"I'm going to be Tweeting [and] blogging to be able to connect externally as well as internally throughout the command," said Brig. Gen. Reuben Jones, in an interview on Monday with Nextgov.
"If we can get them to be a friend," that presents a chance to help, added Jones, who starts on July 30 as commanding general of the Alexandria, Va.-based Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. The command provides support and entertainment to soldiers, Army Department civilians, retirees, veterans and their families.
For his new job, Jones is learning terms such as Tweeting and "being on the blogs," he said, to connect with Army families and their support network through the broadcast text-messaging service Twitter.
Read the entire story here.
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Katie is a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. and came up with the idea to start a blog after she took a new media course. "I read a lot of articles on how political campaigns, charities and social activism organizations were learning to use new forms of media like Twitter, Facebook, texting and blogs to get the message out."
Read the entire story here.
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Social media and the military, gotta love it. I received an email earlier this week from Mary Elizabeth Sisk on behalf of the U.S. Army Accessions Command, who pointed out that Colonel Timothy Kopra is one of four active active duty Soldier astronauts in the U.S. Army’s NASA detachment, and right now he’s in outer space at the International Space Station. The U.S. Army has a great website setup where you can send him questions about the International Space Station [click here] and he even has a Facebook and Twitter page.
Unfortunately, I just checked his Twitter page, and there still haven’t been any updates since he blasted off. But if he does tweet from space, it would pretty much make him the most awesomest Twitter of all time.
Yes, even more awesome than Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account that has eleventy bajillion followers... Sorry ladies.
Here’s a copy of the email that was sent to me if you’d like to learn more:
Early Wednesday evening COL Kopra began his first mission to space, heading to the International Space Station aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. COL Kopra is scheduled join Expedition 20 as a flight engineer after traveling the ISS with the STS-127 crew. Throughout the mission, COL Kopra will be sharing his story about what it’s like to be a U.S. Army Soldier aboard the ISS.
You can watch COL Kopra explain how the Army helped him prepare and train for the mission here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Dj0x1-nog
I’d also like to share the opportunity for you and your readers to submit questions to COL Kopra while he is in space. Questions can be submitted to COL Kopra by visiting http://www.goarmy.com/space.
Facebook users can become a “fan” or learn more about the U.S. Army Astronauts here: http://www.facebook.com/usarmyastronauts.
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A local Wisconsin paper has launched a military blog, to keep readers updated about a local Army unit that is deployed to Iraq. Alpha Company 132nd BSB, is based at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq. The first post was made on July 14th and it has 26 comments already. Here’s a note from the Editor:
A National Guard unit based in Janesville is now working at Camp Bucca, Iraq, near the Kuwait border. Camp Bucca one of several places where U.S. and other coalition forces are holding prisoners. Like the rest of the U.S. troops in Iraq, these citizen soldiers have a tough job to do during a time that the United States is gradually turning over its operations to the Iraqi authorities. Following is the first of what we hope are many blogs by the members of Janesville's Alpha Company.
I don’t know much about the paper, but I love how more and more local papers are running blogs, particularly military blogs. It’s a nice touch and a great service for the community, especially for the family and friends of those deployed.
Thanks to my longtime pal Wendy for the tip, who I met through my first blog in 2004. Wendy and several folks who I met online while deployed back to Afghanistan have stayed in touch with me and my family through the years and it’s been a blessing to have such good supportive friends. And honestly without great folks like Wendy, I would have like 1 friend... *High Five Mom!*
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Suzane Smith who runs Court Report Schools contacted me to let me know Milblogging.com’s Twitter feed was chosen by them as one of the ‘100 Best Twitter Feeds for Your Political Education.’ *wipes tear* If you go to their website you can see the full list of Twitter feeds picked. I have to be honest though, I’m not sure why Milblogging was selected in a Political list. Seriously, it’s like choosing me for the ‘100 Best Twitter Feeds for Your Rocket Science Education’.
