Milblogging.com : The World's Largest Index of Military Blogs (Milblogs) http://www.milblogging.com/index.php http://www.milblogging.com/interface/feed.png http://www.milblogging.com/index.php Milblogging.com : The World's Largest Index of Military Blogs (Milblogs) Copyright 2012, Milblogging.com Milblogging.com SPHPBLOG 0.5.1 Military: Be mindful of what you say online http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120203-025535 Content awareness important for Facebook users, Family members. Servicemembers as well as their friends and Family members need to be mindful of what they post on their Facebook profile pages. Soldiers are personally responsible for all content they publish on social media sites, blogs or other websites, but a Soldier’s friends and Family members also need to be aware of what they post. A friend or Family member’s post can put a Soldier and his/her unit in danger. It could also potentially damage the Soldier’s career so it’s up to the Soldier to properly educate Army Families on appropriate social media use. "Families and friends must understand operational security," said Staff Sgt. Dale Sweetnam, Online and Social Median Divison, Office of the Chief of Public Affairs. "They need to know what they can and cannot post."
(Belvoir Eagle)

Obama's Google+ Debut: Lessons Learned. In the latest twist on open government, President Obama Monday participated in his first Google+ Hangout, a real-time video meeting with a handful of citizens. The get-together demonstrated social media's potential for enabling a new kind of engagement between the public and the White House. It also revealed a few flaws with the process. The president participated in the webcast from the West Wing of the White House, while participants, selected by Google, joined from their homes in Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas, as well as from John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, Calif...
(Informationweek)

New Google Blogger Changes Enable Country-by-Country Censorship. Google's implementation of country-level domains in order to comply with content-removal requests is similar to Twitter's recently announced policy of blocking tweets within a certain country when forced to do so by an applicable legal order, a move that sparked some criticism online. Internet freedom activists were largely okay with the move, saying that it struck a balance between the legal obligations of a company with global aspirations — it would be harder to apply U.S. law abroad and not local law with staff in each country — and the ideology of a company that has declared that the "tweets must flow."
(TechPresident)

Facebook gave Arab Spring a tool to organise.  Arab activists had long dreamed of revolt, but to dislodge their decades-old autocracies, and amid a widespread crackdown on street protests, they needed a tool and a space to organise. Enter Facebook. After years of sporadic anti-regime protests that were quickly quashed, activists from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya and Bahrain found a speedy, anonymous and efficient engine in Facebook and other Internet social networking sites.Social networks "for the first time provided activists with an opportunity to quickly disseminate information while bypassing government restrictions," Hussein Amin, professor of mass communications at the American University in Cairo, told AFP...
(AFP)

Story behind First World War photo revealed. MISSING details about the life of a First World War hero can finally be told today. This old snapshot was sent into the Chronicle by 89-year-old Elsie Kersley, who believed one of the men, from Newcastle, was her husband’s great uncle. And today, after help from readers, details of his army life can be revealed. Historians Tony Ball and Jeff Bennett believe Elsie’s ancestor George Edward Fender was the Sgt of a Royal Field Artillery battery, who served in the war. And having served with the C Battery of the 47th Brigade he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for bravery...
(ChronicleLive)

South Korean Indicted Over Twitter Posts From North. South Korean prosecutors indicted a social media and freedom-of-speech activist this week for reposting messages from the North Korean government’s Twitter account. Park Jung-geun, 23, a photographer who specialized in taking pictures of babies, was detained last month on charges of violating South Korea’s controversial National Security Law, which bans “acts that benefit the enemy” —North Korea — but does not clearly define what constitutes such acts...
(The New York Times)

Chennault museum to be featured in documentary. Chennault Aviation and Military Museum has been selected as the only organization in America to be featured in a documentary profiling three Americans who embody service to their country. Members of Ironcutter Media of New York were in Monroe late this week shooting the documentary at the museum. The project is being spearheaded by author Alivia Tagliaferri, who was introduced to the museum in September during the “Code of Support for our Troops” relay. The Code of Support Foundation also is a partner in the project...
(The News Star)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120203-025535 Milblogging.com Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:55:35 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=02&entry=entry120203-025535 Jonathan Raab tweeting about mobilization http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120202-172720 Military blogger Jonathan Raab (With a Bible in my Ruck) is preparing for a deployment to Kuwait, but he won't be blogging from Mob station. Instead, he'll be tweeting.

"Follow me on Twitter under the name jpraab. I'll be using the opportunity to post about all the positives of deployment. Ahem", wrote Raab late last month.

He's staying pretty active on Twitter while at Camp Shelby. 

These are some of his recent messages.

-- I saluted a LT who had his hands full. "Really? No, sir? Ok." His frustrated mumblng made my day. #WinKuwait

-- 5 hours of briefings? Yes please!

-- There's a giant dead roach in the urinal trough. Read what symbolism into that you will. #WinKuwait

-- Giving Soldiers hardboiled eggs before they board cramped planes fosters espirit de corps and intestinal fortitude

-- Providing Soldiers with inadequate toilet paper is one method of teaching them resource management and personal discipline.

-- Paperwork snaffus build character. #UnsungMilitaryBenefits

I have to admit, it doesn't sound like much has changed since I was at Camp Shelby back in 2007. 

Oh, how I miss the roaches and inadequate toilet paper.  Good times.

Thanks to Kathi for the tip.]]> Twitter http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120202-172720 Milblogging.com Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:27:20 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=02&entry=entry120202-172720 Military wives turn to Facebook and other news http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120201-105317 Military Wives Turn To Facebook Sites For Support. It's never easy moving to a new town, but when you're an Army wife it's even harder. That's why more and more Fort Hood wives and girlfriends are turning to Facebook for some help. The Wolfe family relocated from California to Killeen 4 years ago. And it wasn't an easy transition. "I didn't know anyone. I only pretty much met wives through my husband," says Jennifer Wolfe, a Army Wife.  That is, until she found the support she needed. Jen and thousands of others are using different Facebook sites to get much needed emotional support, or just to save some money. "There's a local free cycle group that if you just want to clean out your garage and give something to somebody who can use it instead of letting it go in the landfill," says Wolfe...
(KCEN)

No Social Networking for Indian Army. In a one-size-fits-all move, the Indian government has ordered the Indian army to stay away from Social networking of all flavors. This order applies to the 1.13 million strong Indian army which includes 36,000 officers. This ban is unsurprising because India’s citizenry is battling web filtering policies, although the government wants it so badly. Banning all kinds of social media is what can be considered “mega filtering.”
(Tech Wire Asia)

Freed Egyptian Blogger Vows to Keep Up His Opposition to the Ruling Generals. Mikael Nabil—atheist, fan of Israel, conscientious objector—is always the odd man out in Egypt, and when the military assumed power last year, it locked him up right away. Now he’s out and kicking up a ruckus by condemning the protesters he says deserted him...
(The Daily Beast)

Air Force to discipline Airmen over distasteful Facebook picture. A distasteful photograph taken in August and posted on Facebook last December will get 16 Lackland based Airmen military disciplinary action but no criminal charges.  2011 was a public-relations nightmare for the U.S. Air Force.  Over the months, as the details came out about the mishandling of body parts at Dover Air Force base, the PR only got worse as fifteen misguided Airmen posed with a casket and labeled their picture, “Da Dumpt, De Dumpt, Sucks to be U” and posted it on the socail networking site.  The photo immediately went global...
(Examiner)

Defence ministry reaches out to public with new Twitter account and website. SINCE yesterday morning, tweets by the Defence Ministry have entered cyberspace, after the ministry opened its first account on the social media Twitter. The ministry’s first tweet, at 11.04am yesterday morning, featured a welcoming note from the Defence Minister Demetris Eliades to the public and signalled the launch of the ministry’s new website. Eliades said that the ministry’s presence in social media was a tremendous step in enhancing its relationship with society...
(Cyprus Mail)

Website offers window into daily life in Civil War Tennessee. Little-known stories of how Civil War-era Tennesseans lived their lives away from the battlefield are now accessible on the Shades of Gray and Blue website, which includes digitized images of historical art and other cultural material. The unique educational website, which includes contributions from scholars across Tennessee, was created through a collaborative effort of Vanderbilt Libraries, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) Walker Library and the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU...
(Vanderbilt University)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120201-105317 Milblogging.com Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:53:17 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=02&entry=entry120201-105317 Stars and Stripes admits to being duped http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120201-102125 Stars and Stripes ran a story back in January about Staff Sgt. Larry Marquez, a civil affairs specialist, deployed to Afghanistan who told the publication he had previously deployed to Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Marquez apparently lied. 

He hadn’t deployed to Cambodia. 

In a story that was published yesterday, Stars and Stripes admitted they were duped and hadn’t done their research before running the story.

“Stars and Stripes failed to perform basic fact-checking to verify any of Marquez’ claims about his service record. The newspaper was alerted to inconsistencies in Marquez’s account by a blogger, Jonn Lilyea, who runs the military blog “This Ain’t Hell.”

Lilyea raised questions about whether Marquez, whose current age Stars and Stripes reported as 55, would have been too young to serve during the Vietnam War. Lilyea also questioned the timing of Marquez’ alleged year-long deployment in Cambodia, given that most U.S. troops were withdrawn from Cambodia by the end of 1970 and from Vietnam in 1973.

Lilyea pointed to Marquez’s profile on the electronic database Army Knowledge Online, which showed that he enlisted in 1974.

Stars and Stripes then contacted officials with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), or USACAPOC(A), which oversees more than 40 reserve units, including the 425th.

The unit launched an investigation and found that Marquez first enlisted in 1974 at age 18 “and he never served in Cambodia or Vietnam,” according to Lt. Col. Gerald Ostlund, a public affairs officer with USACAPOC(A).”

Marquez’ claims could sound plausible, except for one thing – his age – as This Ain’t Hell military blogger Lilyea pointed out.

I mean, if you do the math, this technically puts Marquez somewhere between diapers and 12 years old when he deployed to Cambodia. 

I’m amazed he even kept a straight face when telling this to a military reporter.

