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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! July 21, 2005 Open PostBy Greyhawk Marine Corps Base Quantico and the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation hosted the unveiling ceremony for the U.S. Mint?s commemorative U.S. Marine Corps silver dollar coin at Lejeune Hall Wednesday. ?This is the first time the United States Mint has ever struck a coin for one of the services, and we are extremely proud,? said Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps. Posted by Greyhawk / July 21, 2005 10:23 PM | Permalink 31 TrackBacksGoes to Florida Congressmen Robert Wexler(D) who still can't get over the 2000 Presidential result. It came out yesterday that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts visited Florida and met Gov. Bush after the 2000 election and before the USSC handed down ... Read More The ACLU sees nothing wrong with Americans becoming traitors and selling classified government information. Read More Let's set the scene. Our young hero (that's me!) is well into the Star Exam. It started at 0100 hours and it was roughly 4 hours later. I was doing just as I described in the previous paragraph, moving up the middle of a Ho Chi Minh trail to an attac... Read More Good Morning! Here is a look at the third charity that I am considering for Blogathon 2005. The latest update about the blogathon itself is here, and will again be bumped to the top of the front page. I have already written about Freedom Alliance and ... Read More When Democrats seek priviledged documents Judge Roberts wrote he in the Justice Department, they will not achieve the same result they did with Miquel Estrada. Read More The role of the courts in a nutshell, from Charmaine Yoest, yesterday on NRO: How much further do we want to solidify the idea in the popular consciousness that the Supreme Court is some sort of super legislature? Once while appearing as a panelist o... Read More In the island hopping campaigns of the Pacific, there was a combined Army and Marine landing on July 21st, 1944. The Army landed at Asan, north of Orote Point, and the Marines landed at Agat, south of Orote Point. They sliced across the island, the... Read More Some conservatives (here, here, here, here, here and here) are worried that John Roberts will become another David Souter (a consistently liberal vote). One can understand their concerns, but most of the evidence seems to indicate that Roberts is... Read More Since the jihadis failed today we can be thankful, but only that they were too poor at chemistry to kill anyone. Read More Almost 4 years ago the Islamofascists slammed four jetliners into the heart of our republic. Two weeks ago they attacked our best friend with explosives in their mass transit system, and today they have done it again. I must make Read More Not since the greatest pilot he ever saw "Gordo" Cooper made his 22 Earth orbits in the final Mercury space mission had any man been as alone as Astronaut Michael Collins during the Apollo XI mission.... Read More The most revealing information released about the Most Dangerous Organization in America this past week has been the revelation that the FBI has over 1100 documents pertaining to the ACLU obtained during an investigation by the Counter Terrorism Task... Read More From a policy perspective, there are several British policy aspects, both enacted and under current consideration, that must be revisited and looked at anew. If today's repeat of the 7/7 London Transit Bombings do not make this abundantly clear, then... Read More Today's dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny ... It's Stop the ACLU Thursday (and one day closer to Friday) Read More Russ Vaughn emails: Bill, good piece here. Someone ought to chisel it in granite and shove it up Dick Durbin's ass. Russ, you do still have a way with words. I couldn't agree with you more. One small consolation in Read More Commemorating the 230th Marine Corps Anniversary coming 10Nov05, the United States Treasury has depicted a branch of the armed services on a coin for the first time with the 2005 Marine Corps Silver Dollar. The silver dollar, featuring Associated Press... Read More Outraged over their failed plan to purchase UNOCAL, Chinese officials, determined to own a controlling interest in America's future, have announced their intent to engage in a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court. Read More In part one of this post I explained why it was highly unlikely that the SECDEF really did not know about the USFSPA ( Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act) and grievous injustices it causes to current serving members of the armed forces ... Read More Renowned fake civil liberties organization the ACLU has recently filed a lawsuit against President Bush for what they call a flagrant disregard for the civil rights of the vast majority of Americans with regard to his recent nomination of John Read More I’ve decided that maybe I should rethink this whole terminology situation – maybe the CBC has it right, and we shouldn’t be calling them terrorists. After all, that might actually imply that they’re, well, terrorists! ...Welc... Read More Abraham Lincoln, I believe, grew far greater in stature than his mere physical stature above others of his time. He led our country with deep conviction, during a time of great tragedy and sacrifice. Read More By email from my friend Haider:Greetings, The following is my translation of a headline and article in the July 21st Edition of the Iraqi Arabic newspaper “ Kululiraq”“Iraq’s Aljaafary says, “We will not kneel to these criminals”. “Iraqis... Read More I couldn't let the weekend start when I saw that Ollie had posted another column. He talks about the lack of talk or writing by the MSM that the Military is exceeding in all services the re-enlistment requirements. Now, come on all, we aren't surpris... Read More John Roberts Circa 1972ish La Lumiere High School Just a caution for my male readers: if there are any extant photos of you from the '70's in plaid pants, better get rid of them now. And it's not just... Read More From JR of the Vietnam Veterans Home Page: A Somali arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States. He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you, Mr. American, for letting... Read More A campaign encouraging people to enter an emergency contact number in their mobile phone's memory under the heading "ICE" (for "In Case of Emergency"), has rapidly spread throughout the world as a particular consequence of last week's terrorist attac... Read More It is hard to find a silver lining in the recent terrorist attacks in London, but I think as we examine what has happened during the last week in London, we should also look at something that has not happened. Since Sept. 11th, we have yet to see ... Read More Well, I finally got off my rear end and opened a 529 plan for my younger daughter's college. Hilda, the older one, I opened on the day we got her social, but I had a little bit of cash flow difficulty when Ramona, the younger one, was born last Septem... Read More Just hours ago, I introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill … “Support Our Scouts Act of 2005.” You may recall that I wrote to you about this subject a few months ago. I wanted to give you an update … Read More Happy Birthday Cdr. Salamander, one year old today. However, instead of receiving presents, he decided to give me one instead. Read More Now that April 15th is passed and many of the headaches are gone it is time to bring up tax reform once again. And the topic nearest and dearest to my heart this time of the year is the Fair Tax which is currently before the Congress. And I ask the q... Read More 3 Comments |
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 |
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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 |
Thanks for posting the Guam link. I was stationed there at the Naval Base from 1959 to early 1961, long before the luxurious tourist hotels. (Non-native civilians, except for Civil Service, were not allowed on the island then.)
It's strange how places from your youth produce the most aching nostalgia. I wish I could be there for the celebration.
Here's an interesting article from NRO about troops in Iraq; too bad the MSM won't take this guy's advice:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/graham200507210803.asp
Hey! How are you? I was over at Small Town Veteran when I saw your trackback. I believe everyone should write about that day. If the MSM won't, we must. Say Hi to Mrs. Greyhawk for me. Have a great day.