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Tonia Couch tweets support for Royal Marines

Monday, October 15, 2012, 06:49 PM - Twitter, News Stories

Olympic British diver Tonia Couch, whose boyfriend is a Royal Marine, is making headlines and not because of her diving skills.

Couch has been tweeting support for seven Royal Marines recently arrested for an insurgent's death in Afghanistan.

Couch tweets under the username @toniacouch

The Plymouth Herald writes:

?After the arrest of seven servicemen on Thursday Tonia posted a link to a Facebook page, titled Support the 7 Royal Marine Commandos arrested for murder in Afghanistan, which has now been 'liked' by almost 39,000 people.?

According to the story, the Facebook group was launched on Thursday, the day the MoD announced the arrest of the personnel.

I don't know many details of the incident, but more information is coming out each day.

At the time of this story, the support group has over 50,000 Likes.

Image credit: @ToniaCouch

Oct 15: #MilitaryMon, #MilitaryMonday Tweets

Monday, October 15, 2012, 04:59 PM - Twitter Here?s a roundup of #MilitaryMon and #MilitaryMonday related tweets posted today on Twitter.

U.S. Army ?@USArmy
This #MilitaryMon, we salute the 24 Soldiers competing for the title of #BestWarrior. http://tinyurl.com/9fwbdjz? #MM

Dakota Meyer ?@Dakota_Meyer
Sending a shout out to all our men and women in uniform! THANK YOU for your service! #MilitaryMonday

National Guard ?@USNationalGuard
. @DeptofDefense helps #military families maintain financial readiness: http://owl.li/eus3t? #NationalGuard #militarymon

Danielle Rhoney ?@rhoneydanielle
heroes don't wear capes, they wear dog tags. #militarymonday

Amanda ?@HonorThem
Did someone call for reinforcements? #HonorThem #SOT #SOV #MilitaryMon @USNavy @NAVSURFOR @USPacificFleet pic.twitter.com/Lm7HAdAB

TerryBrambleAnderson ?@brambleanderson
#Militarymon Big hugs and thank you to all Military Troops past and present for all you do for us!

U.S. Army TRADOC ?@TRADOC
Hooah, @USArmy! RT: This #MilitaryMon, we salute the 24 #Soldiers competing for the title of #BestWarrior. http://tinyurl.com/9fwbdjz? #MM

Stacy Hyatt ?@stacyhyatt
#MilitaryMonday ?Heroes. Someone Remembers. Someone Cares. Someone whispers your names in their prayers.? #SOT

True Gentlemen ?@Truthful_Gent
Something I'm proud to live by #MilitaryMonday pic.twitter.com/VzCRrtcQ

Leslie Drechsler ?@ppcbuyers
Impressive :: Female Fighter Pilot Breaks Gender Barriers - @usairforce 1st female wing commander http://abcn.ws/TCvryV? #militarymonday

Ken Wahl ?@KenWahl1
#MilitaryMonday shout-out 2 the men & woman who risk their lives 4 us! @USNavy @USArmy @RangerAssoc @uscoastguard @usairforce @USMC @USCG

JIEDDO ?@JIEDDO
#MilitaryMonday Sgt Kelly Rogne 'IED Whisperer' estimates he's found more than 150 #IED during patrols http://bit.ly/OBsInk

Jordan Charters ?@JKCharters
#MilitaryMonday ShoutOut to my Brothers and Sisters in Arms! Been out for 3 Years and I pray you are all well and safe! #ProtectingFreedom

RINGTHEF**KINGBELL** ?@krazeejarhead
#MilitaryMonday American Heroes lost in September #HonorThem we Salute you ,we thank you you will be truly missed R.I.P pic.twitter.com/cFzEbhZF

News: Before Facebook, deployed relied on paper

Sunday, October 14, 2012, 03:51 AM - News Stories Writing Home: Before Facebook and email, military far from home relied on pen, paper. The embossed gold wings on the stationery that Benjie Brumbeloe used to write home from Aviation Officer Candidate School at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1974 are symbols of a romantic time gone by in military culture.? ?Getting mail was getting a piece of home,? said Brumbeloe, now 60, a supervisor in the recreation department of Cobb County, Ga., near Atlanta.? So buying the fancy letterhead to impress his parents and others back in LaGrange, Ga., and to encourage their response, was a must during the first visit to the base exchange store for Brumbeloe and his fellow aspiring pilots...
(Pensacola News Journal)

Pakistani Teen Blogger In Critical But Stable Condition.? Pakastani teen activist Malala Yousafza?s condition is stable although she remains in critical condition a team of specialists treating the 14-year-old said Saturday.? "She moved her limbs today when doctors reduced sedation to make a clinical assessment," military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said as reported by CNN...
(Neon Tommy)