Read more over at Stars and Stripes. ]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120201-102125 Milblogging.com Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:21:25 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=02&entry=entry120201-102125 Nothing criminal in Air Force coffin photo http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120131-032307 Air Force disciplines airmen over coffin photo. The U.S. Air Force will discipline but not criminally charge an unspecified number of airmen over a photograph that went viral showing them clowning around with a coffin used to transport American war dead. "No criminal conduct occurred. However, members who were involved in the photo received administrative actions documenting that their conduct brought discredit to both the military and themselves," Colonel Gregory Reese, commander of the 37th Training Group at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, told reporters on Monday...
(Reuters)

Fort Hood hosts Army's first multimedia town hall. The town hall's multimedia format, utilizing social media via Facebook, a live television broadcast and simultaneously broadcasting the audio portion on the installation's Web-based radio station was a first, not only for Fort Hood, but also for the Army. Other installations have hosted town hall meetings on Facebook, and Fort Hood has previously hosted numerous TV town halls. The two-hour event, the second hour of which was to be televised and available at www.FortHoodRadio.com, elicited more than 400 questions on Facebook and dozens of phone calls...
(Army)

Defense ministry issues guidelines on soldiers' use of social media. SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- The defense ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines on the use of social media by soldiers, with an emphasis on protecting the military's confidential information. The ministry said in a statement the increase in smartphone ownership and the subsequent rise in use of social networking services (SNS) prompted the publication of the guidelines...
(YONHAP NEWS)

VA connects to vets on FB. Hundreds of New Mexico’s military veterans are taking advantage of a social media tool to keep abreast of VA programs.  After its launch in late 2010, the fan base for the New Mexico VA Health Care System’s Facebook page continues to grow. This social media page currently has more than 400 “Likes” from fans across the country.   Its main purpose is to quickly communicate information about VA programs to veterans and others...
(Cibola Beacon News)

Former News reporter embedded in Afghanistan. A former Taranaki Daily News journalist is on the most exciting – and dangerous – job of her career with British troops in Afghanistan. Sharon Marris, 31, says the job as a war-zone reporter is everything she dreamed of since she was a teenager, she wrote in an email to the paper yesterday from Helmand where she is embedded with the British Army. "I'd wanted to cover war and conflict since I was about 15 but as I grew up and realised just how few and far between those opportunities were, I'd almost given up on the idea...
(Stuff.co.nz)

Original Tuskegee Airman Shares his Story and Thoughts on 'Red Tails'. Cornelius Davis hails from Blountstown and was apart of the original chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen.  Cornelius Davis’ home is filled with tons of memorabilia from his days as a Tuskegee Airman. The group was the U.S. War Department’s experiment to prove African Americans were capable of serving as military pilots. Davis says seeing war planes in newsreels are what sparked his interest in aviation at a young age. “All of a sudden, an airplane appeared and dropped a bomb on it and it went to pieces and I'm going to be the one dropping the bomb" said Cornelius Davis, Tuskegee Airman...
(WJHG)

Military to troops: Cameras OK, just be careful. Soldiers who fought overseas during World War II sometimes made souvenirs of Nazi helmets, swords or daggers. Today's troops have war relics, too: digital photos and videos with the potential to reach a vast audience. “Oh yeah, I've got hundreds of ‘em,” said Army Spc. Bryan Bishop, a Florida native stationed at Fort Bragg. He was clicking on his laptop to open files of photos and footage he took during a year-long deployment to Iraq that started in 2009. “I put them up on Facebook and show them to family. People like to look at them.”
(Burlington Times News)

Eqyptian blogger released from prison. "I tell the revolutionaries, if the revolution does not continue and you stop, then you will all end up in prison, and maybe even worse," Maikel Sanad Nabil said in his first news conference in Cairo since he was freed. The 26-year-old Coptic Christian spent months in prison after he was charged with insulting military rulers by documenting their violations on his blog following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, pardoned hundreds of prisoners, including Nabil, days before the first anniversary of the January 25 uprising that toppled Mubarak...
(SBS)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120131-032307 Milblogging.com Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:23:07 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120131-032307 Rest in Peace, Sarge Charlie http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120130-031235 Just a few days ago, I wrote about Army Veteran and military blogger Sarge Charlie in hospice care for lung cancer.

Well, I have sad news to report.  I received news from my friend Kathi that Sarge Charlie has died, just days after the hospice announcement was posted on his site.

One of Sarge’s daughters posted a message yesterday to his blog saying, “Thank you to everyone for the blessing that you have been to Dad and Mom and to our whole family. Prior to Dad's passing, I read him every comment you left. It meant so much to him and he felt your love. I felt your love as I read them.”

Sarge’s wife, who goes by the name Empress Bee online, posted a message on her blog this morning saying, “Nothing can prepare someone for this experience.  I have lost parents and friends and relatives but never my "other half" and I don't know yet what to expect but will soon find out I know.  I am strong and will (eventually) be fine.  Keep on keepin' on y'all... I will too. “

He will be buried in South Florida National Cemetery with Military Funeral Honors on Friday, February 3.

In lieu of flowers, if you wish you may make a donation to the Fern House.

Fern House, Inc. 501(c)(3)
1958 Church Street
West Palm Beach, Florida 33409
Ph (561) 471-0430 ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120130-031235 Milblogging.com Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:12:35 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120130-031235 The military and cameras in war zones http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120130-020018 Military adapts to cameras in war zones. Soldiers who fought overseas during World War II sometimes made souvenirs of Nazi helmets, swords or daggers. Today's troops have war relics, too: digital photos and video with the potential to reach a vast audience. "Oh yeah, I've got hundreds of 'em," said Army Spc. Bryan Bishop, a Florida native stationed at Fort Bragg. He was clicking on his laptop to open files of photos and footage he took during a yearlong deployment to Iraq that started in 2009. "I put them up on Facebook and show them to family. People like to look at them."
(The Charlotte Observer)

'Nigerian Scam' Emails Now Arriving with a Military Twist. The well-known "Nigerian Prince" email scam -- also known as the 419 scam -- seems to be getting a military twist. I got an email yesterday from a person identifying himself as "Capt. Joe Patton Jr." of the 395th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in Afghanistan. Seems Capt. Patton needs my help getting a couple of "military trunk boxes" out of Afghanistan and back to the states. He assures me that the project will be "of mutual interest for the both of us and will never expose you to any form of risk."
(Fort Stewart Patch)

Pat Tillman's cleats hawked on eBay. Here's the latest from the sometimes sleazy sports memorabilia market. A man is trying to sell dead war hero Pat Tillman's autographed game cleats on eBay for $3.2 million, according to Fox Sports. The eBay listing claims the former Arizona Cardinals safety wore them during a regular season game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2000...
(USA Today)

The great Twitter protest … that wasn't.  If you Googled the words "Twitter blackout" yesterday, the search engine returned more than 85 million hits. Evidence, surely, of global outrage and a backlash against the microblogging website by its army of users, or "tweeps". Well, no. Or not, at least, in the UAE, where reaction to Twitter's new policy of country-specific censorship of content seemed to be bemusement that there hadn't been more of a reaction...
(The National)

Michiana photographer offers military families special gift. Professional photographers are giving military families in Michiana a gift only they could provide to troops serving our country overseas. Photos for Soldiers is a program started by Clare DeHann, a professional photographer out of Niles, Michigan. The program is designed for military families with loved ones overseas. DeHann and nine other photographers all over the Michiana region are offering to shoot free photo sessions for military families, and then send the pictures to the brave man or woman fighting to protect the freedoms we enjoy...
(ABC57)

Dissident blogger attacks Egypt military after release. Egypt’s revolutionist blogger, who was incarcerated for his staunchly critical writings against the military, has stepped out unsoftened from prison, lashing out at the Army in his very first appearance and recounting his 10 months behind the bars. In his first address after being "pardoned" from his two-year prison sentence, Maikel Nabil said he was drugged before his interrogation and forced to watch other prisoners being tortured during his 302 days in jail...
(Hindustan Times) ]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120130-020018 Milblogging.com Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:00:18 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120130-020018 USA Today sucks at writing military headlines http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120129-074114 Here's an article by well-known military blogger Alex Horton who now blogs for the VA.

The title of the story is "Perpetuating the Erroneous “Ticking Bomb” View of Veterans".

The story was written in response to USA TODAY's most believable headline ever where they so professionally lump together "vets" and "ticking bombs" --- Police get help with vets who are ticking bombs.

Alex writes:

"A few weeks ago, we warned against an increasingly prevalent narrative in news: That war Veterans are violent, unstable, and dangerous. I explained why that simply isn’t the case, and how those aspersions can hurt Vets and deepen the divide between us and civilians.

Thursday, the national media moved a step closer to establishing this unfortunate characterization as conventional wisdom in the newsroom. USA Today, a national newspaper second to only the Wall Street Journal in distribution, published a story with a headline brimming with violent imagery"

A lot of people aren't too thrilled about the USA Today story. 

As Alex points out, Ron Capps, a contributor to TIME’s Battleland, called the headline “absurd.”

On a random note, what's with all reporters bribing and hacking to get new stories?  Who knew?

Via: Bouhammer]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120129-074114 Milblogging.com Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:41:14 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120129-074114 Fort Hood multimedia town hall a success http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120129-063207 1st Fort Hood multimedia town hall deemed success. Nearly 100 leaders and experts from Fort Hood sat ready in front of a computer Thursday night. As part of Fort Hood's first multimedia town hall meeting, they waited until 5 p.m. to answer questions from the public. The use of multimedia platforms, including Facebook, television and radio for this type of event marked a first for the Army. "We are truly breaking some new ground in terms of TV and Facebook," Fort Hood Commander Lt. Gen. Donald Campbell said as he addressed the group. Soldiers, families and community members could either post their questions on Fort Hood's Facebook page or call their questions in...
(Your News Now)

Wisconsin soldier's debut novel about Iraq earns good reviews. The bottle of water thrown from a passing semitrailer truck attracted a little girl who desperately wanted it. It spun into the road. The tiny girl ran toward the prize, a treat for the kids who lined the road waiting for American convoys to rumble through day and night in the Iraqi border town of Safwan. But the girl didn't reach the water bottle in time. She was crushed under a truck wheel. By the time Ben Buchholz arrived, the scene was chaotic. It was Buchholz's second day as a civil affairs officer and liaison between the U.S. Army and the Iraqi leaders in Safwan...
(JSOnline)

VA Gulf Coast now active on Facebook. The VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care system, along with more than 150 other veterans medical centers throughout the country, is now active on Facebook. VA Gulf Coast, which serves 60,000 veterans from Biloxi to Panama City, can be accessed at www.facebook.com/VABiloxi...
(Pensacola News Journal)

Iraq War veterans share stories from overseas during welcome-home parade in St. Louis. Veterans who attended the nation’s first major Iraq War parade Saturday in St. Louis said they appreciated the welcome home, even though some expected to be redeployed to Afghanistan or elsewhere in the coming months. Here are a few of their stories...
(The Washington Post)

Indian Army asks soldiers not to show affiliation to force on social networking sites. The Indian Army has asked its officers and personnel to remove all the pictures and information showing their affiliation to the service from their personal profiles on social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut. As per the circular issued in October last year, all officers and personnel have been asked to remove such pictures and information from their respective profiles in three months and that deadline expires in the next few days, Army sources said here...
(OdishaToday)

Twitter users stop tweeting to protest ‘censorship’. Twitter users are being urged to go on strike today in response to the company’s decision to block or remove tweets in specific countries. Previously posts could only be removed globally.  However, this new move has angered freedom of speech and information advocates such as Reporters Without Borders. Twitter Account holders are being asked to not tweet on Saturday in protest...
(euronews)

Maikel Nabil recounts his prison experience. Nabil's charges were based mainly on a blog post that he wrote on 7 March titled “The army and the people were never one hand,” in which he accused military forces of being implicated in killing protesters during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. On 22 January, only three days ahead of the anniversary of the 25 January revolution, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, pardoned 1959 prisoners who had been sentenced by military courts...
(Al-Masry Al-Youm)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120129-063207 Milblogging.com Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:32:07 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120129-063207 Old Blue launches new milblog from the 'Stan http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120128-232232 Old Blue has launched a new military blog to help tell the story of his third deployment to Afghanistan.

