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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! November 30, 2005 Every Day HeroesBy Mrs GreyhawkHow often do your hear heroic stories told of our troops... on say CNN or read about them in the New York Times? Try searching "Hero" in any of the MSM's search window. Try searching "Hero" in Google News or Yahoo news and see what you find. Can the everyday American (who hasn't been exposed to milblogs) name a single Hero of this war? No. Why? Because in the MSM's eye's, the epitome of a hero is ...a sports figure. How is it, the headlines are filled with the casualties of our warriors but having none honoring their heroism? Why does it take someone like Bruce Wllis to make a hero out of our heroes. I'm astounded daily by the MSM's representation of our troops. Here are just a few of our latest heroes, honor them by remembering their names : Spc. Suchanek provided immediate life-saving treatment for an Iraqi police officer under heavy enemy fire.Amazing that guys like this can perform life saving treatments under such dangerous conditions without hesitation. Gunner Goes Head-to-Head with a V-Bed, Saves CrewVigilance pays off. Three-time Iraqi War Veteran Awarded Purple HeartNo big deal? Apparently the msm agree. Can't imagine why this next story didn't make the headlines, plenty of blood and gore for the typical news story. Corpsman continues to care for Marines after losing legUnadulterated courage indeed. This last story is of a fallen warrior from the battle of Fallujah. He was mentioned all over the blogosphere last year. However not so much in the MSM. The anniversary of his death was last week. He was buried a year ago, yesterday. He was willing to make that sacrifice’I'm in awe of these warriors every day that I do the Dawn Patrol. But now I want you to meet another kind of hero, one that is facing a different kind of battle and showing immense bravery... Capt Sims wife. She has been blogging about her new life as a widow and single mother. Her Blog is " Learning to Live". I've been reading her since she started her blog in October. I've hesitated in linking her only because it is a personal struggle she is going thru and I did not want to exploit her grief but she shares with us the experience so many of our fallen families are experiencing, and she does it with grace, courage and honor. Posted by Mrs Greyhawk / November 30, 2005 5:43 PM | Permalink 1 TrackBackFour years later we were both in Iraq. On November 29, 2004, he was fresh in country with the famous 69th Infantry; I was almost through my tour with the 2-108th. A roadside bomb took Chriss life that day, along with PFC Wilfredo Urbino, another ... Read More 5 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 |
Greyhawk and Mrs.-
Is there some way that you could move the name of the person (in this case, "person" may be a stretch) to the top of the comments, so that when we see who is posting we can make the choice whether or not we want to read? I try and read comments on your posts, but sometimes am angered by them. In this case, I am always angered, it has become tiresome. I respect this individuals right to free expression, I would simply like to excercise my right to ignore him.
Wow. Just like that. You guys rock.
I will address you only this once and then you will cease to exist to me.
Why not express your opinion where it is appropriate, and where it will have the best chance of spreading your point of view. The subject matter of this particular post is to honor fallen heroes.
Everybody who reads this space knows your opinion of the President, Mr. Kolb. You can repeat yourself all you want. How about doing it by commenting on posts that actually include the president as subject manner? This post is certainly not the place. In short, you should mind your manners. If you have any.
Right on Kevin.
God Bless and God Speed to the heroes that are the subject of this post (an of course all others who care more about others than themselves).
Maybe you could learn something from these gentle souls Wilson/Rebecca/Will Snout. Then again, maybe not...
Heidi truly is a hero. I've been reading and writing her for a little while now. She is a great person. Thank you for mentioning her.
HH6