Facebook news-feed changes mean newsrooms need new engagement strategies. ?Changes to the algorithm guiding the Facebook news feed make it more important than ever that newsrooms and journalists engage effectively on Facebook.? We don?t fully know how the changes work or what we should do about the them. Facebook has not provided much guidance on new best practices for news brands (they should do that; Facebook users share and interact with a lot of news).? Facebook + Journalists has been silent on this issue and the Facebook Blog hasn?t posted since January...
(The Buttry Diary)

Thousands back accused marines on Facebook. MORE than 31,500 people have joined a Facebook group set up to ?support? seven Royal Marines arrested on suspicion of murder following an incident in Afghanistan last year.? The group, ?Support the 7 Royal Marine Commandos arrested for murder in Afghanistan? (sic), was launched on Thursday, the day the Ministry of Defence announced the arrest of the personnel ? believed to be members of 3 Commando Brigade which served in the country between April and October 2011.? The person who set up the page claims to be serving in the British Armed Forces and deploying to Afghanistan ?in the next few days?, although he says he is not a Royal Marine...
(Scotsman)

Social media users outraged bullying continues on memorial page for Amanda Todd.? On Friday, Mike Mace, whose own Facebook page says he is a member of the Canadian Military, faced a flurry of backlash after he posted a lewd comment about Amanda?s death on a site meant to remember her life.? In the comment, he suggests that it?s not the bully?s fault that she showed her breasts and gave out her private information on the Internet.? ?You should be ashamed of yourself,? wrote Amber Garofano in response to Mace?s comments. Another woman, Ashley Soucy posted, ?have a heart.?? Major Dan Thomas, a spokesman with the Canadian Forces, said he was not aware of any formal complaints against Mace...?
(Vancouver Sun)

Al Qaeda leader urges holy war over Prophet film. CAIRO ? The leader of Al Qaeda has urged Muslims to wage holy war against the United States and Israel over a film that insulted Islam's Prophet Mohammad.? Ayman al-Zawahri praised as "honest and zealous" demonstrators who breached the US Embassy in Cairo and attackers who stormed the US "embassy" in Benghazi in violence linked to the film. The American ambassador and three others died in the Sept. 11 attack on the US Consulate in the Libyan city...
(Associated Press)

Association of Afghan Blog Writers

Saturday, October 13, 2012, 11:04 PM - Afghanistan Military Bloggers Shortly after writing a story yesterday about a blogger who at one time wrote from Afghanistan, I stumbled upon this website called:? Association of Afghan Blog Writers.

It lists of number of blogs written by Afghans, ranging from Hazara People International Network to Afghan Lord, a blog written by Nasim Fekrat, a two time winner of the Freedom of Expression Award who is currently a student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

There are a lot of blogs listed on the website, but only a handful that have been recently updated.

Here?s some more information about the site in case you?re interested:

?Association of Afghan Blog Writers (AABW) is promoting blogging and online journalism in Afghanistan. Through out the last years AABW has launched several blogging workshops in several provinces around the country. AABW is looking for your help to enhance its sphere of activities in order to bring changes in Afghanistan.?

More here.

Military blogger reaches out for PTSD advice

Friday, October 12, 2012, 06:19 PM - Afghanistan Military Bloggers A good friend Kathi wrote me an email today and pointed out a recent post by military blogger Colleen Dixon over at The Camouflage Keyboard.

Dixon, a?Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve,?has more than 20 years in the service.?

She returned home earlier this year from her first deployment to Afghanistan.

In Dixon's latest post, published online yesterday called A different type of post, she reaches out to readers for advice and information on PTSD.

Dixon writes:

?I've made some decisions. One of them is to be open about what I'm dealing with, and how I'm getting help, to give others who are struggling some hope that they are not alone.

I called the Veteran's Administration last week and, after getting registered with the VA, made an initial assessment appointment. Unfortunately, it isn't until October 31; but, at least it's not in January 2013.

I'd like to hear from you, my readers. Have you dealt with PTSD? Do you have any advice on how I can cope, especially in the weeks prior to being evaluated? Any advice for my family members, who are suffering too??

More here.

If you think you can help Dixon and her family, please visit her blog at: http://shenandoahwriting.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to Kathi for the tip.

Pakistani teen blogger still critical

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 11:07 PM - News Stories Schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot earlier this week by Taliban gunmen after leaving school.

She survived the attack, but remains in critical condition in a hospital.

Yousafzai had kept a diary online in 2009?on BBC Urdu and wrote how the Taliban affected her and her classmates.

Here's a snippet from her diary:

I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taleban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taleban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools.

Only 11 students attended the class out of 27. The number decreased because of Taleban's edict. My three friends have shifted to Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi with their families after this edict.