For his first hand perspective, visit afghanblue.com.

About the blog:

In 2007, I started writing a blog called, “Bill and Bob’s Excellent Afghan Adventure.”   That blog, in the days before Facebook, was started as a way to journal for my family and friends.  It was a way for me to share my experiences.  If Facebook had been as popular then, I may never have written a blog that could be found by anyone who stumbled across it.   It turned out that many more would read my writings than just family and friends.  Thousands more.   As time went by, I started to write also about counterinsurgency (COIN) and stability operations.  By the time I rolled the original blog, hosted on blogspot, into a new blog, AfghanQuest, I was blogging mostly about COIN, and those who had enjoyed reading about the experience of serving in Afghanistan no longer found what they were looking for.  Some very good people pointed that out to me, and this blog is the place where I will tell those stories.  I will still write on AfghanQuest, but that writing will be what people have come to expect to find there.  For those of you who read my posts before, thank you and welcome back.  I sincerely hope that you enjoy this just as much.

About Old Blue:

I’m Old Blue, a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom who has 27 months experience in Afghanistan in two tours. On my first tour, I was an embedded advisor with the Afghan National Police in Kapisa and Nuristan Provinces, Afghanistan.  My second tour found me teaching counterinsurgency, or COIN, in Afghanistan. I had the opportunity to train military members and civilians from over 30 countries. I got to spend some time in the East, including revisiting Kapisa and Tag Ab. I also spent a lot of time in Helmand Province, mostly working with British forces. The thing I am proudest of from my second tour is being part of the team that wrote the COIN Qualification Standards that were signed by the Secretary of Defense as the tasks that units will train to perform prior to deploying to Afghanistan.

A Senior NCO with 29 years of service in the Army National Guard, I fit the “old dog” name I have adopted.  I was raised in the Army of the Cold War, trained in the tactics of AirLand Doctrine developed to fight against the former Soviet Union and used to great effect in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.  After all that I found myself in a counterinsurgency fight; so I had to learn a new way of warfare.

My quest in Afghanistan parallels my nation’s quest; finding a new role in an increasingly globalized world.  The United States finds itself the  world’s only true superpower, but with great power comes great responsibility, such as assisting developing nations to develop rationally.  Greater security can be found in furthering good governance, development and the provenance of justice rather than in enforcing our will by force of arms.   Unfortunately, until the insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan is quelled, these things cannot be achieved there.  However, if the United States can assume the role of mentor, advisor and enabler of development, perhaps future conflicts can be avoided altogether.  Insurgencies can be avoided and terrorism prevented from developing.

In the meantime, I will do what I can to help speed success in Afghanistan. I believe that success can best be accomplished through the adaptive and intelligent practice of population-centric counterinsurgency.

I am the father of four children; two girls and two boys.  I live in Cincinnati, Ohio.  My intent is that someday my children will visit Afghanistan as tourists, not as Soldiers. ]]> Afghanistan Military Bloggers http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120128-232232 Milblogging.com Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:22:32 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120128-232232 Indian Army banned from social networking? http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120127-024407 No more Facebook for Indian Army. The Indian Army is reported to have issued orders asking all its men, officers and other ranks, who had joined social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut earlier to immediately quit them. Those who have not joined such social networking sites have also been directed not to be available in such sites in future...
(Times of Assam)

4 naval officers leak confidential info on social media, face action. NEW DELHI: Four naval officers are in the dock after they were reportedly found divulging information about the location of warships and other confidential data on social networking websites, which was even being accessed by foreign nationals... 
(The Times of India)
 
Agencies Create Database to Protect Troops, Quell Swindlers. Their presence outside military bases has become all too familiar: businesses peddling cars, electronics and other items with undisclosed conditions or sky-high interest rates that quickly become a financial nightmare for service members. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced as one of its first orders of business that it is partnering with the Federal Trade Commission to put a stop to such scams...
(Department of Defense)

Think twice before posting info on Facebook. Facebook. It seems like everyone, and everything, has a Facebook page. From middle school students to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, millions of people, businesses and military organizations log on to Facebook every day to share information, interests and news. For members of the U.S. military and other government agencies, Facebook makes keeping in touch with friends and family easier than ever...
(The Fort Leavenworth Lamp)

Cairo Contagion: Military Tracks Uprising’s ‘Infectious’ Ideas. The revolt that started a year ago today in Egypt was spread by Twitter and YouTube, or so the popular conception goes. But a group of Navy-backed researchers has a more controversial thesis: Egyptians were infected by the idea of overthrowing their dictator...
(Danger Room)

Facebook Report 320% Increase in Subscribers for Journalists. Yesterday Facebook + Journalists staff posted an update on how journalists are using the ‘Subscribe’ button, which was introduced in September 2011. The subscribe feature is useful for journalists as it means they don’t have have accept friend requests, but instead allow people to subscribe to their public updates, which will appear in their newsfeeds...
(Simply Zesty)

In Africa, Kenyans are second in using Twitter. Kenyans are the second most avid users of Twitter on the continent, new research has revealed. “Young people tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa,” reads the survey that was launched in Nairobi on Thursday...
(Daily Nation)

Very young Egyptian blogger and writer Ali Hisham shares his views with Sarah Eissa on Egypt and the future. Playing on and searching for the latest video games, reading teen magazines and hanging out with friends are what teenagers usually do. But 14-year-old Ali Hisham would rather write short stories and blog... 
(Al-Ahram Weekly)

FBI would like to follow you on Facebook and Twitter. The FBI has got tired of monitoring social media sites manually and wants to reinvent the process. So, soon your posts may instantly light up on a map as a big red dot if considered suspicious, marking the location of the ‘bad actor.’
(RT)

Pressure mounts on Havana as Brazil grants visa to dissident Cuban blogger. The Brazilian government has granted a tourist visa to the dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, adding pressure on Havana to allow her to leave the island. The move comes days before Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, visits Cuba, where she is expected to meet the country's former leader Fidel Castro, and its current president, Raúl Castro...
(The Guardian)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120127-024407 Milblogging.com Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:44:07 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120127-024407 Milblogger and Vet Sarge Charlie in Hospice http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120126-190908 Sarge Charlie


Retired Army Veteran and military blogger Sarge Charlie is in hospice care for lung cancer.

Sarge and his wife have been together 44 years.  She also maintains a blog called muffin53 where she goes by the blogger handle Empress Bee.

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, Sarge wrote a post titled “Que Sera, Sera Whatever will be will be”.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I opened Miss Bee’s blog this morning and this photo jumped out, it shows us where we have been and the fact is we are going where we are going and we have very little control over that. Miss Bee did not explain herself but I immediately knew what she wanted to say.

You folks know that I have been on a 44 year journey with Miss Bee and yesterday we learned that that combined journey could end soon. During my visit with my favorite doctor, Dr. Green we learned that my chemo treatments have stopped working and that the lung cancer has reappeared in my right lung with free cells found outside the lung. That prompted discussions about serious stuff, like how much time do I have, what can we do now. Dr. Green suggested that we be certified for HOSPICE which we have done. Care and comfort treatment will be provided by them for the balance of my time. Dr. Green and Dr. Wacks will still be my doctors but any medication/equipment needed will be provided by Hospice of Palm Beach County, which just happens to be among the best in the country. Since Daughter #1 is working with Hospice for many years now we know a lot about it and realize what an excellent service Hospice provides.

Sarge ends the post by saying,  “I am not wanting to make a lot of people sad, but if you got a little extra love to spare, take it over to Miss Bee’s place and give her a big hug.”

You can visit Sarge’s blog here to read the entire post and visit Miss Bee’s place here.

Thank you to Kathi for sharing this sad news and powerful story.

Image via Sarge Charlie.

]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120126-190908 Milblogging.com Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:09:08 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120126-190908 US Army says please use Facebook responsibly http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120125-180253 Facebook: Please use responsibly. Facebook. It seems like everyone, and everything, has a Facebook page. From middle school students to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, millions of people, businesses and military organizations log on to Facebook every day to share information, interests and news.For members of the U.S. military and other government agencies, Facebook makes keeping in touch with friends and family easier than ever...
(The United States Army)

FBI releases plans to monitor social networks. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly. The plans show that the bureau believes it can use information pulled from social media sites to better respond to crises, and maybe even to foresee them...
(New Scientist)

Thomas Wootton graduate founds veterans group at Google. Google, where Laureno works in the marketing department, donated 600 Chromebooks — fast-acting laptop computers — to the American Red Cross in October. The Red Cross then distrubuted the computers to Walter Reed, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia, Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina, Navy Medical Center San Diego in California and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The initiative came from the Google Veterans Network, which consists of nearly 500 Google employees who are either veterans or want to support the veterans community...
(Gazette.Net)

Egyptian Revolution's Biggest Name Shuns Politics, Spotlight. On February 8th, 2011, the Egyptian revolution was at full throttle, just three days from deposing President Hosni Mubarak. Despite the momentum of the masses, there was no leader, no individual who rose up from the anger and bloodshed. But when a Dubai-based Google executive got on stage on Tahrir Square on February eighth and grabbed a microphone, the crowd erupted...
(ABC News)

After four years in jail, Burmese blogger finds country on cusp of change. Burma’s Nay Phone Latt is many things – a poet, a blogger, a political dissident. On January 13, he also became a free man. After four years behind bars, Latt was among 651 prisoners released by the Burmese government as part of a mass amnesty. The move has been interpreted as the latest indication that Burma is slowly easing towards a more democratic model. The newly liberated Latt is cautiously optimistic about his country’s future...
(The Observers)

