thedrifter
02-06-06, 01:52 PM
Military blogs offer another media outlet for service members
February 06,2006
ANNE CLARK
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Military blogs, or milblogs, are increasingly popular with service members, here and abroad.
They write for many reasons — out of boredom, for stress relief, to let their loved ones know they’re okay, to counter the mainstream media — and in a range of styles. Observations are profane or personal, sometimes even literary.
“The mud is the same, the high walls still grope for the sky,” wrote Danjel Bout in his milblog “365 and a Wakeup,” located at
thunder6.typepad.com. “I have changed. I’ve sipped from the poison chalice of loss. Mortal things cannot brush shoulders with eternity without bearing the psychic scars of their meeting.”
The California National Guardsman recently returned from a tour in Iraq.
There is now one portal for Bout’s milblog and the nearly 1,200 others at last count like his. Operation Enduring Freedom veteran J. P. Borda began www.milblogging.com after returning from a one-year tour in Afghanistan.
“The goal is to publicize and market milblogs,” said Borda. “I try to capture the buzz.”
He’d started his own blog in Afghanistan as an efficient way to reach family and friends. It became so popular that strangers began sending him care packages.
“I’m amazed,” Borda said. “It got really personal.”
After coming home, Borda began to collect milblogs into one site. Military.com purchased the rights three months later, though Borda still manages the site.
A community has grown around the milblogs, a resource for finding ways to show support to the troops and their families.
At www.milblogging.com, users can search for any milblog by military branch, language, gender or country.
Some service members write out of frustration with a media that they feel isn’t fully covering the war’s other stories: American troops befriending Iraqi and Afghani children, working with tribal leaders, building schools and modernizing those countries’ infrastructures.
One Army veteran who’s known simply as Matt began his milblog, www.blackfive.net, after a friend was killed in action in 2003.
While fighting his way out of an ambush, Matt’s friend saved the life of a national reporter, who has never written a story about him.
“Our troops are the best in the world,” wrote Matt in an e-mail. “They are doing a tough job and succeeding [but] there are media outlets who shape stories and write headlines with an obvious … agenda.”
One challenge to frontline reporting has been the volatile conditions there. Newsman Bob Woodruff’s recent injuries from an IED underscore that danger.
“The best sources of information are the guys on the front line,” said Borda. “Milblogs offer something no one can get anywhere else.”
The Department of Defense cautions service members from disclosing information on military activities, like daily operations and unit morale, that aren’t public knowledge.
Borda said the most amazing reading comes from troops who take loss after loss but still keep a positive attitude.
“I am not broken, nor am I damaged,” Bout wrote on his milblog. “The story of our mission is not a tragedy. The deepest etchings on my soul, the ones that will remain … were the incandescent examples of valor, courage and brotherhood I witnessed each and every day. Here on the bleeding edge we became something greater than our individual parts. We became a family.”
February 06,2006
ANNE CLARK
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Military blogs, or milblogs, are increasingly popular with service members, here and abroad.
They write for many reasons — out of boredom, for stress relief, to let their loved ones know they’re okay, to counter the mainstream media — and in a range of styles. Observations are profane or personal, sometimes even literary.
“The mud is the same, the high walls still grope for the sky,” wrote Danjel Bout in his milblog “365 and a Wakeup,” located at
thunder6.typepad.com. “I have changed. I’ve sipped from the poison chalice of loss. Mortal things cannot brush shoulders with eternity without bearing the psychic scars of their meeting.”
The California National Guardsman recently returned from a tour in Iraq.
There is now one portal for Bout’s milblog and the nearly 1,200 others at last count like his. Operation Enduring Freedom veteran J. P. Borda began www.milblogging.com after returning from a one-year tour in Afghanistan.
“The goal is to publicize and market milblogs,” said Borda. “I try to capture the buzz.”
He’d started his own blog in Afghanistan as an efficient way to reach family and friends. It became so popular that strangers began sending him care packages.
“I’m amazed,” Borda said. “It got really personal.”
After coming home, Borda began to collect milblogs into one site. Military.com purchased the rights three months later, though Borda still manages the site.
A community has grown around the milblogs, a resource for finding ways to show support to the troops and their families.
At www.milblogging.com, users can search for any milblog by military branch, language, gender or country.
Some service members write out of frustration with a media that they feel isn’t fully covering the war’s other stories: American troops befriending Iraqi and Afghani children, working with tribal leaders, building schools and modernizing those countries’ infrastructures.
One Army veteran who’s known simply as Matt began his milblog, www.blackfive.net, after a friend was killed in action in 2003.
While fighting his way out of an ambush, Matt’s friend saved the life of a national reporter, who has never written a story about him.
“Our troops are the best in the world,” wrote Matt in an e-mail. “They are doing a tough job and succeeding [but] there are media outlets who shape stories and write headlines with an obvious … agenda.”
One challenge to frontline reporting has been the volatile conditions there. Newsman Bob Woodruff’s recent injuries from an IED underscore that danger.
“The best sources of information are the guys on the front line,” said Borda. “Milblogs offer something no one can get anywhere else.”
The Department of Defense cautions service members from disclosing information on military activities, like daily operations and unit morale, that aren’t public knowledge.
Borda said the most amazing reading comes from troops who take loss after loss but still keep a positive attitude.
“I am not broken, nor am I damaged,” Bout wrote on his milblog. “The story of our mission is not a tragedy. The deepest etchings on my soul, the ones that will remain … were the incandescent examples of valor, courage and brotherhood I witnessed each and every day. Here on the bleeding edge we became something greater than our individual parts. We became a family.”