On my way from school to home I heard a man saying 'I will kill you'. I hastened my pace and after a while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone else over the phone.
According to CNN, the Taliban issued a statement Thursday defending the attempted killing on religious grounds, saying anyone who "campaigns against Islam and Sharia (Muslim law) is ordered to be killed by Sharia."?

The Taliban also? vowed to kill the teenager if she survives.

She is a very, very brave girl.

News: We Were Soldiers "Old Iron Jaw" vet dies

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 07:50 PM - News Stories Vietnam vet Plumley dies; featured in war movie. Basil L. Plumley, a renowned career soldier whose exploits as an Army infantryman were portrayed in a book and the movie "We Were Soldiers," has died at 92 ? an age his friends are amazed that he lived to see.? Plumley fought in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam and was awarded a medal for making five parachute jumps into combat. The retired command sergeant major died Wednesday.? Friends said Plumley, who died in hospice care in west Georgia, never told war stories and was known to hang up on people who called to interview him...
(AP)

Dumb Video Stunts Spoil Military Career.? The nation?s top officer gave a little advice Wednesday to teenagers who might consider the military as a career option -- don?t do anything stupid your pals can catch on video.? ?YouTube and Facebook are gonna be a problem for us in recruiting? in the future, said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.? All the services have been raising standards as they continue to meet and exceed recruiting goals in the poor economy, and Dempsey said a dumb stunt or illegal act caught on video could influence a recruiter?s decision on the character of a potential servicemember...
(Military.com)

New app helps military families chart a 'life path'.? The National Military Family Association on Thursday launched a new app to answer questions and help military families find support as they navigate deployments, education, retirement and other major life events.? The app, free and available for iPhone and Android, is called MyMilitaryLife. So far, only three ?life paths? are active: spouse education, deployment and separation or retirement. More paths, such as moving and caring for an injured spouse, will be activated in the coming months, said Mary Scott, chairwoman of the National Military Family Association?s board...
(Stripes)

Kidnapped photographer focus of Syria terror probe.? Police are investigating whether a man and woman arrested under terror offences at Heathrow were involved in the kidnap of a British press photographer in Syria.? Photographer John Cantlie was held for a week in Syria with Dutch journalist Jeroen Oerlemans - an ordeal Cantlie described in a blog on his release as a ?week-long holiday with Islamic extremists'.? Cantlie said he was shot in the arm and was badly cut as the pair tried to escape over granite boulders and shrubs, and that they received repeated death threats during the July kidnap...
(Amateur Photographer)

World War II vet shares stories with Parkview Middle students. Shot down over Czechoslovakia while on a bombing mission in a B-17, Sgt. Bob Oakes spent six months as a prisoner of war in Germany.? He shared his story with eighth-grade students at Parkview Middle School in Jeffersonville last week, describing his experiences in World War II and answering questions.? ?Where you ever scared?? he was asked. ?Every time I got in that air plane,? the 90-year-old veteran replied.? ?Do you have any regrets?? asked another student. ?Oh no,? he said. ?I have no regrets. You had to do what you had to do.?
(The Courier-Journal)

Veteran shares story in hopes of helping others deal with impact of war. A study finds more veterans die by suicide every year than are killed annually in Iraq and Afghanistan.? A World War Two fighter pilot from southeast Iowa is telling his story today at an Iowa Veterans Summit in hopes more veterans can be saved and find peace.? Eighty-eight-year-old Jerry Yellin, of Fairfield, says he joined the service as an 18-year-old in February of 1942 and, in his words, ?I learned how to kill.?? ?I flew P-51s in combat over Japan,? Yellin says. ?I flew with 16 guys who didn?t come back. One day, I had a pure purpose of living and the next day the war was over and I had no purpose of living. I came home and I was an empty soul. I had no ambition, no direction.?
(Radio Iowa)

Experts: Military Still Catching Up to the Benefits of the Internet. DG News Service (Washington, D.C., Bureau) ? If members of the U.S. military and their families have seen major changes in their lives because of the Internet and related technologies, then they should expect even more upheaval, a group of tech experts said Thursday.? The Internet isn't done changing the way people learn and are entertained and the way government works, said a group of panelists speaking to the National Military Family Association in Arlington, Virginia. The Internet will also create new security problems, as cybercriminals find ways to attack electric grids and water systems and as the Internet takes power away from national governments, said Michael Hayden, former director of the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency...
(CIO)

"All soldiers should die" Facebooker sentenced

Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 08:50 PM - News Stories, Facebook

Azhar Ahmed

So here's a picture of super-douche 20-year old Azhar Ahmed.?

Earlier this year, he posted a message to Facebook saying, "all soldiers should die and go to hell! The lowlife f****n scum!".?

