(Wired.com) Blocked blog access on Air Force networks. A Navy blog opposed by Public Affairs. Crackdowns on YouTube and other social media. The military has really struggled to come to terms with the internet era -- in stark contrast to jihadists, for whom the internet is the major medium for recruiting and spreading tactics and weapons plans.

Read the entire story here.

You'll be happy to know we've completed our final mission just a few days ago.  All Bad Voodoo soldiers are safe and off the road.  Pictured above is myself and "SGT Q" (a fellow Bad Voodoo Team Leader) posing for a photo during our last mission.  We both happened to serve in Afghanistan at the same time from 2004-2005, but we were in different units.  "SGT Q" was actually a member of the 25th Infantry Division.  I served with the Virginia National Guard during my tour, but I was also awarded the Tropic Lightning during my Combat Patch ceremony. 

Well, pretty soon this place will just be a memory and I'll be looking at pictures from my deployment saying to myself, "Those were the days.  Really takes me back..." 

The 3,000 degree weather in full Battle Rattle.  Back to back missions, over and over and over.  Some times getting little or no sleep.  Heck, throw in walking a mile to use the internet and eating sand during dust storms and I'm basically describing utopia. 

(American Enterprise Institute) Stop-loss is now the subject of an eponymous film that tells the story of three soldiers who return from Iraq and attempt to handle the burdens of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while re-entering civilian life as sons and husbands. When Staff Sgt. Brandon King is stop-lossed and told that he will be returned to the war in Iraq rather than be released from the Army, he flees his post in an effort to escape the orders. King's flight forces his friends and family to choose whether to support him and ultimately brings him face-to-face with the costs of abandoning one's comrades.

Not surprisingly, the movie has met with an unkind reception among milbloggers. Terri, a blogger at A Soldier's Mind whose boyfriend has served three tours in Iraq, watched the movie and panned it as "unrealistic," "inaccurate" and "inconsistent." She points out numerous factual errors, such as the immediacy of King's orders to return to Iraq, the film's treatment of PTSD and the police manhunt for King. Her conclusion: "It's obvious that this is Hollywood's latest attempt to make the military look bad and to glorify desertion."

A more typical response among milbloggers was to pan the movie without having seen it. Both "SSG Thul" at Foreign and Domestic and "Deebow" at Blackfive cheered the movie's poor takings during its opening weekend, as the film posted eighth at the box office. Thul concludes that the film did poorly because "Americans don't want to go see a movie that tells them that they are stupid because they are Americans." Deebow asks why there have been so many movies that criticize the war but none celebrating real-life heroes who fought in Iraq and have died for their brothers in arms.

The one sympathetic milblogger review of "Stop-Loss" that I found was by Carissa Picard, on the Military.com Daily Election Center Blog. Picard, founder of the soldier's advocacy group Military Spouses for Change, attended the movie's sold-out premier at Fort Hood, Texas, and interviewed audience members afterward. A notable (and vocal) segment of the audience included members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, which had organized a group to attend the premier and distribute anti-war literature. They agreed with the film's premises and thought that it provided a fair treatment of what they view as a betrayal of American soldiers. (AFJ staff writer Chuck Vinch reviewed "Stop-Loss" favorably, concluding, "'Stop-Loss' is not an anti-war film; if anything, it's pro-troops.")

Read the entire story here.

Smedley "The Camel Spider" is still living with us in our tent.  I took it upon myself to do some scientific research so I went on over to Wikipedia and read more about camel spiders.  Here's what Wikipedia says:

"In the Middle East, it is widely rumored among American and coalition military forces stationed there that Solifugae will feed on living human flesh. The story goes that the creature will inject some anaesthetizing venom into the exposed skin of its sleeping victim, then feed voraciously, leaving the victim to awaken with a gaping wound. Solifugae, however, do not produce such an anaesthetic, and they do not attack prey larger than themselves unless threatened. Other stories include tales of them leaping into the air, disemboweling camels, screaming, and running alongside moving humvees; all of these tales are dubious at best. Due to their bizarre appearance many people are startled or even afraid of them. The greatest threat they pose to humans, however, is their bite in self-defense when one tries to handle them. There is no chance of death directly caused by the bite, but, due to the strong muscles of their chelicerae, they can produce a proportionately large, ragged wound that is prone to infection."

I was a non-believer, until the other day.  So I was packing my belongings and a spider ran out from underneath my duffel bag.  I hit it with my boot several times and I'm not sure if he got away.  Well, later that night while I was talking to one of my battle buddies --- and in the corner of my eye ---  I swear Smedley was staring straight at me with those little beady angry eyes.  Like he wanted to eat my flesh or something. 

Smedley Update1:  Turns out, Smedley escaped from his cage.  He's small, just over an inch so it wasn't too hard.  Not that I'm scared, but I now sleep with my eyes open.  And all my body armor.  And my M-4.  Hell, I'm not ashamed, I even clutch a Woobie.

(Milblogs) The second annual GI Film Festival will take place in Washington, DC from May 14-18. In addition to film screenings and other fun happenings, the festival will present a series of panel discussions.

The festival has added a panel on milblogging to this year's agenda.

Read the entire post here.

In case you missed Bad Voodoo's War (the personal story of my Platoon), you can watch it online. If you did watch the show and want to share your thoughts, please feel free to share in the Comments section below.