Officials: Scam database will protect troops. Federal officials have begun tracking companies and individuals who repeatedly target service members with scams, officials announced Wednesday. The nationwide Repeat Offenders Against Military (ROAM) database will allow state, local and federal officials to act more quickly to stop fraud against service members, veterans and their families, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman...
(ArmyTimes)

Anti-Extremism Cops Call Blogger In for Questioning. A federal anti-extremism police division asked popular blogger and photographer Ilya Varlamov for information regarding photographers suspected of infiltrating military facilities, Varlamov wrote on his LiveJournal page Tuesday. Varlamov spoke with police after receiving a phone call requesting that he come to talk with officers at the Central Division for Anti-Extremism, the article said...
(The Moscow Times)

Kansas attorney general targets scams that prey on military families. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is asking other states to cooperate in a new federal database that will track scam artists who target military families and try to elude authorities. “Crooks and scam artists who prey on military families require a particular focus from law enforcement authorities,” Schmidt said...
(LJWorld.com)

Sundance Documentary Examines Rape In US Military. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 military men and women were sexually assaulted by fellow troops in 2010 while serving in the United States armed forces. At least 20 percent of servicewomen and 1 percent of men — an estimated 500,000 troops — have experienced sexual trauma while serving...
(NPR)

Duke Faculty 'Live Tweet' Obama's State of the Union Speech. Duke faculty experts got the jump on network television commentators Tuesday evening as they "live tweeted" President Obama's State of the Union speech. Duke's Office of News and Communications organized the conversation at #DukeChat, linking to broader international discussion about the speech at #SOTU...
(Duke University)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120125-180253 Milblogging.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:02:53 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120125-180253 Reporter, photojourno travel to Afghanistan http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120125-175002 For those of you reading the headline above, yelling at your computer screen: "I don't believe a word of this!  It’s IMPOSSIBLE!"

No, seriously, it's true... 

There are other reporters who embed with military units other than blogger Michael Yon (who is no longer in Afghanistan).

From CBS / Dallas Fort Worth:

“CBS 11 anchor Keith Garvin and photojournalist Edgar Solis are traveling to Afghanistan to see the U.S. war effort firsthand. In February they will bring back a series of stories about our troops there.  While they are traveling, Keith is writing this blog for CBSDFW.COM.”

You can read all the stories from Afghanistan here. ]]> Afghanistan Military Bloggers http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120125-175002 Milblogging.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:50:02 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120125-175002 DoD blogger joins wife of Vice President Biden http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120124-181133 Family Matters Blog: Blogger Joins Bidens’ West Coast Trip.  Last week, I traveled to California to join Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, as she embarked on a West Coast Joining Forces tour. Dr. Biden had arrived with her husband a day earlier than me, so I caught up with her at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she was participating in a roundtable discussion on military kids and how schools across the nation can better support them...
(Department of Defense)

Army Asks Soldiers to be Cautious on Facebook. Facebook. It seems like everyone, and everything, has a Facebook page. From middle school students to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, millions of people, businesses and military organizations log on to Facebook every day to share information, interests and news...
(Military.com)

Edmunds.com Advises Military Personnel to Watch out for Deceptive Car Sales Practices. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, reports that members of the U.S. military are particularly vulnerable to deceptive practices by unscrupulous car salespeople. Trained to respect authoritative figures and say "yes, sir!" or "yes, ma'am" in response to direction, service members are at unique risk in a high-pressure sales environment.  Edmunds.com Senior Consumer Advice Editor Philip Reed warns that crafty salespeople may even demonstrate patriotism just to lower resistance to a sales pitch...
(MarketWatch)

Story of Civil War traveling on wheels. Civil War history, for a change, seems to be going over well with the diverse sample of humanity who pour through the former Confederate capital each day. That’s the impression one gets from talking with people—state workers, lawmakers, teachers and out-of-town visitors—who saw Virginia’s museum-on-wheels on Day 1 of its visit to Richmond’s Capitol Square...
(The News Desk)

Gamers are enlisted to battle bugs in military weapons. Software bugs can prove deadly on the battlefield — a lesson learned when a buggy Patriot missile defense system failed to intercept a Scud missile that killed 28 American soldiers during the first Gulf War in 1991. To prevent such weapons disasters, the U.S. military wants to transform dull bug-hunting tasks into fun problem-solving games that attract swarms of online players...
(MSNBC)

Military Vet Who Needs New Kidney Scoops $14m Lottery Jackpot. A military veteran in dire need of a kidney transplant has won a cool $14.3 million in Wisconsin’s Megabucks lottery. Napolean Elvord scooped the jackpot on January 14, yet didn’t realize he was a millionaire until several days after the draw had taken place. Indeed, the winning $1 ticket was still on Elvord’s dining table when it was announced the winning ticket had been sold at a Wisconsin Mobil station...
(The Inquisitr)

Protesters feel time ripe to launch second uprising. In sharp contrast to their unison during a revolt that swept long-standing president from power, Egypt's protesters and the military are at odds what shape the first anniversary of the uprising should take. Increasingly sceptical about the military junta's agenda, several protest groups see the anniversary a fresh occasion to "launch a second revolution"...
(gulfnews)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120124-181133 Milblogging.com Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:11:33 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120124-181133 Fort Hood Town Hall to integrate Facebook http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-150129 Talk about some smart marketing, the Fort Hood Townhall for the first time will integrate Facebook, according to an Army press release. 

“The Fort Hood Facebook and TV Town Hall, which will run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (CT) on Jan. 26, will combine social media, over-the-air television broadcasts and Internet radio for the first time in an attempt to engage as many community members as possible during the event,” writes Dave Larsen, III Corps and Fort Hood Public Affairs.

The press release goes on to say:

The first hour of the town hall will be hosted on Facebook alone. This is the first time social media will be used to conduct a town hall event at the installation.

"The Fort Hood Facebook site has more than 13,000 followers," explained Christie Vanover, chief of command information for Fort Hood and III Corps. "It's a powerful tool for the command to get out its messages, and during the town hall, a powerful medium to engage our military community."

I don’t think the Army needs to explain why it’s planning to use Facebook to get out it's message. 

It's like me trying to explain to you that you should drink water to stay hydrated.  Or drive with your eyes open.

More here. ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-150129 Milblogging.com Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:01:29 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120123-150129 Is Google censoring content? Other news... http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-142747 Is Google selectively censoring content on its blogging platform, Blogger?  Today, Egyptian blogger and activist Ramy Raoof shared a post on his blog in which he called Google out for censoring one of his Blogger posts, based on what they called copyright violations. In his post, Raoof shared the details of the situation, including his correspondence with Google. On December 19, he posted an entry entitled “Military Forces Attack on Female Protesters”...
(The Next Web)

'Red Tails' doesn't do its story justice. Even a volleyball-playing Tom Cruise can't disprove the fact there's nothing cooler than an American fighter pilot. Firefighters can talk all they want about how cool saving lives is, but they're not saving lives at hundreds of miles an hour. Unless some station finally invested in those catapults I've been talking about for years. If that's the case, then they might have a legitimate claim to being as cool as fighter pilots, so long as they've also added racing stripes to their uniforms...
(Tri-City Herald)

Rwanda: Why Locals Love Twitter, Facebook. Gone are the days when internet was for exchanging important emails and accessing websites one deemed important for their work - and that was all. In comes the era of Twitter and Facebook, the two social networking platforms that have since changed the world, with suggestions that this form of new media had helped spread the Arab Spring like wild fire, sweeping three long-serving North African leaders off their feet within just a matter of months...
(AllAfrica)

"Invisible War" exposes widespread rape in U.S. military. Rape in the American armed forces is an issue that has quietly been gathering attention over the past decade. But it exploded with the power of suppressed fury at the Sundance festival's Friday afternoon screening of the documentary "The Invisible War," a devastating indictment of the government's inaction on the issue...
(Chicago Tribune) ]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-142747 Milblogging.com Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:27:47 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120123-142747 Milbogger Michael Yon has a way with words http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-142506 Ahhh, looks like military blogger Michael Yon is trying to work his way back into the good graces of the military.

In the last day he's posted several messages on his Facebook Fan page.

Take a look below at some of the snippets:

"Remove our Main Battleforce from Afghanistan"

"The Army continues to send out bogus information. I just saw another response, this one from the office of a Senator, who was deceived by an Army statement on Dustoff MEDEVAC issues. If I were a Senator and discovered that generals deceived me during wartime, there would be hell to pay."

"Senior leadership is both the roach and the boot, stomping itself flat in front of a world audience."

It's public statements like these that have me wondering why he's not invited to embed. ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-142506 Milblogging.com Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:25:06 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120123-142506 C-17 crash news posted to Facebook not true http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-175110 Here's a story about an “apparent misunderstanding” that ended up online, and I'm starting to see why people shouldn't rely on Facebook to get their news.

A person posted a message to the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Facebook page saying that a JBLM based C-17 had crashed into military housing. 

Before the rumor got squashed, it had caught the attention of two TV stations and spread to the Facebook pages used by other Army units at Lewis-McChord, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

You know what I consider a misunderstanding?

When I order curly fries and they bring me regular fries.