The wicked message was published online just two days after six British troops were killed in Afghanistan by a car bomb.? Nathalie Taylor, the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, became "physically sick" after reading the post.?

Ahmed was charged.?

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 240 hours of community service.

According to Mail Online:

Ahmed told the court at his trial last month that he deleted the post as soon as he realised what reaction it was having.

He said he replied with apologies to many people who commented on his page and when some told him they had lost relatives in Afghanistan he realised how serious it was.

But he denied the message was grossly offensive and said he thought it would just have been upsetting and caused distress.

The trial heard that the parents of one of the six soldiers who died in the incident saw the posting, which was copied around the internet.

During today?s sentencing at Huddersfield Magistrates? Court, Nicholas Barker, defending Ahmed, said it was a ?serious matter? but not one that warranted custody.
Obviously, the first question on every reader's mind is what is the worst possible community service out there??

Surely, there is a pile of crap somewhere that needs shoveling...

Full story here.

News: Photographing the war in Syria

Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 03:07 AM - News Stories Seeing Syria's War Through the Lens. When the Arab Spring broke out two years ago, photojournalist James Lawler Duggan grabbed his camera. As waves of protests pulsed through the Middle East, Duggan, on a leave of absence from the Corcoran School of Art, followed conflict through Bahrain, Libya, Egypt and finally into Syria.? This past August, he crossed the Turkish border and made his way to Aleppo to capture images of Free Syrian Army rebel fighters. Working for Agence-France Press, his photos were distributed all over the world...
(NPR)

No law to ban satellite photos that expose secret military posts: MND. There will be no ban on commercial satellites taking pictures of confidential military installations, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday amid reports that the latest smartphone mapping technology has exposed a secret radar station in northern Taiwan, a development that could jeopardize national security. ????? The public can now view many such satellite images of Taiwan's air bases and radar stations because of this technology, he said. Similar cases have been found in the United States, Europe, Mainland China and Russia.? However, currently there is no law banning commercial satellites from taking such photos, Luo noted...
(The China Post)

Kids? entries needed in Family Essay Contest. The ties that bind a military family are unlike any other. In an upcoming collectible magazine tribute ? ?Love and Honor: Service, Commitment and the Military Family ? those indelible relationships will come to life in a portrait of devotion to duty, service and loved ones in uniform, told in family members? own words.? As part of this effort, we?re giving away five Kindle Paperwhites as grand prizes in our first Military Times Family Essay Contest, open to ages 8 and up ? and we hope to give away three of those Kindles in the 8-13 age group.? Select essays will appear in the magazine ?Love and Honor,? which will go in subscriber copies of Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times during November ? National Military Family Month...
(Military Times)

Book project searching for local Vietnam War veterans. A local book project pairing high school students with Arlington Heights-area veterans is looking for those who served during the Vietnam War.? Nearly 50 students from Saint Viator High School have already signed up to participate in "Welcome Home," an anthology of stories to be published next spring.? The project is now looking for 30 to 40 veterans who either lived in Arlington Heights at the time or now live in the village. The book's editor, Jim Mitchell, said service in the country of Vietnam is not required...
(Chicago Tribune)

Army app market to let customers have it their way. The U.S. Army is slated to open a new mobile applications marketplace in an effort to offer a more flexible way for government IT professionals to buy software.? In a six-month pilot, users will be able to post specific requirements and participating developers can quickly try to fill them with existing or custom-made solutions.? What will be driving this effort is Appsmart, an online app marketplace development tool from Massachusetts-based Raytheon, a company that has long worked with government IT...
(Government Computer News)

USA Military Medals Launches New Facebook App. Military uniform superstore, USA Military Medals, today, launched a new Facebook application via its ecommerce stores called ?Rack StampTM,? allowing military personnel and veterans to share their military awards online via the popular social networking site.? The Rack StampTM app utilizes UMM?s popular EzRackBuilderTM ? an online software program allowing users to build and purchase their military ribbon and medal award racks for wear on their dress uniforms. A military ribbon or medal ?rack? is military slang for the colorful rows of awards typically found above the wearer?s left pocket on U.S. armed forces dress uniforms...
(PR Web)

Army deserter on run, posting Twitter updates

Tuesday, October 9, 2012, 04:37 PM - Twitter, News Stories

Army deserter Sgt. Micah Turner is posting updates to the microblogging service under the username @Unoccupier

The people who tweet on Twitter from all walks of life, never cease to amaze me.

Which brings us to Army deserter Sgt. Micah Turner who is posting updates to the microblogging service under the username @Unoccupier.

His Twitter bio reads, "Active duty soldier, absent without leave from America's occupation of Afghanistan. #UnoccupyAfghanistan"

U.S. News has more on his story.?