This is a questionable list though, considering Eminem ranks higher than me ‘for Your Political Education’. C’mon, I don’t care if I was just a box of rabbits with a Twitter account, having Eminem rank higher than me even then, would hurt me deep.
Oh s-w-e-e-t Jesus, is that Justin Timberlake ranked higher than me, too?! *throws up in mouth a little*
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He quotes an American Army major, Andrew Olmsted, who left an entry to be posted after his death, which came near Sadiya, Iraq, in January 2008. "The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous," Olmsted wrote, "even if most people haven't agreed with them." Thanks to the technology and media Rosenberg describes, all of us have that same marvelous power to reach out to the rest of the world. It's astonishing how quickly the change has come.
Read the entire story BusinessWeek story here.
You can also read Andrew’s final blog that was published after he was killed in Iraq here. It’s a very powerful entry.
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Sailors at the Italy-based stations of Naples and Sigonella, for example, had access roughly a month ago to sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. But access for sailors in Rota, Spain, didn’t come down until Wednesday, officials said.
And troops in Germany could be waiting on approval that’s never going to come.
Senior military leaders have recently tapped into some social networking sites to try to reach younger servicemembers.
Read the entire story here.
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I received this email earlier today from Maria Cereghino over at the The Washington Post. The email somehow got through my Spam blocker, but then, I'm glad it did.
The Washington Post’s Pentagon correspondent Ann Scott Tyson is in Afghanistan embedded with U.S. Marines as they attempt to assert control over Afghanistan's southern Helmand province.
She will provide updates on the operation’s progress and post video on “Battle for Helmand,” a new blog that launched today:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/battle-for-helmand/
The Marines are part of the 17,000 additional combat troops that President Obama has decided to send to Afghanistan this year in an effort to defeat a resurgent Taliban, protect civilians and restore government services.
It is the largest operation since the Fallujah invasion of 2004, and a departure from the previous hunt-and-kill missions against insurgents.
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About twice a month, Oates goes straight to the source to get the troops’ views on everything from the quality of the post’s annual Mountainfest festival to a possible revision to the military’s ban on homosexuality in the ranks.
A visit to the blog, posted at http://www.taskforcemountain.com/mountain-sound-off, reveals that troops are giving Oates exactly what he’s looking for: direct, honest communication. It’s so honest, in fact, that many responders opt to use just a first name or nickname rather than identifying themselves outright.
Read the entire story here.
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Listen to the radio show here.
Read the entire Examiner story here.
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The soldier was killed just weeks after writing the journal extract.
Lt Evison's brave mum Margaret has released her hero son's moving diary in a bid to show what life was like on the front line for her son and his colleagues.
The journal details his first few weeks in war torn Afghanistan before he was cut down by a Taliban bullet.
Read the entire story here.
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But the videos were quickly pulled from YouTube and other Web sites Monday after their tastefulness was questioned.
One video shows a soldier leaping on the back of an old woman using a walker to cross a street. Late Monday, the video was back on YouTube.
Another has a soldier kissing a blonde while a man dressed in women's clothes sits nearby and fumes because he's ready to go.
Later, the man in drag is approached by a swarm of prospective suitors. The soldier turns to the camera, gives a thumbs-up sign and says, "Thanks, Fayetteville."
Read the entire story here.
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The popular hashtag #MilitaryMon, which was started by Greta Perry and Carson Daly, continues to gain ground on Twitter. The website Hashtags.org which tracks hashtag trends had #MilitaryMon in the top 15 rankings today. Thanks to the efforts of military bloggers promoting this trend and because of the hard work of Twitter users from all over the world, more people are using the hashtag to recognize the military community. Here’s a screenshot I took from Hashtags.org earlier this evening:
Even more surprising than #MilitaryMon not being in the top 5 of the rankings, are some of the other hashtags that break into the top 20. #fart climbed up the rankings a week ago. True story. But why anyone would tweet something like, "Sorry folks, I had to step away for a second, my bad #fart" --- is beyond me.
