentially become the social media of choice for NASA as well as the U.S. Army...
(al.com)

Joseph Kony’s Ugandan Victims Find A Voice On Twitter, With The Help Of Al Jazeera. Hundreds of users, most of them Ugandans with Internet access, have already posted tweets with the #ugandaspeaks hashtag. Most of these criticize the worldwide response to the Kony 2012 video, which many of the Ugandans (and worldwide observers) claim grossly simplifies a complicated war. Al Jazeera’s Riyaad Minty told Co.Exist that “we launched Uganda Speaks to get responses from people across Uganda via text message, email, Twitter, and Facebook. The idea is to have ordinary Ugandans talk about the [Kony 2012] video in their own voice, as this has largely been missing from the conversation.”
(Co.Exist)

Seen by millions, will Uganda Kony video matter?   A YouTube video gone viral has propelled Joseph Kony, leader of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army, back onto the agenda, entrenching his position at the top of the list of the world's most wanted men. But how long the current spike of interest will last is far from clear. Hits on the video appeared to have fallen sharply in recent days, while the charity has also found itself on the receiving end of a savage backlash. Produced by U.S.-based group " Invisible Children", "Kony 2012" has scored more than 77 million hits in less than a week...
(Reuters)

N.S. blogger makes waves in online battle. When Grant Oyston posted a critique last week of a wildly popular online video urging the arrest of Joseph Kony for war crimes in Uganda, it went to just 30 friends. Since then, his website Visible Children has attracted at least 2.3 million views. From his student digs in Wolfville, Oyston has proven to be a thorn in the side of the Kony 2012 movement. "Social media can cut both ways," the 19-year-old Acadia University student said Tuesday in an interview. "Millions of people around the world are now aware of an issue that they weren’t before. The issue is . . . whether they have enough information about it to have the right decisions."
(The Chronicle Herald)

Google Adds (Even More) Links to the Pentagon. On Monday, the Defense Department’s best-known geek announced that she was leaving the Pentagon for a job at Google. It was an unexpected move: Washington and Mountain View don’t trade top executives very often. But it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. The internet colossus has had a long and deeply complicated relationship with America’s military and intelligence communities. Depending on the topic, the time, and the players involved, the Pentagon and the Plex can be customers, business partners, adversaries, or wary allies. Recruiting the director of Darpa to join Google was just the latest move in this intricate dance between behemoths...
(Wired News)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Congratulations to the North Dakota National Guardsmen working in the Public Information Office, winners of several media awards.

According to DVIDS:

North Dakota National Guard members working full-time in the Public Information Office and part-time in the field to tell the story of their fellow soldiers and airmen recently received a slew of awards from three media-related contests. Two of the competitions pitted them against their active-duty counterparts around the world.

“The North Dakota National Guard’s Public Information Office has once again been recognized for the outstanding work they do every day to tell the story of the Guard’s successes and accomplishments here at home and abroad,” said Gov. Jack Dalrymple. “I have seen firsthand the professionalism and expertise of these guardsmen, especially throughout last year’s flood fight. They did a great job informing the public of the Guard’s response and working with local, state and federal agencies to ensure the dissemination of valuable information. I applaud the Public Information team for receiving this deserving and prestigious recognition.”

While a couple of the awards stem from the team’s flood coverage, a variety of other events also came through in the winning entries.

Full story here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Captain Carroll “Lex” Lefon, USN (ret) will be laid to rest in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery March 27.

Via Whisper:

Captain Carroll “Lex” Lefon, USN (ret) will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, CA on March 27th at 1:00pm.  The “Mighty Shrikes” of VFA-94, the squadron that Lex commanded, will conduct a fly-over.

The family has graciously invited Lex’s many friends and fans here at Neptunus Lex to attend.  Their only request is that you consider carpooling due to limited parking at Fort Rosencrans.

Lex’s former employer, ATAC, is coordinating a charity that will be accepting donations in lieu of flowers.  When details about charities and scholarship funds become available, they will be posted on Neptunus Lex.  ATAC’s latest press release can be found here.