As a multimedia illustrator in Afghanistan, Turner says he was in the Bravo Company, 9th Military Information Support Division, and that he was part of Army psychological operations.

"I made propaganda," he says. "We used surveillance analysis to attempt to influence local nationals through video or audible means for desired end states. ? I did pro-Afghan government stuff, pro-Afghan army. Everything from ?Don?t Hide Terrorists? to ?Clean Your Water? to ?Don?t do this or we?ll kill you.??

Turner is now headed to Buffalo to meet up with Occupy Wall Street protesters, and says he does not plan to turn himself in to military officials on Tuesday, despite having promised to do so. After consultation with his lawyer, Turner believes he has another 30 days of freedom because the Army let him go when he attempted to turn himself in over the weekend.

But he says that he may not turn himself in even after a month?s time.

Something tells me Turner won?t be tweeting much longer.

Here?s the best part of the story:?

Fun Fact: The U.S. News points out that under military law Turner could face up to 18 months confinement, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay.

Full story here.

Wounded: 14-yr old Pakistani activist, blogger

Tuesday, October 9, 2012, 03:37 PM - News Stories This is tragic news, especially considering how young Malala Yousafzai is.

Yousafzai was shot and seriously wounded earlier today as she was on her way home from school.

As Washington Post reports, Yousafzai became known in early 2009, when she wrote a diary about Taliban atrocities under a pen name for the BBC?s Urdu service.

Via the WashPo:

Yousafzai also was nominated for the International Children?s Peace Prize in 2011.

The seventh-grader who was wounded in the leg said she and her classmates were leaving school when the attack occurred.

?Two bearded armed men stopped our school van and asked for Malala and opened fire from behind the van,? the girl, named Shazia, said from the hospital where she and Yousafzai were first taken.

Ihsanullah Ihsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said in calls to the media that the militant group targeted Yousafzai because she generated ?negative propaganda? about Muslims.
Full story here.

News: Archivist details the lives of soldiers

Tuesday, October 9, 2012, 03:19 AM - News Stories Archivist wants every soldier?s story told. On Thursday night, Bert Riggs, archivist for the Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archives at Memorial University, detailed the lives of five of those men, including their contributions to the war and their lives afterward, if they survived.? In riveting detail, he discussed the short life of Pte. Hugh Walter McWhirter, the first member of the regiment to be killed in action...
(The Telegram)

Egypt blogger Maikel Nabil calls military ?killers? on war anniversary. CAIRO: Outspoken Egyptian blogger and anti-military commentator Maikel Nabil lashed out at the armed forces on Saturday, the anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel, referring to the military as ?killers? in comments that sparked controversy in the country.? Most of Egypt refers to the October 6 War as a victory, which saw late President Anwar el-Sadat able to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel and return the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian rule.? But Nabil, who has faced off with the military before ? seeing him jailed for months ? refused to praise the military on the 39th anniversary...
(Bikya Masr)

'Iron Man 3' searches for military extras. WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Have a military or law enforcement background? You may be the perfect extra for upcoming scenes in "Iron Man 3".? Tona B. Dahlquist Casting company is searching for men between ages 20 and 40 to work on-set Oct. 27 and Oct. 29. Applicants with the neccessary background and appearance should be available for a costume fitting Oct. 17...
(WWAY NewsChannel3)

Determined genealogists work together to solve Civil War mystery. SPOKANE, Wash. ? An honor guard made up of Confederate and Union Civil War re-enactors fires a salute during the dedication of the final resting place of Confederate soldier Pvt. Hugh McLaughlin in Greenwood Memorial Terrace cemetery on Saturday.? One mystery surrounding Pvt. Hugh McLaughlin was recently solved.? For 106 years, the Confederate soldier's body lay in an unmarked grave in Spokane's Greenwood Memorial Terrace cemetery...
(The Republic)

Photograph exhibit brings Civil War 'to our doorsteps' at Pry House Field Hospital Museum. During October 150 years ago, people lined the street outside a New York gallery to see something the likes of which they had never seen before.? Inside were images of corpses captured just moments after battle hundreds of miles away at a place called Antietam. Photographer Alexander Gardner had shot the merciless photos about a month earlier for gallery owner Matthew Brady.? Reproductions of those portraits are among the artifacts anchoring the exhibit ?Bringing the Story of War to Our Doorsteps,? which opened Saturday at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam National Battlefield...
(herald-mail.com)

Stories in stone: Messages lost as gravemarkers fade. The bloody Battle of Perryville occurred 150 years ago, but Pete Skelly told the story as if it happened last week.? Skelly stood at the grave of Capt. George Bently of Janesville. It was one of three Civil War veterans? graves Skelly showed to visitors Saturday during the Rock County Historical Society?s annual tour of Oak Hill Cemetery.? Bently, a Chicago & Northwestern railroad agent in civilian life, became commander of Company H of the 21st Wisconsin. The unit comprised many Janesville men who had little training before the battle, Skelly said...
(GazetteXtra)

Facebook helps save the life of a soldier

Monday, October 8, 2012, 02:01 PM - News Stories, Facebook Via DVIDS:

FORT MCCOY, Wis. -- Facebook is often criticized in the military for enabling operational security leaks, but recently it proved that it can also help save lives.

