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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! April 5, 2005
By Greyhawk |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
Comments (0) |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
The Ukrainian Antonov AN-225, launching out of Baghdad International after delivering election materials. The symbolism shouldn't be lost on anyone here. Photographer: Greyhawk, with Camera provided by 
Sergeant Missick has some great pictures - one of an antennae against the skyline is beautiful - http://www.missick.com/missickpictures.htm - unfortunately, the pics don't have individual links.
Doc in the Box (Dustman) has a photoblog - http://dustmans.fotopages.com/
Lt Currie at Turning Point has some great pics -
http://currierd.typepad.com/photos/if_not_for_the_children_t/children_mem1.html and here's a great one he took of his pal Thunder Six - http://currierd.typepad.com/photos/the_turning_point/happiness.html
Speaking of Thunder Six - here's his shots of Iraq - http://thunder6.typepad.com/photos/panoramas/index.html
Great idea, Hawk! These guys have talent!!! Pulitzers all around (plus the 10k could buy a lot of beer)...
Lance in Iraq has many pictures, any of which could beat the AP's. Just go scroll:
http://iraq.billhobbs.com/
Too many of them show happy Iraqi children, so I guess they wouldn't meet the Pulizer standards.
Here are some of my photos from Camp Bucca when I was deployed there early in the war:
http://schadenfreude.cogitox.com/archives/000033.html
http://schadenfreude.cogitox.com/archives/000016.html
I LOVE this idea! I'll be cruisin' through that collection often!
Any votes for hot Lebanese protesters?
The bottom one may not be the prettiest picture but I think that it's the best photograph. There are some really interesting things going on with perspective.
Cheers for Malkin, BlackFive and Mudville!
Taking that total negative and making it positive is outstanding.
(the non-pulitzer prize from the non-pulitzer selection committee)
Here's my $.02
"Desert Orions at Dawn", and they ain't hunt'n subs!
http://photos5.flickr.com/8574211_6194757ad0_b.jpg
It's amazing what you can find in the middle of the desert now-a-days.
Where is the anti-American sentiment? To get a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize you must show contempt or hatred for America and American beliefs. These guys all fail.
A big thank you to all of you for putting this together. Now, I am a little predisposed to vote (if I had one) for any military photographer as opposed to any offering from the agenda-driven MSM.
Thank all of you, writers, readers, and contributors, for your service to our country and the cause of freedom.
I posted these over at B5s but he busted my chops and wanted me to post them here which I'll gladly do. Without the snark even! heh!
Since Papa Ray outed my little semi-communication fotopage with Da Grunt from his last deployment it's OK to put it out there now:
http://jarheaddad.fotopages.com/
Just be aware that this was a personal thing that we were using to communicate with each other so there's some good ol' boring family stuff on the site. Mixed in with about 300 pics from OIF2 and the 2/2 Warlords.
Two of my favorites are one of Da Grunt with a truckload of 800lb aerial bombs that the boys snuck up on:
http://shw.fotopages.com/1734691/Lookie-what-we-found.html
And the second is an amazing look at some Warlords as they were just about to go into battle in the 1st Battle of Fallujah. Their faces tell the story:
http://shw.fotopages.com/2686361.html
There is also a pic of a young Iraqi that the guys trained and served with. Unfortunately he was killed in an ambush that the guys came under but he is the face of Iraq and would make a better choice than that garbage that was chosen for the Pulitzer:
http://shw.fotopages.com/2686304.html
There are literally thousands of pics out there that are so much better than the one chosen it's not even funny. It would be nice to have one or two from each site placed somewhere where we could look at them. Now that would be cool!
I'm submitting these photos, which are very dear to my heart. Jeremiah Savage was my nephew and these were photos taken at a memorial ceremony in his honor after he was killed. Please consider these.
Thank you.
There are some amazing pictures at
www.AnySoldier.com/WhereToSend
It's not organized as a blog, but Kerry Manthey's place is well worth a
visit: http://www.kerrymanthey.com/
A link would've been nice, eh? Click here or on my url link:
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/98A587FE1A3CA97885256E9600505E9E?opendocument
Thanks again.
Mudville, thanks for listing my photos!! If you're putting together an Album of Iraq photos, maybe you can put together an album of Afghanistan photos. Here's a link to a blog entry I wrote specifically about this piece: http://thenationalguardexperience.blogspot.com/2005/04/shameless-advertisement.html
Sorry boys. These photos SUCK! My prediction: Two years hence the Pulitzer Prize for photography will go to the guy who snaps the pic of the last American personell boarding choppers and fleeing the Green Zone as the jihadis sweep into Baghdad and kick the crusaders out. Enjoy!
Stop the presses! The P-Prize for lamest Troll comment ever is hereby awarded to the above. The comment shall remain here forever enshrined. Please, don't anyone try to top this. The judge has spoken.
All these pics are great, but this one is hands down the best I've seen:
Shiite Woman Voter
That's what it's all about, folks.
The blog 'In Iraq for 365' is by an Army journalist who recently returned from deployment. He's got some great pictures on this link here. (Scroll Down) They're definitely more pulitzer worthy than the associated press photos.
http://desert-smink.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_desert-smink_archive.html
I don't know if they're pulitzer worthy, but here's some my dad took while he was in Kirkuk:
http://www.gandalf23.com/LoAPictures1.html
Greyhawk-
The video on John's site wasn't really done by the PA's office- it was done by MSGT. Keith Johnson, in Kabul, on his own time, and using pictures he has taken plus those of other guys on his base in Kabul. He's in the 'Stan, just like everybody else....and takes some awesome pix. My fav? The picture of the little girl with the dirty face and red dress. He has another one of her opening a lollipop which is just precious.
You left out this one
I hate to be a party-pooper, but I think the photos have to be taken in 2004. Thus, all the great Iraqi voter pictures would not qualify until ~next~ year. (Kind of like the Academy Awards.)
Still and all, the AP could have chosen differently...
I hate to be a party-pooper, but I think the photos have to be taken in 2004. Thus, all the great Iraqi voter pictures would not qualify until ~next~ year. (Kind of like the Academy Awards.)
Still and all, the AP could have chosen differently...
I have some (older) picts from a friend of the family. The folder is here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gibbie99/album?.dir=9120&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
My fav is here.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gibbie99/detail?.dir=9120&.dnm=3d8e.jpg&.src=ph
Those are beautiful, deeply moving photos. You've got my vote.
By the way, Joe Rosenthal received a Pulitzer Prize for his photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Not so likely today.
Most of my time was 5 miles up, but have a few to add anyway:
http://home.comcast.net/~af.bremer/index.html
Keep up the good work!
Check out Delobious http://bl0g.delobi.us/ Blog-Machine-City. He takes some fantastic photos. Most are more artistic than military, but he takes a good pic.
Here I was going to pimp myself, but MrPhil already did it for me! Thanks! :)
Here's a direct link to my photos:
http://delobi.us/photos/mission/
You can check out some of my pics from BIAP (Aug-Oct 03) and Incirlik (Feb-June 02) at this site:
http://homepage.mac.com/sayersr/PhotoAlbum7.html
I think my favorite picture that I took over there was taken at 10,000 ft AGL from the back of a Pave Hawk (I know you don't hear that too often!) with my feet sticking out towards BIAP. I didn't post it for security reasons, but I did post one from the same flight of my feet pointing straight down.
^-)