Jesus, the person may as well have posted a message that said a meteor the size of Texas was headed for Earth.  And the only way to stop it was to send the world's best deep core drilling team and have them land a space-shuttle on it and nuke it.]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-175110 Milblogging.com Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:51:10 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120122-175110 High-profile blogger ordered released http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-130729 Egyptian blogger Nabil slated for release.  A high-profile political blogger was among the detainees ordered released from custody in Egypt during the weekend, his family said. Maikel Nabil's father, Nabil Sanad, told reporters he and his legal team were coordinating his son's release with government officials and that it could come as early as Monday. Nabil has been locked up for nearly a year after being charged with insulting the Egyptian military during last year's "Arab Spring" uprising. Nabil wrote a blog posting questioning the armed forces' motives in the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and put the military virtually in charge of the country, the Egypt Independent said...
(UPI.com)

Coming to the web: Twitter in Arabic. Hundreds of volunteer translators from the UAE have been working on an international project to create an Arabic interface for Twitter. They are part of an army of more than 2,500 translators from 28 countries involved in the #Taghreedat (or, #LetsTweetInArabic) initiative, and organisers say close to 400 of the volunteer force live in the UAE. Support for the project has snowballed, with the number of followers of the Taghreedat Twitter account doubling from 15,000 to more than 30,000 since November. And 10 per cent of these followers are from the Emirates...
(The National)

Pleasant Hill man's film experience shines spotlight on veterans and their sacrifice.  Shining a spotlight on veterans and their sacrifice turned into a rewarding creative outlet for Joe Springer.  The Pleasant Hill man wrote the script for "Honor Restored," a World War II documentary just-released on DVD, and worked on the production of "The Wereth Eleven," a docudrama which aired on National Geographic and was reworked and released on DVD last fall.  "It's some of the best fun I ever had," said Springer, who retired after 25 years in the Air Force and moved back home to Pleasant Hill...
(Whig)

‘Military friendly’ camera-free iPhone goes on sale in Singapore. Singapore mobile carrier M1 has begun offering camera-free iPhones on its website, sister site CNET Asia reports. The phones are designed and marketed for subscribers who cannot use a smartphone with a camera — such as military and government personnel. Singapore’s Defense Ministry has released guidelines for personnel about the use of smartphones for security reasons, and smartphone carriers were required to present certifications to ensure their devices had been approved...
(ZDNet)

George Lucas's battle to bring the story of black WW2 pilots the Red Tails to the big screen. They were among the most heroic fighter pilots in World War Two. The courageous and daring US Red Tail squadrons destroyed 112 German planes in the air, another 150 on the ground, hundreds of trains and trucks, even a ship. Their bravery was the stuff of legend. Their devotion to their ­country unquestionable. Scores of pilots were ­awarded medals. Yet there was no heroes’ return for them after the war. Because the pilots, more than 400 of them, were all black...
(Mirror)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-130729 Milblogging.com Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:07:29 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120122-130729 War widow shares story of loss in blog post http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-100450 Patty Gutierrez posted a blog to the GilroyPatch about her story of love and loss.

Her husband, SSG David H. Gutierrez, was killed on Christmas Day 2009, by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Afghanistan.

Patty writes:

We had a wonderful life and a great marriage. We went from Georgia to Tennessee to Hawaii to Washington state. David was in Korea for a year before he was deployed to Iraq with his fellow Wolfhounds, and then to Afghanistan with the 2-1 Infantry out of Ft. Lewis.

The first five months of his deployment were hard because we had to rely on letter and phone calls for communication. But once his unit arrived at their permanent Forward Operating Base (FOB) they got Internet!  For almost one month, David and I Skyped everyday, although we downgraded to Yahoo Instant Messenger on the days that I was at work. It was a wonderful blessing to have that option. We talked, laughed, cried and even argued—but we we were able to actually see each other. 

David got to see our boys and they were able to share moments with their father. One of his last statements was, “Just a couple more weeks till R&R.”

The last time we talked was Christmas Eve his time and Christmas Eve Eve our time.  He watched me wrap presents and heard me yell at the tree in the background as it was starting to tip over.  After some laughter, he told me he had to go to a leadership meeting, and then patrol. He said that he’d be right back on the computer to wish us a "Merry Christmas.”

You can read the entire story here. ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120122-100450 Milblogging.com Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:04:50 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120122-100450 Special Forces social networking & other news http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120121-043358 Special Forces Get Social in New Psychological Operation Plan. The elite forces of the U.S. military think they’ve found a new way to sway opinion in the Pentagon’s preferred directions: a voice-based social networking app that’s a cross between talk radio and Twitter...
(Wired News)

Show turns war stories into works of art. An art show put together by PIENSA: Art Company, 701 Whaley and Hidden Wounds will feature works of art showing off stories told by returning American soldiers. Robert LeHeup, a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and one of the organizers of the event, says the show gives audience members an introspective view on the impacts of war told through visual interpretations of the stories of those who have lived them...
(WIS TV)

Mobile Civil War exhibit headed to Va state Capitol.The Virginia Civil War 150 HistoryMobile is scheduled to roll into the state Capitol next week. The interactive museum on wheels is housed in a 53-foot expandable tractor-trailer. It will be at the state Capitol Jan. 23 to Jan. 27. The HistoryMobile was developed in partnership with the Virginia Historical Society and the National Park Service. It draws together stories from all over Virginia and uses state-of-the-art technology and immersive exhibit spaces to present individual stories of the Civil War from the perspectives of those who experienced it...
(The Republic)

Editorial: Don't defend Marines in Taliban desecration video. In the week since video surfaced depicting Marines urinating on the corpses of what appear to be Taliban fighters, a big backlash of support has emerged for the four men. Their defenders ask: How dare anyone criticize brave American troops who lost comrades in battle? What about atrocities committed by the Taliban? Don't people understand that war is hell? And how could urinating on a corpse be worse than killing someone in the first place?
(USATODAY)

Nurse tells inspirational war story. Terri Arthur, of East Falmouth, had always wanted to write a book. But being a nurse kept her too busy to write — for 40 years. When Arthur retired from Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, she wasn't content to sit back and eat the proverbial bonbons. She was determined to write a book. Arthur found her inspiration when she stumbled upon a set of vintage postcards depicting a young British nurse named Edith Cavell...
(SouthCoastToday.com)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120121-043358 Milblogging.com Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:33:58 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120121-043358 Michael Yon drives people bonkers http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120121-042612 I know you're probably sick of Michael Yon posts, but he’s still making the news this week for trying to screw the military. 

I think at this point we all know there is zero chance of Michael ever being in the news for anything other than slamming our Armed Forces.  I’m pretty sure he gets up every morning, guzzles down some Tiger Blood, then concocts his next scheme.   

From msnbc:

The  tradition of using unarmed helicopters dates back to the Vietnam war, apparently in support of the Geneva Convention. Instead of bearing weapons, the choppers display the Red Cross symbol, which the Army contends has been successful at keeping the enemy from targeting them.

Specifically, the Army contends that even an armed medical evacuation helicopter would have had to wait for another armed helicopter escort to provide top cover while on the ground. Even the most heavily armed attack helicopters always travel in pairs, no matter what the mission, the Army says.

The Peoria Journal Star writes:

Yon, a former soldier, has embedded dozens of times and has a certain level of celeb status in the milblog world. People either love him or hate him. He takes great pictures, understands the troops but is very candid at times and drives people bonkers with his statements.

It's nice to see even the press knows he drives people bonkers. ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120121-042612 Milblogging.com Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:26:12 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120121-042612 Terrorists are friending people on Facebook http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120119-195757 Terrorists Now Friending on Facebook. A new generation of Americans is being taught to guard their online identities with care and discretion.  Children are taught that stranger danger extends to the World Wide Web. Young professionals set privacy settings to keep their Internet-savvy bosses away from incriminating photographs or less-than-tasteful status updates.  They all post, delete, comment and re-post incessantly, carefully crafting their online presence for friends and followers to consume one tweet at a time...
(OhMyGov)

Military releases first photo of officer accused of espionage. The Canadian Forces on Thursday released their first picture of accused Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle. It's a photo from the 2008-09 yearbook at Royal Military College, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 2010. The naval intelligence officer doesn't have an official deployment headshot picture, they say, because he was never deployed overseas...
(The Globe and Mail)

Guidelines encourage caution when using social media. The phenomenon known as social media is utilized by many different businesses, organizations and individuals. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are used as marketing tools since all have the ability to reach a wide ranging audience. But, there are dangers that come with utilizing social media outlets, most notably for those associated with the military are security breaches. The Army created the Online and Social Media Division within the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs to inform Soldiers of the dangers of social media and how they can protect themselves...
(Belvoir Eagle)

Russia Doesn't Want You To See These Pictures From Inside A Top Secret Military Factory.  The Russians are outraged with blogger Lana Sator, and her friends, for sneaking into this active NPO Energomash rocket factory. The Telegraph reports that Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin is saying the top secret facility, and others like it, will all have new security by the end of the month. Calling the bloggers "cheeky mice," he said anyone allowing the same security breach in the future would be harshly punished...
(Business Insider)

Department of Defense: Phones can’t outsmart troops. The video of four Marines appearing to urinate on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan raises troubling questions not only about military discipline and the laws of war but also about technology on the battlefield. Simply put: With camera-ready smartphones within reach of nearly every service member, is technology outpacing efforts by military commanders to harness it?
(Politico)

State Senator Jessica King denies knowing blogger Ian Murphy. State Sen. Jessica King said the first time she met Ian Murphy — originator of the "fake David Koch" phone call and blogger who delivered disparaging remarks about military personnel — was at a Fond du Lac event Jan. 7 hosted by Democrats supporting a recall of Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy gained a measure of notoriety when he pretended to be billionaire David Koch and contacted Walker, who then made remarks he later said he regretted...
(Appleton Post Crescent)

2nd officer favors court-martial in WikiLeaks case. A low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history is a step closer to a general court-martial, the Army says, after a second officer signed off on the procedure. Col. Carl Coffman sent his recommendation Wednesday to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, according to a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press. Linnington now must decide whether to order a trial for Pfc. Bradley Manning...
(USATODAY)

Bogus army offers jobs in the military. A bogus “army” leader who targets poor people, charging them R150 for a job in the military, has been taken hostage by angry residents who uncovered the scam.  The drama unfolded right in front of the Daily Voice in Tafelsig this week as the self-styled “Khoison Kingdom and All People Party” (KKAAP) tried to lure locals into their scheme...
(IOL News)

Chairman Explains Joint Operational Access Concept in Blog. The nation’s top military officer wrote in a blog post yesterday about a new Defense Department concept to assure U.S. forces entry and sustained access to any contested domain: land, air, space, sea or cyber. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Joint Operational Access Concept is based on the defense strategic guidance President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta released this month...
(Department of Defense)

U.S. Soldiers’ Cruel Beating of Sheep Is Part of Military’s History of Animal Abuse. Last week, as the major networks and newspapers burned hot with the story of four young U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of several dead Taliban fighters somewhere in the unforgiving wilds of war-torn Afghanistan, a video crossed my desk showing U.S. service members engaged in behavior so barbarous that it makes piss-gate look like a Boy Scout cookout. And yet, despite the fact that it depicts similarly clad troops operating in the same theater of war, chances are you haven’t even heard about it...
(The Philly Post)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120119-195757 Milblogging.com Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:57:57 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120119-195757 Facebook Urinegate page launched for Marines http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120119-165222 Urinegate Facebook page


Apparently someone has launched a Facebook page to show solidarity for the Marines caught on video urinating on dead Taliban fighters.

The title of the Facebook page: Stand United with Our Marine Heroes Against 'Urinegate'.

Because everyone knows when you want to rally SERIOUS support for a cause, you must include the word "Urinegate".