Facebook posts give soldiers a look into their battle buddies daily lives when they are not able to see each other every day. It is especially helpful when soldiers fear the stigma associated with asking for help during difficult times in their lives.

?Technology is not always the answer and creates its own set of challenges, but it can be a great tool, it can be a great help,? said Col. Robert J. Carlson, commander of the 646th Regional Support Group, headquartered in Madison, Wis.

?There?s no way I could have found him if it weren?t for Facebook,? said 1st Sgt. Roe.

U.S. Army Reserve 1st Sgt. Roe recently received an email from one of his soldiers before drill weekend; this email was a goodbye letter from a soldier that thought he had nothing to live for.

Immediately Roe attempted to contact Spc. Myer by phone; the phone numbers on record were turned off. He then called police from the soldier?s hometown to find him; Myer?s dad had recently kicked him out of the house. No one knew where he was.
Full story here.

Crowd funding site helps war artist to embed

Sunday, October 7, 2012, 08:20 PM - Afghanistan Military Bloggers

Indiegogo

Crowd funding website Indiegogo was founded in 2008 and claims to have hosted over 100,000 funding campaigns.

The site helps charities, small businesses, musicians and more pursue their passions --- and now it can add war reporter.

As I wrote about last month, Rob Bates, a former Marine and war artist, will be going to Afghanistan this December and embedding with a Marine platoon.

He launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to help pay for expenses associated with embedding.? He?met his goal of $5,000.

Although I've never used a crowd funding site myself, I've seen quite a bit of news over the last couple years.

It's good to see that Rob Bates' plans for embedding in Afghanistan are moving along nicely.

Over 80 people helped fund the "Sketching the Drawdown" campaign.

If you're not familiar with Rob's work, it's amazing.

You can follow Rob on his blog at www.rb-portraits.com

News: German Army condems 'rape' music video

Saturday, October 6, 2012, 11:25 PM - News Stories Army outraged by 'rape' music video. The German army has condemned a new music video by pop singer Joachim Witt that depicts Bundeswehr soldiers raping a woman in an unnamed future conflict.? The video for the song "Gloria" purports to show an "apocalyptic horror scenario in grand and challenging images," the 63-year-old Witt said on his Facebook page.? One scene shows a group of soldiers in Bundeswehr combat uniforms, with their military insignia visible, holding down a woman on a table while one of them rapes her. One soldier is filming it on a smartphone.? Scenes later in the video show that a young girl who witnessed the event has been shot...
(The Local)

Army troops executed - September 8 (GRAPHIC). Two videos have emerged that appear to show about 20 executed Syrian army troops on a street in Aleppo. The first of the videos was uploaded to a Facebook page belonging to the Salman Al Farisi battalion of the Free Syrian Army. It first appeared on September 8 and stated that the security forces had been killed by the battalion. It was then also published on a similar named YouTube channel...
(Storyful)

China's Latest Export: Journalists. Since Wang Guan arrived in the U.S. from Beijing in February, the correspondent for state-owned China Central Television embedded with the U.S. Navy and broadcast live from the Republican and Democratic conventions. ?It?s exciting

???to observe democracy in action,? he says.? Guan is one of 100 journalists who CCTV has put to work in Washington, D.C., this year. He and a few dozen colleagues send dispatches in Mandarin to 42 channels back home, while 60 others produce business and news-magazine shows for a new English-language channel...
(BusinessWeek)

Reporter slain in Syria honored with rights award. An American journalist killed in Syria while reporting for a British newspaper has been honored with a human rights award.? The 56-year-old Marie Colvin was killed Feb. 22 when Syrian army shelling struck the building that served as a makeshift media center in Homs. She was reporting for the Sunday Times of London.? Colvin was named Friday as this year's recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya Award for dedicating her life to reporting from nearly every major conflict in recent history...
(NBC29)

SKorean torture film raises ghost of military past. A film based on the memoir of a democracy activist who was tortured in the 1980s by South Korea's military rulers is provoking discussion about the country's not-so-distant authoritarian past and the influence it will have on this year's presidential election. "National Security," which premieres Saturday at the Busan International Film Festival, tells the story of Kim Geun-tae, who endured 22 days of torture in a notorious Seoul interrogation room because of alleged links to North Korea and a plot to overthrow South Korea's military regime...
(SFGate)??????

