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thedrifter
08-27-06, 07:00 AM
Marines establish Internet beachhead
August 27,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Everyone is joining MySpace.com — even the Marines.

The Corps launched a MySpace profile of its own in April, an attempt to storm the beach of the untamed internet country brimming with young civilians. The profile has promotional videos, wallpapers and a link that allows prospective Marines to contact a recruiter.

“The Marine Corps is always looking for new and innovative ways to reach our target market and spread our message of opportunity,” said Sgt. Brian Griffin, a community relations chief with Marine Corps Recruiting Command. “Looking at the media habits of young adualts, the Marine Corps sees the Web site as an appropriate medium to reach these young men and women.

“We recognize the technological world we live in and want to ensure we don’t fall behind when it comes to new avenues to reach today’s youth.”

The Marines began advertising on the site with banners in February. That wasn’t unusual because they advertise with a number of youth-oriented sites that deal in sports and video games.

But building a profile was a new step in recruiting. The Army has plans to create a profile of its own.

Since the page has been posted, more than 50,000 visitors have clicked from the MySpace site to Marines.com. The Marines have spent about $112,000 on ads, promotion and the actual profile page, Griffin said.

It may have been money well spent. As of Friday, the Marine Corps had 18,320 friends.

And counting.

Ellie

thedrifter
08-27-06, 07:54 AM
Wide open spaces
August 27,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The Freud of the information age, the MySpace.com survey reveals that Sgt. Kellie Noble writes with her right hand and shoots with her left, and that she has never been beaten up.

“I’m too little to beat anyone up or even pick a fight, that’s why the government gives me an M-16,” the Camp Lejeune Marine writes.

Noble’s page is but one thread in the spiderweb of virtual friendships, music sharing and random musings that is MySpace, the Internet’s most popular social networking site.

According to Alexa Internet, a Web site that monitors Internet traffic, MySpace is the fourth most-visited English language Web site, reaching more than 31 million people each day. It boasts more than 104 million registered users, a number gleaned by the never-ending friend list of “Tom” — the site’s creator who becomes a “friend” of every person who signs up.

At its best, MySpace is a place for forging new friendships and sustaining old ones. At its worst, the site is a feral frontier where normal rules of decency and social propriety can easily go missing in action.

For military members like Noble, this anything-goes attitude can pose a problem, especially since the military does not yet have a clear policy on how troops should behave while wearing the boots of their virtual avatars.

The Daily News queried several area-based Marines and sailors about their Internet identities. While only a few replied, a simple search through MySpace’s labyrinth of pages reveals that the local military’s Internet presence is as large as it is diverse.

Many profiles are gung-ho and patriotic, with Eagle, Globe and Anchor backgrounds and entries about their devotion to the Corps and the mission in Iraq. Some are soul-searching, thoughtful and introspective. Others are vulgar and profane, containing foul language and photos from drunken escapades.

Most are all of those things at once.

MySpace

Noble said her Web presence offers easy ways to stay in touch with family and friends. E-mail has become “all business,” she said, and sending comments via MySpace is becoming the premier way of communicating socially over the Internet.

“MySpace is just fun,” she said. “I found a lot of old friends with that.”

And for Marines who are far from home at their duty stations — and even farther from home in Iraq — it’s an easy way to keep in touch, Noble said.

“Being away from home, it keeps your family updated,” she said. “Especially if you are deployed and you can’t talk to your family every day.”

One common theme to area profiles is the boredom of military life.

“There’s only so many times you can stab people with needles before it starts to get old,” writes SeAnY!, who says he’s a corpsman stationed at Lejeune. “Other than that, all I do is train to go to Iraq and get trashed with Marines.”

Many Marines also use MySpace to update friends on their impending deployments.

“I’ll be gone from MySpace the whole time unless I can pirate a signal or bypass firewalls while I’m out,” writes Matthew, whose page says he’s a Marine with the deployed 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “Believe me I will be trying.”

Based on his last login date of June 6, 2006 — the day before the MEU departed — Matthew hasn’t been successful.

At the MySpace page of Cpl. Brandon Blocker, an MP currently deployed to Iraq, there’s a countdown to the birth of his son. A graphic tells how far along the baby is on its development. A detailed blog entry also breaks down how they chose their son’s name.

Farther down, past picture slideshows depicting Blocker with buddies in Iraq, a calendar suggests a couple of dates when he may be coming home. All set to the song “Far Away” by rock band Nickelback.

Until Blocker returns home, his wife, Jessica Blocker, is updating his page for him.

“We use both of ours to keep in touch mostly with just family, close friends back home and, for my hubby, other Marines he’s met along the way,” she said in an e-mail. “We keep his on public profile because he’s proud of what he does.”

But Blocker did say MySpace is filled with Marines who may be acting out of line.

“If you look around enough, you’ll soon see MySpace, unfortunately, is used by some Marines for other reasons, and not very respectful or honorable things are said and posted on them,” she said.

No specific policy

There are rules governing what troops can post online.

According to Department of Defense policy, service members can’t disclose information on military activities that is not available to the general public; information such as daily military activities and operations, unit morale, the results of operations and equipment issues are strictly off limits. Nor can troops post to personal Web sites or blogs while on duty, unless allowed by local commanders.

But gray areas exist. What about instances that do not break established rules but still may be morally questionable? What if, for example, a page contains racial slurs about Muslims?

Those are questions the military is still grappling with.

“DoD does not currently have a specific ‘blogging’ policy,” said Air Force Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman.

Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman with Headquarters Marine Corps, said most Marines know how they should act online. But if problems persist, the Corps will offer further guidance.

“If what it takes is to better educate Marines on (Internet behavior), then that’s what we will do,” she said. “You are a Marine 24 hours a day. The commandant was just involved in a Corps-wide tour to talk about core values. I think, for the most part, 99.9 percent of the Marines know the core values and live them.”

Maj. Curtis Hill, the public affairs officer for II Marine Expeditionary Force said the Camp Lejeune-based force does not have any additional rules for its Marines and sailors beyond the DoD’s policies on Internet usage.

But that could change if the situation warrants.

“We may have some further discussions as technology advances,” Hill said. “There may be a requirement for us to come up with a more specific policy. As long as Marines aren’t providing information that can be used by our adversaries, there’s nothing that prevents them from (blogging).”

Inside view

Noble said commanders regularly brief troops on what kinds of things are inappropriate to place online. Still, she said she sometimes worries it’s too easy for Marines to post pictures and videos to MySpace.

“I think there’s too much media in Iraq to begin with,” she said. “And there’s no way to combat if I want to post a picture on MySpace. It’s good as long as it isn’t abused, if you’re not taking pictures of classified material or dead bodies.”

Noble was in Iraq with Task Force Tarawa during the initial invasion in 2003. She hasn’t been back since, but said if she were sent back, she would blog and post pictures to keep in touch with her family and help them understand what she’s going through.

Despite the dangers, Noble said she thinks it offers an interesting window into the minds of today’s military.

“I think it’s good for the public,” she said. “It gives them an insider’s view of the military and the Marine Corps.”

Contact staff writer Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 229.

Ellie