Please visit NeptunusLex.com for more information on services.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

In propaganda battle, PM Spokesperson tweets old photo. "The IDF is recently putting a lot of effort into propaganda campaigns, and especially new media ones. The army has a blog, a Flickr account, a Facebook page and a Youtube channel; officers from IDF spokesperson unit are very active on social networks, where they argue with journalists and activists and at times even endorse certain (rightwing) political positions. A recent entry in the IDF Spokesperson blog encouraged readers to help the army “spread the truth” about the military escalation in the south. Another entry was dedicated to a tweet from a Palestinian blogger, which showed a photo of a wounded Palestinian child, allegedly wounded in the attack on Gaza. The photo was old, plus it was photoshopped...
(Democratic Underground)

News Tribune team heading to Afghanistan for embeds with JBLM troops. The News Tribune is sending photograhper Peter Haley and me to Afghanistan this week to report on Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers who are guiding the war from Kabul and executing efforts to hand over more responsibility for security to local forces in southern provinces...
(The News Tribune)

DARPA chief leaves Pentagon for Google job. Google, in a coup, has hired DARPA Director Regina Dugan to fill a senior executive position.  Google confirmed that it has hired Dugan away from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but the company declined to say what position she will hold...
(Computerworld)

Obama likes Facebook’s Timeline photo format. It’s Facebook official: President Obama on Thursday became the most recent candidate in the 2012 election to switch to Timeline. The new Facebook layout will play a big role in the president’s social-media efforts. He already is connecting with supporters on sites including Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Spotify...
(The Washington Times)

Does this diary prove Hitler had a lovechild? D-Day soldier's notebook backs up claim Fuhrer's baby was born to Frenchwoman in 1918. For decades it had gathered dust in a box on top of a wardrobe among a war hero’s possessions. But an entry within this tatty pocket diary appears to offer corroboration to claims that Adolf Hitler fathered an illegitimate son. Yesterday one of former Royal Engineer Leonard Wilkes’s sons said the diary could offer the earliest written record of the story of Frenchman Jean-Marie Loret, who went to his grave believing Hitler was his father...
(Daily Mail)

War reporter Marie Colvin laid to rest in hero's funeral. AFTER a lifetime spent crossing battlelines and entering besieged cities, journalist Marie Colvin was borne back to her family's church in a seaside town on Long Island yesterday for a hero's funeral. The community of Oyster Bay turned out to mourn her as they would a fallen soldier, mingling with war correspondents and news editors in the pews of St Dominic Church...
(The Australian)

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Military blogger and Afghanistan war veteran Troy Steward of the military blog Bouhammer appeared on BBC’s World Have Your Say radio program Monday.

Bouhammer’s most recent blog post titled “An act by one does not represent all” and the BBC topic discussed the killing spree by a US Soldier that took place on Sunday at dawn.

Here’s some of what Troy Steward had to say on his blog:

One soldier doing this is not a reflection of our military as a whole, their mental well-being or how soldiers are recruited or trained. All of these were “stupid” reasons brought up today when I was interviewed on the BBC. This is no different than a cop who loses it and kills innocent people or a firefighter who starts committing arson. An act by a single person does not reflect the attitude, training or professionalism of an entire organization.

This is also no reason to “feel sorry” for our military or think they are victims. Did people think Timothy McViegh was a victim when he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City? Why not, he was a war vet. That is how ludicrous such an argument or thought is that military service is the reason for this happening.

None of us can see the future and know how bad will be for us, but I think I can  say with certainty that this is going to do a lot of damage to our reputation in the eyes of Afghan people. How can the Afghans trust us to help them? Kind of like how can our soldiers trust their afghan security partners when they keep killing or training to kill our soldiers. It is a two way street now because of this and it is not going to end well.

Read more over at Bouhammer and download the podcast here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

Via The United States Army

FORT BENNING, Ga. (March 7, 2012) -- "Is a badge on Foursquare worth your life?"

The question was posed by Brittany Brown, social media manager of the Online and Social Media Division at the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs. It may sound outlandish, but in the age of social geotagging, it can be a reality.

There are a number of location-based social media applications and platforms, including Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR, Shopkick, Loopt and Whrrl, currently on the market. They use GPS features, typically in the user's phone, to publish the person's location and offer rewards in the form of discounts, badges or points to encourage frequent check-ins.

Security risks for the military:

A deployed service member's situational awareness includes the world of social media. If a Soldier uploads a photo taken on his or her smartphone to Facebook, they could broadcast the exact location of their unit, said Steve Warren, deputy G2 for the Maneuver Center of Excellence, or MCoE.

"Today, in pretty much every single smartphone, there is built-in GPS," Warren said. "For every picture you take with that phone, it will automatically embed the latitude and longitude within the photograph."

Someone with the right software and the wrong motivation could download the photo and extract the coordinates from the metadata.

Warren cited a real-world example from 2007. When a new fleet of helicopters arrived with an aviation unit at a base in Iraq, some Soldiers took pictures on the flightline, he said. From the photos that were uploaded to the Internet, the enemy was able to determine the exact location of the helicopters inside the compound and conduct a mortar attack, destroying four of the AH-64 Apaches.

Full story here.

[ Add comment ]   |  [ 0 trackbacks ]   |  permalink  |  Discussion  |  Digg this  |  Add to del.icio.us

---

<< <Back | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | Next> >>