Irish documentary capture the story of the American Civil War?s first casualty.? One of the most asked questions of American Civil War enthusiasts across the States is ?Who was the first casualty?? The answer, that ?it was a Private Daniel Hough from some unknown part of Co Tipperary in Ireland,? usually comes as a surprise to many.? Although he has long been forgotten in his native land and information on him in the States has always been sketchy, what is known is that after emigrating to the New World in 1849, Hough enlisted in the US Army some months later and was posted at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina in April 1861 when the war broke out...
(Irish Central)

Female Army vet shares stories from World War II. It's been almost 70 years since a young New York City woman traveled from Brooklyn to Manhattan and enlisted in the U.S. Army. But for Florence "Flo" Miles, 90 and now living in Hagerstown, the memories are still vivid.? Especially when she pages through her scrapbooks and talks about her brother, Cpl. Russell Daudelin, who died a few months after America entered World War II...
(Herald-Mail)

Red Bull Rising milblog wins Blogging Award

Friday, October 5, 2012, 11:31 PM

Congratulations are in order for Randy Brown (known as Charlie Sherpa online) of the military blog Red Bull Rising who won the 2012 blogging award by the Military Reporters & Editors Association.

MRE had this to say about Brown:

?Randy Brown clearly is not one of those bloggers who sits at home in his pajamas. You?ll find the 20-year Iowa Army National Guardsman-turned-civilian journalist out in the community ? and out on the battlefield in Afghanistan. In his entries ? one chronicling a homecoming for troops and the second, an embed in Afghanistan ? Brown showed he?s a down-home storyteller and conversationalist. You could almost hear him talking to you as you read. He had a wry, friendly, sometimes corny sense of humor, a deft touch for detail; insider insight and knowledge; a tender touch with conveying emotion without getting sappy; and a way of getting to the bottom of things.?

The awards, for work published or aired in 2011, will be presented at the 2012 MRE Conference on Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C.

For a full list of awards, go to MilitaryReporters.org.

To learn more about Brown and Red Bull Rising, go to RedBullRising.com.

Army Wife Blogger Going Naked for the Cause

Thursday, October 4, 2012, 08:10 PM - News Stories This is a wonderful story about Rachel Kenyon, a writer, a mom, an Army wife, and an advocate for military families dealing with autism.? And as babble blogger Joslyn Gray writes, Kenyon is also about to "GO NAKED FOR THE CAUSE!" and shave her head in support of her sister-in-law who is battling cancer.

?Rachel is planning on shaving her head in an effort to support her sister-in-law, currently battling breast cancer, both emotionally and financially. She?s vowed to shave her head once she?s raised $1,000, and share photos and video of the ?Naked Noggin Party? with the world.?

Rachel is the author of StimCity, a blog that covers a wide range of topics including military.?

According to her site, her husband is an active duty, 25-year veteran of the US Army.? He currently serves as Command Sergeant Major in an Infantry Battalion.

To learn more about Rachel, you can visit her at StimCity.org

More at babble.

News: Gay military share their DADT stories

Thursday, October 4, 2012, 03:00 PM - News Stories Members of America's Gay Military Share Their Stories of Living With "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Philadelphia resident Josh Seefried graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2009. While serving his first two years as an active-duty officer under the military?s ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy, he assumed a pseudonym to found OutServe, an online networking organization that allowed LGBT troops to support one another without risking exposure. His book Our Time, newly released in paperback, collects the stories of fellow airmen, soldiers, sailors and marines forced to struggle with maintaining their commitment to an ideal of integrity, under rules that demanded they not be true to themselves. In celebration of October as LGBT History Month, PW presents an excerpt this week...
(Philadelphia Weekly)

Military wives going bare to battle PTSD. A group of military wives are taking a head-turning approach to help combat a crisis.? They are going bare to raise awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the need for treatment.? It all started with just one picture and a Facebook post, and within months the movement included hundreds of women from around the world taking off their tops to "Battle Bare."
(wcsh6)

Military should have told soldier's family about suicide note: The former national chief of the Canadian Forces' detective agency told a federal inquiry Tuesday that investigators probing the 2008 suicide of Afghanistan veteran Stuart Langridge didn't tell him that the troubled soldier had left a suicide note.? And in the most direct criticism yet levelled against the National Investigation Ser-vice investigators by a superior officer, retired Lt.-Col. William Garrick told the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry that it was wrong to keep contents of the note from Langridge's mother and stepfather to whom it was ad-dressed.? In the simple handwritten note, Langridge asked for a private, family funeral...
(Montreal Gazette)

