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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! October 27, 2005 Open PostBy Mrs Greyhawk I got this from American Citizen Soldier. I guess he wanted GI Joe watching his back. Posted by Mrs Greyhawk / October 27, 2005 10:55 PM | Permalink 27 TrackBacksPerhaps that title should be Who Now. I spent as much of the day as work would allow looking for and reading a wide variety of reactions to Miss Miers withdraw. There are as many reactions as there were opinions about her nomination. No real surpris... Read More As usual Peggy Noonan's column in today's Wall Street Journal is required reading. It is not, unfortunately, something that will make you happy when you read it. Read More ... San Francisco protesters "mourning" our 2000th death in Iraq: (image) ... I realize there actually are people in this country who truly believe that war is never justified; for those people I feel pity. I also know that most of the "anti-war" crowd... Read More After receiving multitudinous complaints over their posting of a retouched picture of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that made her appear somewhat demonic, USA Today removed the photo from their website and added this note from the editor:Editor's ... Read More Despite that Messrs. Bynum and Minor have written a really good article about the hardships of service that focuses on the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade (The Old Gray Bonnet Brigade) a unit that pre-dates the Civil War and saw s... Read More The UnHappy Face of the 'Dark Side of "everyday low prices"' The November issue of Fast Company tells us that Wal-Mart incarcerates the night shift in some of its stores -- byline Charles Fishman: We've read that in 10%... Read More Well, it looks like Harriet Miers “decided” to withdraw her nomination for the SCOTUS seat. Tragic, and yet, ultimately understandable. I haven’t really weighed in before now because what I know about law and judicial process would probably about ... Read More I hope the President nominates Judge Priscilla Owen for the Supreme Court. Here's why. Read More You know, I hear a lot about how West Virginia is a red state, blah, blah, blah. But stunts like icing the Harriet Miers nomination because she is not conservative enough have repurcussions. I ain't saying people will turn around and vote Democrat. N... Read More The Mudville Gazette, which in my opinion is the best of the best of the Military Blogs. I depend on it daily and can tell by all the work that goes into it that it is a labor of love for Mrs G. Read More Conjecture and speculation roundup from some major news outlets — WaPo: The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation … is expected … according to people familiar with the case. … according to people close to the aide. The so... Read More Mint is wonderful. It has been so far at least. Mint is a fairly new website stats package written by the author of ShortStat, Shaun Inman. Introducing Mint: The web is listening to what you have to say. Admiring your design. Talking about your pro... Read More Who's next? Take a minute and VOTE! Look left (on the sidebar); Vote right. Ironically, the President this next time needs to nominate a divisive figure: someone, that is, who is drawing fire from the right quarters. Or actually the... Read More I read recently that the only profession protected under the Constitution is that of the journalist! If what we have been seeing in the MSM of late, well actually for quite a while, is an example of a profession protected by the Constitution, then ma... Read More A Planned Parenthood watchdog group says an article written by a top Planned Parenthood executive has the national abortion business admitting that it is engaging in “social marketing” of abortion and sex. ... Read More Found on Little Green Footballs Open Thread... Read More (This is the second of a multi-part series I introduced, entitled "Conclusion.") I’m glad these are the last days here. I’m going to miss them, I think. Read More Independent Sources has happened upon Senate Democrat’s secret flow chart that provides guidance to Barbara Boxer and friends on how to handle Supreme Court nominees. You’ll be shocked! Dismayed! And then you’ll realize you’ll ... Read More Iran’s Leader Follows Hitler Other Failed Leaders in Predicting Israel’s Demise Read More TGIF! Thank God I’m FREE! Thanks to guys like Jack Idema. C’mon and trackback! Put up a post that you think deserves some special attention from this past week. Watch for Open Trackbacks here on Fridays, Sundays and Wednesdays. Her... Read More If you take a look to the left and right on my blog, you will see that I have already started decorating for the Christmas season. We all know how the ACLU hates nativity scenes, so we thought we’d put one up. We also put up the Homeland Hol... Read More All the women were taking their clothes off. That aspect of the scene got my attention. Read More Lori Byrd has a post up about her favorite Halloween movies and Ace follows up with a post considering the "rules" of vampire movies. He's wrong about the "entering rule", some evil you have to invite into your life. Well, in my family ghost movies are... Read More Recovering from Katrina, Rita, and Wilma is going to take time, but the priorities must be on infrastructure. Railways, roads, bridges, tunnels, water, sewage, sanitation, and electrical systems must all be restored or replaced. Read More Today's dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny ... Friday's are good, not so much for Scooter Read More Our top ten entries in the competition for a new state slogan. Read More At least that is what someone who is in the business of warning big corporations about things being said about their products would want his customers to think. Read More 7 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 |
Hehe... was that a typo or on purpose? Shoulder/Soldier?
Great picture though... showed it to my kids earlier today. :-)
Any bets he doesn't give the doll to the first Iraqi kid who asks for it?
Actually, that's the F. Lee Ermey USMC devil-dog doll. Talks when you press the button on his back.
Don't press the button on his back in front of polite company.
He talks like F. Lee Ermey :-)
...well, he'd better be careful. Some terrorist might grab the do-er, the action figure and hold it for ransom. ;-)
Great picture - I love this blog and the great men and women it represents.
Loved the picture. My son is serving in Iraq and carries a soldier Leogman with him, which his little brother and sister gave to him for deployment. They saw the picture of the soldier ,with the Joe on his back, this morning and it made them miss their brother even more. They suggested that I send you a picture of their soldier brother with Legoman on deployment day, so I emailed it to you. Hope you like it.
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS.
Army personnel and documents not available on demand. Investigators start to denigrate the Corps' engineers:
http://solomon2.blogspot.com/2005/10/on-levees-of-new-orleans-book-ii.html#update7