The page has over 1,300 likes at the time of this story.

Found at: Washington Times

]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120119-165222 Milblogging.com Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:52:22 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120119-165222 Russian blogger sneaks into missile factory http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120118-175317 Russian blogger sneaks into missile factory near Moscow, raising fears over security.  Photos snapped by a young Russian blogger who says she snuck into a missile factory near Moscow are making waves on the Internet -- and raising serious questions over the country's ability to protect its weapons stockpiles. Lana Sator says that she and some friends managed to enter the rocket-making facility on five separate occasions, each time going undetected by security guards, according to Reuters...
(NY Daily News)

Detached from reality?: Army PR accused of being shallow and too manipulative. The government of Armenia has recently initiated some legislative changes that it hopes will, among other measures, ensure stronger discipline in the armed forces. The move is a response to the need to curb the rise of non-combat deaths in the ranks.  Meanwhile, in order to maintain public trust towards the army the government has also been carrying out a campaign through movies and TV serials, which, however, as some experts argue, should be a more coordinated effort. The quality of such campaigns and their approach often become subjects of criticism...
(ArmeniaNow)

Group still collecting stories from veterans. The national Veterans History Project series of audio and video interviews in the Aiken-Augusta area is starting to wind down, said the coordinator, Augusta resident Fred Gehle of the Richmond County Historical Society. When Gehle agreed to take on that role, he thought that effort might last a year. That was in 2007 and nearly five years later, volunteers have made possible archival interviews with nearly 750 veterans - more than 200 of them in Aiken and surrounding South Carolina counties...
(Aiken Standard)

Facebook revolutionary of Tahrir Square.  HE was the nerd who shook the world. When Wael Ghonim, a self-effacing computer geek, was arrested at the beginning of the Egyptian revolution a year ago, few but a handful of his comrades protesting in the streets knew who he was, or that he was missing. When he emerged from jail 12 days later and made a tearful speech that was picked up by international media, the 31-year-old Google executive gave the flagging revolution a vital shot in the arm - and, for the first time, seemed to identify a leader from the masses crowded into Tahrir Square...
(The Australian)

Brevard veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen tell moviemakers their stories of WWII. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen will be depicted in the Lucasfilm movie “Red Tails” — so named because the planes they flew had their tails painted red — being released Friday. Mann, of Titusville, was interviewed by filmmakers when the project was getting started about three years ago...
(FLORIDA TODAY)

U.S says al-Qaeda magazine found in Guantanamo prison cell. A copy of a magazine published by an arm of al-Qaeda made its way to a terror suspect at the Guantanamo Bay prison, leading to an inspection of cells and a contentious new policy requiring special review teams to examine correspondence between prisoners and attorneys, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday...
(USATODAY)

Quantum Leap sees gold in mining social media data. He has helped the military predict where bombs will go off and worked with law enforcement to fight crime, but now Quantum Leap Innovations CEO Joseph Budner Elad wants to use his technology to help consumers. On February 29 the Newark, Delaware, based company will release Quantum Leap Buzz, a tool that uses pattern based analytics for social media, starting with Twitter, to mine data from the huge amounts of information created on these sites every day...
(CNBC)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120118-175317 Milblogging.com Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:53:17 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120118-175317 Milblogger Michael Yon to do Dennis Miller http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120117-050517 When we last left military blogger Michael Yon he was busy insulting the military by calling the leadership cowards.

Now he’s going to appear on the Dennis Miller show according to one of the latest posts on his Facebook fan page:

“Will come on the Dennis Miller show Wednesday. Time TBA. I greatly like coming on with Dennis because he always does his homework and is prepared. Plus when I stumble he just makes a joke and rolls on. :)

His website has free, live streaming so that Josephine can listen from Sweden, Claudia from South Africa, Larry from Alaska, Staci from Arizona, Ooy from Thailand, and IJC and ISAF (HQs that hate me but that keeps me warm) from Afghanistan.”

If you have nothing better to do, like say watch paint dry or take a nap, then maybe I’d say tune in.

Did I mention Work It will be on? ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120117-050517 Milblogging.com Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:05:17 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120117-050517 Twitter war over dead children http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120116-195234 Kenya-Somali insurgent information war heats up over claims of dead children. An insurgent spokesman and residents in a southern Somali town said two Kenyan fighter jets apparently targeting a militant camp instead killed five children, as a Kenyan military spokesman said Monday that the jets hit an al-Shabab command center. The competing claims are typical in the monthslong battle between Kenyan troops and al-Shabab militants inside Somalia. Both sides use social networking sites to broadcast claims in the battle, but hardly any of those claims are verifiable by independent journalists...
(The Washington Post)

Tampa veterans' stories compiled in book. There might be no better place to listen to war stories than a mobile home park in Florida, where many veterans live out their lives in sunshine and peace. That's the idea that struck Ed Bedore, a retired Navy seaman first class who served during World War II. His community of the Regency Cove mobile home park off Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa is rich with veterans, and stories pour out like fine wine from a vintage cask. Bedore is the carafe, collecting those stories and putting them down in print...
(TBO.com)

Veteran seeks family of World War II soldier depicted in discarded photo album. Russ Bennett calls his unknown soldier the "Treelawn Vet."  Because that's where, a few months ago, his friend found an album of more than 120 photos of a bygone GI of World War II. The album was lying among furniture discarded along a street in Old Brooklyn...
(cleveland.com)

Perry Defends Urinating Marines. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said it would be "over the top" to file criminal charges against U.S. marines who were recently captured on video urinating on corpses in Afghanistan. “Eighteen to 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what occurred here,” he said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Several U.S. Marines were pictured in an Internet video that went viral this week. The incident, which was denounced by top U.S. military officials, is currently under investigation...
(National Journal)

iPhone 4S surgery blinds smartphone for military shoppers.  Apple’s iPhone is undergoing some unofficial surgery to make it more palatable to military users, with carriers in Singapore reportedly removing the camera from the smartphone so that it can be used in secretive workplaces. The warranty-busting modification was first tipped by a hastily-pulled product page from carrier M1, the Jakarta Globe reports, which listed the tweaked iPhone 4S at more than $900 with a new agreement...
(SlashGear)

Blurring the Lines Between Work and Personal Life on Facebook. Who Employs Gen-Y? According to the survey, the largest single employer of Millenniels is the U.S. Military. In conjunction with this, “Government/Military” is the third most popular industry listed on Facebook pages.Just behind the military sit corporate giants Walmart (WMT: 59.54, +0.04, +0.07%), Starbucks (SBUX: 47.36, -0.24, -0.50%), Target (TGT: 49.82, +0.01, +0.02%), and Best Buy (BBY: 24.29, -0.47, -1.90%)...
(Fox Business)

The Coolest Air Interception I Have Ever Seen. This image is now making the endless copypaste Tumblr rounds wrongly labeled as "missiles in the stratosphere." But if those are not really missiles, what are they? The answer is much more interesting, according to Military.com...
(Gizmodo)

Images tell stories of 'consequences of war'. For nearly 10 years, almost as long as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, local artist and Carnegie Mellon University art professor Susanne Slavick has been creating artwork that responds to those wars. Along the way, she noticed other artists doing the same...
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Twitter generation fuels rage of Nigeria gas protests as users demand end of corruption. A nationwide strike and demonstrations have unleashed years of pent-up frustrations in Nigeria over its kleptocratic leaders, and the rage has grown even stronger across social media this week. Twitter users shared pictures of dead protesters while others broke down the oil-rich nation’s 2012 budget figures, comparing funds allocated to the president and vice president’s offices with the cost of living of the average Nigerian...
(The Washington Post)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120116-195234 Milblogging.com Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:52:34 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120116-195234 'Band Name: Gays in the Military' goes viral http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120115-224556 The tweet “Band Name: Gays in the Military” is going viral on Twitter.

The message was posted by @rainnwilson, best known as Dwight Schrute on the sitcom The Office.

I’m not sure why the tweet is going viral, but at the time of me posting this story, it’s already been retweeted by 100+ people with no signs of slowing.

It should be noted that Rainn Wilson has nearly 3 million Twitter followers, so he could pretty much tweet anything like “I just tied my own shoes” and it’s almost guaranteed to go viral. 

Whereas I could post the cure to acne and it might get a click. Thanks, Mom. ]]> Twitter http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120115-224556 Milblogging.com Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:45:56 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120115-224556 Yon says he'll never be allowed an Army embed http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120115-064204 Military blogger Michael Yon who many love to hate and others support unconditionally (like many of his fans on his Facebook page) has just posted an update on his fan page about the Joint Chiefs of Staff sending a letter to the House Armed Services Committee.

“The JCS letter specifically addresses my MEDEVAC dispatches. The office of a Congressman forwarded the JCS letter to me with questions. Unfortunately, the JCS letter is full of fallacies. The JCS letter is complex and so is taking days to respond as I fact check with pilots and other officers and NCOs,” writes Yon.

Yon finishes off his post by saying, “Needless to say, they'll likely never let me near another Army embed.”

And of course, like clockwork, Yon’s fans rush to his aid.  Here's a look at the ultimate comment posted so far.

"Bet when all this is over and all red crosses are off those choppers, you come out as a hero and their begging you to embed cause you are the good guy. Everyone wants to be with the winner don't they and that's you is it not. Good luck with that tricky letter, bet every word has to be weighed on a gold scale."

So not only is Yon going to be hailed a hero, but the military is going to roll-out the red carpet and come begging for him to embed?

