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June 17, 2009

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The Search for Private Long

By Greyhawk

My friend and fellow citizen C.J. has been looking for answers from the White House. So far he's only gotten responses.

Some may recall that the President caught a bit of rightful flak earlier this month when he failed to make a public statement on the murder of U.S. Army Private William Long by a militant American convert to Islam. That event occurred within hours of the shooting of abortion doctor George Tiller (official statement here) - news coverage of which certainly eclipsed that of the similarly motivated shooting of one of the many members of the Army the President commands. (There are a lot of Soldiers, after all, and getting shot is what they do - so perhaps another one wasn't seen as news by those who determine what is - that's their call.)

But a few days later the AP announced that "President Barack Obama has issued a statement saying he's "deeply saddened" by a shooting that left one Army private dead and another wounded at a Little Rock recruiting center." As with many stories the "no response" news was developing in the blogosphere and was probably on the verge of breaking into the mainstream. In fact it's possible that an AP reporter researching it made a phone call to the White House for a statement and got that as a reply - end of story.

Except that if so, the White House forgot to follow through and actually release a statement. Here's one issued within hours of the murder at the Holocaust Museum, but other than an AP claim there's no indication that the White House is aware that William Long existed. Now I trust C.J.'s report, and to a lesser extent I trust the AP too (though they've been wrong a few too many times to deserve full faith) - so to verify I looked at the titles of every statement issued this month. There's nothing there. Not content with that effort (and lacking the time to read the full text of every one of them for an "and oh by the way, this too" add-on ), I Googled any reference to "William Long" on the entire White House web site. The result? "Your search - "william long" site:http://www.whitehouse.gov - did not match any documents."

Finally, I tried "Private Long" - and this time I got results: four Bush-era documents referencing Private Long-term Care Insurance.

Here's the White House compilation of press releases and official statements - it certainly seems comprehensive. Direct communication is a great thing; we no longer need rely on a time/space-limited media to filter and determine what we need to know, then pass it on to us in paraphrased, edited, and interpreted format. And obviously President Obama has much more to offer the country than statements released regarding hate crimes with national implications - this past week alone he's issued public decrees on multiple topics great and small. Among them: the President "to Announce Comprehensive Plan for Regulatory Reform", "Unveils 'United We Serve,' Calls on All Americans to Commit to Meaningful Volunteer Service in Their Daily Lives", and "Announces New White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport". You'll also find the text of a message from the President to the Senate regarding New Zealand Tax Protocol, and announcements of signing disaster declarations for Arkansas and North Dakota - but you won't find Private William Long.

I'm disappointed in that, but I wouldn't pretend it's up to me to decide what's worthy of the President's time and attention, or what he says or thinks or feels, or what is or isn't included there. Apparently that's the job of the AP.

The President is undeniably a busy man, and the White House Press Office should be commended for keeping up. C.J., as noted at the start, has been asking the right questions of the right people (at least, I think the White House, and not the AP, are the right people) and getting responses - so I also commend them for taking the time for that. While I'm sure they take longer to get, I'm looking forward to the answers, too.


Posted by Greyhawk / June 17, 2009 1:26 PM | Permalink

2 TrackBacks

CJ Grisham has been going where the media fears to tread - and he's got a hell of a good story for his efforts. To bring you up to speed quickly, other than an AP claim to the contrary there's actually no evidence available that the White House (or Pr... Read More

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3 Comments

I've checked for purportedly released WH press statements several times on several subjects since January 20 and have yet to find one of them. What explains this is much like the early Clinton administration, most of the WH staff positions are filled by inexperienced amateurs.

Amateurs who are authorized to speak for the President? There's some potential trouble...

The guy in the Oval Office is an amateur, what do you expect the staffers to be?

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November 26, 2010


America@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 shall remain

INDEPENDENT - A non-profit member association, with no government support, that does not lobby for special interests;

NON-PARTISAN - An independent, professional military association with a mission, goals and objectives that transcend political affiliations; and shall encourage

IDEAS - Through its respected journals Proceedings and Naval History, its conferences, its books and its online content, in support of those who serve.

"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.

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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:

Closing Blogs is nothing new. So many site's owners just give up on their own. They come and go, you know, these MilBloggers do. Like any other sort of blogger. Many post in the lonely down hours far from home, spill their guts for the world, then abandon their spots when the tour of duty is up. They have lives again somewhere in the world, and no need to share the details. So it goes.

Many are truly gone - no site left at all. "The page cannot be found." Other blogs remain, like abandoned defensive positions in shifting desert sands.

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.
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  • SSG_E: The guy in the Oval Office is an amateur, what read more
  • Greyhawk: Amateurs who are authorized to speak for the President? There's read more
  • Tim: I've checked for purportedly released WH press statements several times read more

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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, who recently retired from 24 years of active duty in the US military, but will maintain this disclaimer: Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components.

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

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*****

Tending Distant
Fires


Far from hearth and home, watching
Cold alone but not alone
On distant shore and only wanting
Safe return and little more

What tales we'll tell
When that time comes
When tales can be told

When things grim
Seem far away
When other fires go cold

Some distant sunset, vision fading
Memories remain
And tired eyes gaze 'pon folded flags
While distant drums beat their refrain

Saluting fallen friends whose names
And youth will never fade
Here's to those on other shores,
for them live well, the price is paid

- Greyhawk,
Baghdad,
December 2004