A diary taken in war, offered in peace. The little red book sat untouched in a porcelain bowl for at least 35 years.? #What will go down in history in the first exchange of soldiers' artifacts between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments last summer was possible largely because Walla Walla resident Bob Frazure didn't know what else to do with that red booklet.? #He realized early on it was a diary after stuffing it into his shirt on the grisly battlefield in North Vietnam in 1966. There was a picture of two girls tucked safely in its pages, scrawls on the pages in a language he couldn't understand...
(Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

Smartphones to steer unmanned rotorcraft on the battlefield. ?The Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Aurora Flight Sciences on Sept. 28 to develop robotic rotorcraft capable of supporting rapid autonomous aerial cargo delivery to the battlefield. The system would support Navy and Marine Corps units under hostile conditions and could be operated by any warfighter on the ground with a smartphone-like device. "AACUS responds to warfighter needs derived from our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Mike Deitchman, who heads ONR's Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department. "We are trying to develop an autonomous system to deliver supplies to the battlefront more quickly?and to get our vehicle convoys off dangerous roads, where they're much more vulnerable to attack."
(Phys.org)

Video Offers Glimpses of Tehran Protests. Iranian journalists and bloggers working from outside the country shared video and photographs posted online by people who said they witnessed Wednesday?s protests in Tehran?s commercial center.? A reporter for the BBC?s Persian-language service, Rana Rahimpour, pointed to video uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday morning, showing protesters marching into the bazaar, chanting, ?Dignified merchants, support us, support us.?
(The Lede)

'Unbroken' POW describes dramatic life story on USS Hornet. Mighty forces arrive in large and small packages, a truth never more profoundly evident than at the Lazarex Cancer Foundation's "Battle for a Lifetime" gala.? Making his way on Saturday across the vast expanse of the USS Hornet's hangar bay, Louis Zamperini, the 95-year-old World War II prisoner of war survivor whose life became the subject of author Laura Hillenbrand's New York Times bestseller, "Unbroken," appeared tiny.? But his dramatic story, told by "60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon in a 30-minute video played before his introduction as the headline speaker, formed a towering example of fortitude and forgiveness...
(San Jose Mercury News)

The Thunder Run milblog featured in the news

Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 08:32 PM - Milbloggers in the News Michael Tomberlin, a business reporter with The Birmingham News and major in the Alabama Army National Guard, is currently deployed to Afghanistan and writing a military blog that is featured on AL.com called Yellowhammering Afghanistan.

A couple weeks ago, Tomberlin highlighted military blogs in a story for The Birmingham News.

Now, in his latest story, Tomberlin is featuring David M's military blog The Thunder Run.

I had the opportunity to first meet David and his family years ago after returning home from my first deployment.? While I haven?t seen him for awhile, if you don?t know David, he?s been very active in the military blogging community over the last several years and he?s also one of the nicest guys.?

Here's just a little of what Tomberlin had to say about his blog The Thunder Run:

?The Thunder Run is the single best source to capture the best of other milblogs in addition to news releases and other stories devoted to the military, war and conquest. It aggregates the best of what is out there and puts it all in one place, sort of like a military Drudge Report.

I first learned of The Thunder Run during my last deployment when the site did an interview with me about my blog. It then became must-see reading ever since. I checked the site every day during my last deployment and on and off in between then and now.?
To follow Tomberlin read more of his latest story, go here.

To visit The Thunder Run go to http://www.thunderrun.us/

Army Strong Stories celebrates Hispanic Heritage

Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 07:41 PM

Army Strong Stories?is highlighting blog posts and video stories from Hispanic Soldiers in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hispanic Heritage Month, which has been underway since September 15 and runs through October 15, celebrates the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

I received a tip earlier today informing me ArmyStrongStories.com was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month on its website.?

Throughout the year, the site runs different targeted campaigns ? for example, in April, it celebrated Diversity Month.

If you?d like to learn more, you can quickly view posts, read stories and watch videos from Hispanic soldiers by going to http://armystrongstories.com/tag/hispanic/

In one video story called ?Representing Hispanics and the United States at LULAC,? Chief Warrant Officer 2 Edwin Reyes explains how playing and traveling with the Army Band?s ?All Latin Ensemble? allows him to represent Hispanics across the world and the United States at the same time.

In another video story posted back in June, Cadet Daniel Cortes reflects on his family?s history and his decision to attend West Point in his story ?Serving to Give Back for the Freedom My Family Has Received.?

Much more over at Army Strong Stories.

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Source: http://milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry121015-184919

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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Milblogging.com : The World's Largest Index of Military Blogs ...

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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Milblogging.com : The World&#39;s Largest Index of Military Blogs ...

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Milblogging.com : The World's Largest Index of Military Blogs ...