I’m pretty sure if I asked the same person if Yon should run for President, they’d tell me, “Are you stupid or something? Of course he should,” then run off to Facebook and launch a “Michael Yon for President” page. ]]> http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120115-064204 Milblogging.com Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:42:04 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120115-064204 Dangerous social media games & other news http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120114-183431 Dangerous social media games. The emergence of China's "50 Cent Army" in 2004 marked a new phenomenon by paying commenters, working for or in close conjunction with the state, in an attempt to influence local attitudes. In the years since, numerous governments have tried their hand at similar efforts, with varying degrees of success. Now, a new plan exposed by the Electronic Intifada reveals that Israel's National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has created a scholarship programme to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to "help in the struggle against the delegitimisation of the State of Israel and against hatred of Jews in the world" by refuting online misinformation. Students would be required to attend training, after which they would be paid to work five hours per week from home...
(Al Jazeera English)

Former Navy Sailor Charged in Rape of Minor. On Myspace.com, former Navy Sailor Joshua Wyly and his wife Rachel appear to be a doting parents to their two young children. But federal prosecutors say don't let the pictures fool you, because Joshua sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl and Rachel watched it happen. "She took the pictures of her husband sexually assaulting this six year old girl that was in their care,"said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alessandra Serrano in an exclusive interview with NBCSanDiego...
(NBC San Diego)
 
Desecration of battlefield dead as old as war itself, but so is the taboo against the practice. Since before Achilles dragged Hector’s body around the walls of Troy, warriors have been desecrating the corpses of their vanquished enemies, whether to send a message or exact revenge. And for just as long, they have known in their hearts it was wrong...
(Washington Post)
 
90% of terrorism conducted through social media. Washington: About 90 percent of organized terrorism on the Internet is being carried out through the social media, an expert has suggested.  According to University of Haifa Profesoor Gabriel Weimann, terror networks are successfully utilizing the social media especially Facebook and Twitter to hire new members and gather new intelligence...
(ZEENEWS)

U.S. Marines grilled over urination video. Four U.S. Marines seen in a video urinating on blood-stained corpses of Afghan militants have been questioned over the scandal, which has deeply embarrassed the military, American officials said on Friday. All four men are from a sniper unit in the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and they were grilled by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service which is leading a criminal inquiry into the affair...
(Edmonton Journal)

Pieces of the Past: Book compiling soldier's letters provides insight into Civil War. Charlie Biddlecom went to war twice. The first time he left behind his wife, Esther Lapham, whom he had married in 1854, and three young children. With enthusiasm to settle the score after the South fired on Fort Sumter, he and a number of other upstate men enlisted. Biddlecom joined the 28th New York Volunteer Regiment and started off to war in June 1861 from Canandaigua. His regiment then moved to Albany and camped with the 16th New York Regiment...
(The Ithaca Journal)

Kenya army apologises for 'misleading' stoning tweet. A Kenyan military spokesman apologised Thursday for a "misleading tweet" he posted the previous day linking to pictures of a man being stoned to death by Somali Islamists. Kenya in mid-October rolled tanks into Somalia, in order, it said, to fight the Shebab Islamists it blames for a spate of kidnappings on Kenyan soil...
(StarAfrica)

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to open Marine aviation exhibit. James Butcher was a 20-year-old lance corporal who had been in Vietnam only a couple of months, but that was long enough to realize that the scene in front of him — a Marine, sitting alone, waiting for his flight at the Phu Bai Air terminal in 1967 — was a powerful image of solitude and quiet that war so rarely affords...
(Washington Post) ]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120114-183431 Milblogging.com Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:34:31 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120114-183431 Baseball bat sheep beating video by military http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120114-173703 Sheep Beating Video


Because of the power of social media and mainstream media, by now every American has seen or knows about the video of Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Now, a video of a sheep being beaten to death with a baseball bat as soldiers look on has appeared online.

I don’t know anything about the situation, but it’s a pretty brutal video.

I mean, I can see if this sheep had been responsible for wiping out an entire village with little sheep-missiles mounted to his back, why someone might be soo angry at the little guy, but I'm guessing minutes before the video was taken the sheep was doing nothing more than grazing outside quietly. 

The bottom line is, if the plan was to eat the sheep, there are quicker and more humane ways to do the whole thing.

From HuffPo:

We only know, from watching the video and seeing the mood of the soldiers -- and what appears to be a local lad who arrived with the animal -- that the sheep could only have come to a very nasty end. He or she tries to rise several times but the soldier continues to thwack away amid the laughter.

PETA did what it always does when someone blows the whistle on these incidents of gratuitous cruelty: We wrote to Secretary of the Army John McHugh [PDF] and then, when no answer was forthcoming, to other high-ranking officers, including Chief of Public Affairs General Stephen Lanza and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command David E. Quantock. No one -- not PETA and not the thousands of people who have seen this video and are rightly disturbed by it -- has received any acknowledgment, not even a single comforting word, that an investigation has been started.

You can watch the video here. Warning for viewers, from what it looks like it takes a good 10 blows to the head before the sheep goes down for good. 

Source:  PETA via Huffington Post

]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120114-173703 Milblogging.com Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:37:03 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120114-173703 Gay military Facebook page temporarily suspended http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120113-031012 Gay military group’s Facebook page back after fear it ‘infringed own rights’. The Facebook page of the US military’s gay support group OutServe has been briefly suspended and reinstated after a user reportedly claimed it was infringing its own rights. The social network suspended OutServe’s page after an individual posing as the group’s legal representative said the page, with over 11,000 fans, was not authorised. AMERICAblog said a fake name and email address were used to tell Facebook the page was infringing its own rights...
(Pink News)

Dissident republican bomb attack was targeted using Facebook. A soldier who narrowly escaped a dissident republican bomb attack was targeted using Facebook, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. The Scottish soldier's alarming security blunder could have cost him his life during a festive visit to Belfast...
(Belfast Telegraph)

War veterans tell their stories. First-hand accounts of World War II battles and experiences have been recorded for posterity, with the completion of 50 video interviews of locals who served overseas. Over the past year, part-time historian and past editor of the Stratford Press Ray Cleaver of Mangatoki has been gathering war stories from World War II veterans around Taranaki...
(Stratford Press)

Top Slideshows of 2011: No. 3, next generation weapons. Now that 2011 is in the rear view mirror, the Dayton Business Journal is offering a second look at our Top 10 most-popular slideshows of the past year. No. 3 is a slideshow of the next generation of weapons systems that are in use or in development by the U.S. military, including the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton...
(Dayton Business Journal)

Overheard on CNN.com: Marine urination video draws thousands of story comments. The story of a video purporting to show U.S. Marines urinating on dead bodies has generated thousands of fiery comments. Our readers were split between those who were outraged by this action on the deceased, and those who felt we should not be too quick to condemn the soldiers. One one hand, the commenters suggested we could be arming oppositional groups with fodder for anti-U.S. rhetoric...
(CNN)

Video of Urinating Marines Could Be a Defining Image of Afghanistan. The Pentagon opened a formal probe into a video showing Marines in Afghanistan urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters, but the move may not be enough to prevent the footage from becoming one of the defining images of the long and deeply unpopular Afghan War. The probe formally unveiled by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday came less than a day after the video began widely circulating over the Internet...
(National Journal)

Egyptian blogger reviled for being pro-Israel. The Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad was one of the first people to be criticized by the military government following the fall of President Mubarak. He has been imprisoned since March 2011. While international demands for his release get ever louder, in Egypt he is subjected to widespread abuse, mostly in the form of insults and accusations. So what has he done?
(RNW)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120113-031012 Milblogging.com Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:10:12 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120113-031012 200K followers for @MichelleObama on 1st day http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-200643 Looks like First Lady Michelle Obama may get at least 200,000 followers on her first day of Twitter.

As tweeted about 11 hours ago, the account will be managed by campaign staff, with any tweets from the First Lady herself signed "-mo."

She follows exactly five other Twitter users.

You’ll never guess who they are. Okay, maybe you will.

@Messina2012 Campaign Manager, Obama for America
@WhiteHouse Official WH twitter account
@letsmove Official WH twitter account
@JoiningForces Official WH twitter account
@BarackObama Run by #Obama2012 campaign staff ]]> Twitter http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-200643 Milblogging.com Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:06:43 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120112-200643 Execution photos on Twitter misleading, so? http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-193932 Major E. Chirchir on Twitter


Looks like the Twitter war is heating up again between the Kenyan military and the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

Turns out the harrowing tale and photos of an execution by stoning posted by Kenya Military Spokesman @MajorEChirchir were a bit misleading.

Monsters and Critics has the story.

“The Twitter battle took a new twist Wednesday when Major Emmanuel Chirchir, the spokesman, posted images of a man being stoned to death, claiming the victim was a Kenyan being executed in the Somali insurgent stronghold of Kismayo.

Mukhtar Ibrahim, a Somali-American journalist, swiftly pointed out on his Twitter account that the pictures were originally published in 2009 and were of a man being executed for adultery.

Moreover, Ibrahim noted, the incident took place in a different town and was carried out by another organization, Hizbul Islam - an Islamist group which was independent at the time, although it has since merged with al-Shabaab.

The pictures in question actually finished second in the 2010 World Press Photo general news category awards, raising the question how Chirchir could have hoped to successfully misrepresent such high-profile images.”

Granted, posting misleading information isn't smart, but don't forget: Al-Shabaab are TERRORISTS.

Not to mention members of their group today were responsible for the stoning.

In case I haven't made it crystal clear, I can’t stand the fact Twitter allows terrorists to use its site.

]]> Twitter, News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-193932 Milblogging.com Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:39:32 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120112-193932 Terrorists using social networks to recruit http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-040811 Terrorist groups recruiting through social media. International groups that have been declared terrorist organizations in the West, such as al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, have shifted their recruitment to social networks like Facebook and Twitter to attract members across borders and gather intelligence, according to a new study. "Today, about 90 per cent of organized terrorism on the internet is being carried out through social media. By using these tools, the organizations are able to be active in recruiting new friends without geographical limitations," said Gabriel Weimann, of the University of Haifa...
(CBC News)

The Army is reading your Bradley Manning tweets. Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports on the extent to which the Army’s public affairs office is interested in public and media opinion of the Bradley Manning case, noting that P.R. staffers prepared daily summaries of the coverage of the ongoing legal proceedings. This bit jumped out at me: The Army used a commercial service called VOCUS to track traditional and social media coverage of Manning’s hearing...
(Salon)

Panic Grips Kenyans as Terrorists Spread Threats via Social Media. Anxiety is gripping Kenyans as Al-Shabaab militants intensify threats of terror attacks on the East African nation via social media and mobile phones. The Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group has in recent days issued strong warnings that it will bomb Nairobi and other major cities. The militants on Monday released a video through online social networking service Twitter...
(CRIENGLISH.com)

Steven Spielberg: 'I grew up with stories about war'. Steven Spielberg is talking about the best piece of advice he ever got. It came from François Truffaut, the nouvelle vague director Spielberg cast in his 1977 sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He'd seen him perform in his own 1970 film, The Wild Child, and wrote the role of the French government scientist with him in mind...
(The Independent)

War 2.0: Attack of the ‘Saudi’ hacker. Israel, a country well-known as a terror target, is puzzled by the actions and identity of a “Saudi hacker” who may or may not be a cybergenius. Welcome to the future of terrorism and warfare. Our story begins with a break-in at “ONE,” an Israeli sports-oriented Web site: On Jan. 2, instead of the usual soccer scores, the compromised site carried a message linking to a separate site, pastebay.com...
(NYPOST.com)

WWII vet's dog tags returned after 66 years. A Marine Corps vet who fought in World War II received an unexpected gift at his retirement home this weekend: a military identification tag he had lost more than six decades ago. Richard Urie lost the dog tag when he was stationed on the island of Saipan in 1945, reported The Boston Globe on Wednesday. A Saipan resident had found the tag in 1981 in a yam field, reported The Globe, but it was only a few months ago that Urie, an Internet-savvy 86-year-old, found out via his Facebook account that a piece of his military history had been uncovered...
(MSNBC)

Use An iPhone? Yup, The Government Tracks That. Last week, an Indian hacker crew successfully broke into a secured Indian military government network. The group, the Lords of Dharmaraja, posted documents that infer Apple, Nokia, and Research In Motion gave the Indian government backdoor access to their devices in exchange for mobile phone market rights...
(Fast Company)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120112-040811 Milblogging.com Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:08:11 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120112-040811 Marines peeing on Taliban vid spreading on net http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120111-234957 This is a very unfortunate situation.