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http://www.bendler-blog.de/
http://afghanistanblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.deutsche-armee.com/blog/
http://faz-community.faz.net/blogs/sicherheit/default.aspx
http://www.geopowers.com/
http://immer-treu.blogspot.com/
http://militaer.blogspot.com/
http://soldatenglueck.de/
http://speakingnotes.de/
http://www.stinner-bloggt.de/
Check out the entire list here.
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(Bouhammer.com) Another new announcement from Bouhammer.com (www.twitter.com/bouhammer) and Vision Strike Wear (www.twitter.com/VisionStrike).
Bouhammer.com in conjunction with KissMyGumbo.com and Vision Strike Wear have developed and has for sale the very first Twitter-themed T-shirt honoring Military Monday, which is designated by the hashtag #militarymon.
The front of the shirt has the hashtag #militarymon and the back of it has one cool and tough looking twitter bird all decked out ready to kick butt and tweet names. The #militarymon hashtag to honor military tweeters on every Monday was conceived by Greta from www.kissmygumbo.com and TV personality Carson Daly. The #militarymon trend has really taken off and the popularity of it grows every week.
Read the entire story here.
Milblogging Webmaster note: The image of the Twitter bird with a gun wearing a helmet is pretty clever. In fact, it’s probably the most badass rendering of the Twitter bird I’ve ever seen. But I’m thinking, what if he was driving an Abrams tank? Or maybe if he had little air-to-surface missiles attached to his wings? Although I don’t think the mini missiles would work, because judging by the size of his wings in comparison to his fat torso, I still don’t understand how he gets airborne.
You really have to marvel at the little guy.
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(Stars and Stripes) Katie Glenn has helped create a way for other "military brats" like her to cope with having a parent deployed or losing a mother or father in war, and it is only a click away in cyberspace.
Glenn, 20, worked with the nonprofit Families United to create www.militarykidsblog.com, which is targeted at children of deployed troops, or those who have lost a parent in Afghanistan or Iraq. The site went up a few weeks ago as a forum for servicemembers’ children to share their experiences and feelings, Glenn and Families United officials said.
Read the entire story here.
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(U.S. Air Force) The very day he assumed his post as NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe last week, Navy Adm. James Stavridis reached out in a way none of the previous 15 NATO commanders since Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had: he posted a blog.
Admiral Stavridis has had a lot of firsts in his military career. He's the first sailor to hold NATO's top military post and command of U.S. European Command. But before that, he was the first geographic combatant commander, at U.S. Southern Command, to use Facebook and a personal blog to convey the importance of partnership and cooperation to confront threats facing Latin America and the Caribbean.
Now in his new post, he's wasting no time using the social media to get word out about his goals for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and EUCOM.
Read the entire story here.
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(National Post) Facebook status: Reporting for duty, sir.
The Canadian military is considering developing its own version of social-networking applications such as Facebook and Twitter to help soldiers communicate and improve teamwork in the increasingly networked environment of modern warfare.
The research and development arm of the Department of National Defence plans to hire a contractor to research and develop social-networking software for military use, with a view toward developing an internal prototype by as early as next March.
Read the entire story here.
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I sat directly behind these two and from that vantage point saw that there wasn't blogger there these men didn't treat as respected colleagues. They took the time to ask and answer questions when approached, offer encouragement and simply listen to other conference participants during each session. Their active engagement and enthusiasm within the milblog community represented there made a lasting impression on me. Meet Troy of Bouhammer's Afghan Blog , YouServed, Military Pundits and AfghanLessons.
How long have you been blogging? I started blogging in 2005 on my family website. I ran a blog about our family in general, travel tips (since I travel so much) and military topics i general. However in 2006 when I was mobilized for my deployment to Afghanistan I migrated my general military blog to be specifically about my deployment.
To read the entire interview and learn more about my pal and fellow military blogger Troy Steward, click here.
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