Oh, and yes folks, that's me at the top of the PBS website raising one eyebrow like James Bond. I mean, you can't look like me and not raise one eyebrow during photographs. It's unnatural. Shoot, it was hard enough to resist ripping off my shirt and flexing my pecs and back for the camera.

The New York Times -- Neil Genzlinger

"… this is a very different view of the war than you'll see on the nightly news. …

"The platoon draws the seemingly mundane duty of escorting trucks all around the country, but in this roadside-bomb-based war, of course, it's not mundane at all. [Director Deborah] Scranton, aided by creepy nighttime video, builds the tension effectively toward the inevitable explosion, pausing along the way to fill in the back stories of a few of the soldiers. …"

The Wall Street Journal -- Nancy deWolf Smith

"… What kind of person can face months of such danger, day in and day out? Only the brave, undoubtedly. Beyond that, it is difficult to say much more specific about the men of Bad Voodoo Platoon. Of its 30-something members, only two have been chosen to speak at length here. What they have to say is disturbing on many levels. …"

United Features Syndicate -- Kevin McDonough

"… moving …

"You can't help but be touched by the dedication of these men to their country and to each other. …"

The Star-Ledger -- Alan Sepinwall

"… while admiring the complexity and achievement of [last week's 4.5-hour series] 'Bush's War,' I couldn't help but be more affected by 'Bad Voodoo's War.' Admittedly that's just the nature of the two films -- one a clinical dissection of foreign policy and inter-agency turf battles, the other an intimate, first-person look at only a handful of soldiers -- but if forced to choose one or the other as the proper fifth anniversary commemoration, I'd likely pick the latter…"

The Hartford Courant -- Roger Catlin

"Should be mandatory, albeit not easy, watching. ...

"If last week's massive summary brought us up to date on the history of the Iraq engagement, this week's episode … puts us vividly and uncomfortably in the present. …"

Contra Costa Times -- Susan Young

"… Unlike a journalist embedded with the troops, the camera makes no judgment; no color commentary spews from its lens. Just hard reality that viewers can filter through their own eyes. …"

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"… compelling television …"

The Cincinnati Enquirer

"… these guys make ideal subjects, combining strength and humanity. …"

The Huffington Post -- Leslie Griffith

"… the mother lode of all reality shows …

"Director Deborah Scranton (The War Tapes) uses her brilliant 'subject as reporter' theme to tell Bad Voodoo's War. With very few 'embeds' (journalists reporting from Iraq), Scranton jars us into the reality of war by forcing us to see through the eyes of the soldiers. …" [Read more …]

Blackfive.net

"… The reason I like Scranton's work is that the soldiers tell their own stories - the good, the bad and the ugly - and you get plenty of that in the interviews. Yes, some just want to go home, others want to do the job they've been giving, and others worry about the (lack of) ability for Iraq to provide it's own security. …" [Read more…]

My youngest son Joseph turned 2-years old today. It's the second birthday I've missed because of my deployment.  But it's ok.  My wife has been great about sending me photos and videos of him so I don't feel far away.  He's a real cute kid.  But are you thinking what I'm thinking?  He's not even human, right?  It feels like every time I see a photo or video of him, it's like I'm watching some Saturday morning cartoon.  I, for one, am convinced he's a Care Bear.  I'm pretty sure he's just made of fabric and stuffing.   

He even comes fitted with a sound box that says lines like, "Poo-poo" and "Woof woof".

But honestly, I don't know how well this Care Bear product line did though for Marketing, because my wife still claims to find brown stuff in his diaper at least 5 or 6 times a day.  Some times 7.  Oh, and one time he just stood up, grabbed a box of Crayons and started drawing all over the wall.  I swear, it said nothing of the sort on the box when we bought him.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Feel free to browse through some of my previous entries on him:

How my kids cheer me up during deployment
Check Out The Milblogging.com Store!
My kids enjoying their Halloween treats from a reader
My 1 year old son, having a good hair day
My 1-year old son using his manners
My 1 year old doing Karaoke back in the States
My 1 year old rocking to iPod music - Part 2
My 1 year old rocking to iPod music back home

My wife took this picture back home of my 1-year old doodling on our perfectly good family room wall.  These types of pictures always cheer me up on deployment.  If you haven't seen his artwork before, my son is quite talented.  I mean, just look at that masterpiece.  I'm still sitting here at the computer in awe. 

It's so rich in color and texture.  There's a level of passion one can't even begin to describe in words.  The jagged lines and even the irregularities of the bagel-shaped circles further underline his sense of anger.

Artist Update1: My wife told me by email he got pretty upset when she interrupted him.  By the look on his face, no amount of Oreo cookies or ice cream cones will get rid of this level of rage.

Artist Update2: Based on what I can see in his latest piece, I believe the message he is trying to convey is his frustration with the moral decay of urban America.  My wife on the other hand, however, says he just started scribbling on the wall after she told him it was "nappy time".  Puh-leeassssse.

Artist Update3: This masterpiece has now been named "Nap Time".  Arguably my 1-year old's best known work --- inspired by his outrage at having to take a nap in the middle of the day.

(Cheese's Milblog) Well, it's been some time since I last posted, but I didn't have access to internet at Fort Bragg and I actually just got my blog registered through the Public Affairs Office. It was actually a pretty painless process, but we'll see if they try to hassle me now that I'm posting again.

Read the entire story here.

More about the author

I'm a student and infantry soldier from the Binghamton, New York area. I'm definitely new to this blogging thing, but I'm hoping to capture and share the experience of my second combat deployment.