A video that shows Marines in Afghanistan urinating on dead Taliban is spreading across the internet.

From Military.com:

The incendiary video circulated quickly Wednesday by email and through mainstream media reports, including CNN. If military officials confirm that it shows what it appears to show, it could spark outcry in Afghanistan and around the Muslim world, as the latest apparent example of disrespect by American troops.

In the video, one man jokes, "Have a great day, buddy!" and another calls the experience "Golden -- like a shower." The video appears to have been captured by another member of the unit with a cellphone or handheld video camera.

The dead men's clothes are bloody, as though they have been shot, and they lie near a wheelbarrow that has been knocked on its side.

You can also read more about the story here on Marine Corps Times.

WARNING: Graphic video of the incident has been posted to the website. ]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120111-234957 Milblogging.com Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:49:57 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120111-234957 Twitter could be sued for allowing terrorists http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120110-044840 The Most Infamous Terrorists on Twitter. If even your grandmother is on Twitter, you can bet terrorists are too. And that's what got the micro-blogging service in trouble this weekend, as an Israeli legal group threatened to sue Twitter for allowing terrorist organizations such as al-Shabaab and Hezbollah to use its services. "It has come to our attention that Twitter Inc. provides social media and associated services to such foreign terrorist organizations," wrote Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center. "Please be advised that (doing so) is illegal and will expose Twitter Inc. and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized."
(The Atlantic Wire)

In 3-year task, Madison volunteer transcribes nearly 1,000 Civil War letters for computer age. Bill Morrissey of Madison has a new appreciation for the joys of letter-writing. Sure, up here in the real world, people are always tweeting and texting, messaging, blogging and Facebooking while they follow and "friend" and e-chat each other up. But every Tuesday evening and Friday morning, Morrissey walks down a simple staircase in Memorial Town Hall in Madison and the modern world just falls away. Down there, in the Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archives, he enters the world of the Civil War era, when people wrote letters as part of daily life...
(The Republic)

New tech lets you stay connected far from home. If you’re already feeling homesick after holiday leave — or only made it home for Christmas in your dreams — you can find plenty of new ways to reconnect with friends and family even while stuck in far-flung places. Sure, there’s always AIM, Facebook Chat and Skype, but those may not deliver exactly what you want. Some of the newest ways to keep connected to those who matter most...
(Army Times)

Recruiting goes online - Terrorists making 'friends' on Facebook. Several terrorist organizations such as Hamas have evolved to digital media as a means if recruiting fanatical followers. This alarming trend is also a way for terrorists to gain intelligence of enemy soldiers. Social networking websites such as Facebook have assisted many groups in recruiting members for their chosen cause. The sky is the limit as to what a group can advocate, and usually mean no harm in the process of attempting to reach their desired goal. That is, unless that group is an online terrorist organization...
(Digital Journal)

Area Group Introduces New Veterans' Website. Thanks to a group of local volunteers, there's a new way for area veterans to share their stories of military service and connect with one another on the internet. My Military Hero and My Military Buddies were both designed by Michael Morgan of Shoal Creek Designs in Litchfield, with the help of Korean War veteran Will Tackaberry and fourth grade teacher Marchelle Kassebaum. About 20 veterans were on hand for the website's debut on Thursday, Dec. 29, at Russell Elementary School in Litchfield with special guests State Representative Wayne Rosenthal and Litchfield City Administrator Andy Ritchie. Both men are veterans as well...
(The Journal News)

Problems with battlefield smartphones. In mid-November, when the Army asked soldiers to test and appraise the high-tech communications devices that came from what’s left of the JTRS program, the answers they got were not exactly reassuring. After gathering in a dusty valley ringed by low mountains in New Mexico, a part of the White Sands Missile Range, the soldiers jumped from armored vehicles in a “village” composed of cheap plywood-and-concrete structures, including one with the word “mosque” sprayed on the side...
(iWatch News)

A war photographer struggles back to the ordinary in ‘Time Stands Still’. Why is it that a loving relationship is more apt to withstand bombs than the dormant aftermath? Playwright Donald Margulies poses this question in the steadily engrossing “Time Stands Still,” a drama at Studio Theatre performed with the polish of a splendidly synchronized string quartet. The four actors at director Susan Fenichell’s keenly realized command — Holly Twyford, Greg McFadden, Dan Illian and Laura C. Harris — apply a completely convincing varnish to the framework of Margulies’s story, set in the exposed-brick Brooklyn apartment of McFadden’s James and Twyford’s Sarah, journalists returning from harrowing stints in Iraq...
(The Washington Post)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120110-044840 Milblogging.com Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:48:40 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120110-044840 HuffPo covers #MilitaryMonday Twitter hashtag http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120110-042842


The Huffington Post covered the Twitter hashtag #MilitaryMonday yesterday. 

Although there is still some debate whether Twitter’s algorithm prefers #MilitaryMon or #MilitaryMonday, the bottom line is military support is a good thing.

Here’s what the HuffPo had to say:

Join the numerous nonprofits, military families and thankful Americans who are taking to Twitter and tweeting support and words of thanks this #MilitaryMonday.

Help raise awareness about issues such as veteran hiring, or share a note of gratitude for our troops by including the hashtag #MilitaryMonday in your tweet.

There is also a slideshow that highlights many of the tweets posted yesterday.

Source: The Huffington Post

]]> Twitter, News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120110-042842 Milblogging.com Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:28:42 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120110-042842 Twitter Press Conf. upsets Sudan activists http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120109-174908 State's first Twitter press conference angers Sudan activists. The State Department tried something new last Friday, answering selected questions posed via Twitter. Today, a Sudan human rights organization that was one of the selected questioners called the answer it got on Sudan policy "unconvincing," "unacceptable," "a broken record," and "condescending"...
(The Cable)

Embedded with the reenactors. For hours I had listened half-asleep through my white canvas tent to a crowd of middle-aged men confabulating about their muskets, their outfits and the costs of their campfire boilers, but it was only after that big kaboom, the great wake-the-hell-up call for war, that I began heralding the day. Immediately a question presented itself...
(Salon)

Media is AWOL on Iraq coverage. The U.S. war in Iraq ended just before Christmas, and if you blinked you probably missed it. TV news coaxed some seasonal sentiment out of the troops getting home for the holidays, but the Sunday-morning talk shows -- where news of consequence is usually autopsied -- barely noticed. The Beltway sages had weightier matters to discuss, such as the Gingrich ascendancy and the latest congressional standoff. The silence was understandable because the topic is so awkward. The Iraq war wasn't a defeat, like Vietnam...
(South Bend Tribune)

OPSEC, AF Core Values Vital in Social Media. While Airmen are encouraged to tell the Air Force story, they should be mindful to do so in ways that lend credit to themselves and the service, officials said. With the emergence of social media, information sharing has changed in unprecedented ways. It continues to be dynamic and evolving. Now a cultural norm around the globe, social media is part of the daily activities of Airmen and their families, who use social media sites to stay connected...
(Military.com)

Apparent military dating scam. On Friday, Cindy Rowland was hoping to finally meet the man she hoped would be her future husband.  They have never met face to face, but have communicated on-line for months.  She said he said he was Sgt. Scott Montoya of the United States Marine Corp.  She learned of him through her sister, Betty Duling of Newaygo County.  Duling had met another alleged Marine in Afghanistan through the dating web site benaughty.com... 
(WZZM13)

Professor finds journalistic potential in drones. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a drone? University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism professor Matt Waite has created a drone journalism lab. With a small amount of funds and a drone, Waite aims to write a book on how drones can be used to gather information for reporting...
(Daily Nebraskan)

Vietnam veteran devotes his time to preserving others’ stories. By the end of today, 28 World War II veterans from Kansas will have died, according to Col. Herb Duncan. He wants to make sure their stories don’t die with them. Duncan, a Vietnam veteran, has videotaped the stories of numerous veterans for the past 10 years to benefit future generations and the veterans’ families. He said he got started by interviewing his seven uncles during a family reunion, including one who told him he sank a Japanese battleship by himself.
(The Wichita Eagle)

VA expands Facebook presence to every medical center. The Veterans Affairs Department is spreading its use of social media to make it easier for veterans and family members to access services. VA started with a single Facebook page in 2008 and now has more than 150 pages for each of its medical centers...
(FederalNewsRadio)

Iran cracks down on Internet as parliamentary elections near. As Iran nears its March 2 parliamentary elections, Tehran is adding new surveillance measures over its citizens’ Internet freedoms. In a briefing on Friday, the Department of State, said that the move will cut Iranian citizens off from the “global conversation.” The announcement comes as Iranian authorities work to develop a national intranet, which would effectively replace the World Wide Web for Iranians...
(The Daily Caller)

Somali insurgents’ adoption of Twitter takes Kenya by storm. The Twitter account of a Somali militant group threatening stability in the horn of Africa has garnered a surprise following among social media devotees in Kenya. “Yes, I am following them, out of curiosity,” said Sumeya Ali, a student at the United States International University in Nairobi. “They say keep your enemies closer. So, I guess that would be one of the main reasons why I am following them.”
(UPI.com)

Somali Insurgents on Twitter. The mere fact that this group has a Twitter account may seem surprising to those who may have viewed this small, Islamic militia as being unsophisticated. That is exactly the point. War analysts think that al-Shabaab is trying to change perceptions others may have of them as being like cavemen.  One analyst says, “Al-Shabaab is using Twitter as a platform to help amplify its victories, downplay its defeats and show that it has a bead in modern technology”...
(WebProNews)]]> News Stories http://www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry120109-174908 Milblogging.com Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:49:08 GMT http://www.milblogging.com/comments.php?y=12&m=01&entry=entry120109-174908