MilBlogs/WarBlogs

[winchable]

I was reading an article in Wired Magazine (me nerd yes) and I started reading about MilBlogs, which I'm sure many here are familiar with. For myself, this is the first I've heard of them and I think the concept is absolutely brilliant.

So the point of this thread is to post links to MilBlogs in an attempt to create a simple and comprehensive list of MilBlogs for everyone to access and read.

A few guidelines, unless your blog is a warblog, do not post a link to it.
Post a warning if the blog contains graphic images or descriptions (which they may well do)
Keep the post surrounding the blog to a minimum, I'd like the list to be comprehensive and clutter free.
This isn't meant to be a discussion on the Blog, if you want one of those, create your own thread.

Cheers all.

 

[George Wallace]

Michael Yon's Blog from Iraq                    http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/



Rick Mercer's Blog                        http://rickmercer.blogspot.com/2005/10/operation-enduring-blogger.html

 

[tomahawk6]

My fav mil blog is blackfive. He has many other mil bloggers links as well. There has been a reduction in war blogs by US personnel due to a directive by the Army Chief of Staff due to OPSEC issues.

http://www.blackfive.net/

Armorgeddon by a young armor officer who has since stopped posting but the archives are fun. He received a silver star for gallentry in action.

http://avengerredsix.blogspot.com/

Dadmanly still posts from Iraq.

http://dadmanly.blogspot.com/

 

[winchable]

Sgt. Missick: A line in the sand

http://www.missick.com/warblog.htm

 

[Lancaster]

I have created my own military blog site on the Canadian Military equipments wishlist for 2005 , this blog site was from basically a email letter I sent in April 2005  to minister  of defence minister Bill Graham and chief defence staff General Hillier, I received a reply 9 months later to see the governments on line  defence policy. Since it was not much of response ,so I decided to do something by  voltunteering  for my Conservative candidate in my riding. My blog site is :
www.canadianmilitary.blog.com

 

[JJ]

My good pal Dave is on his way over to Afghanistam.

He is blogging about it here;

http://www.virtualdave.ca/blog/

Please check it out often and leave comments.

He will enjoy hearing form us all!

JJ

 

[Jarnhamar]

This guy has a whole different opinion on blogs.

Hillarious stuff IMHO.

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=banish

 

[54/102 CEF]

American Citizen Soldier - very well done http://americancitizensoldier.blogspot.com/

A guy with the 501st Infantry in Afghanistan

Was down when I posted but its great

 

[ggranatstein]

One of the troops from my unit has started posting a little blog of his experiences in KAF through our unofficial website. There's only one post so far, but it's an interesting read.

http://www.712comms.net/page19/page19.html

I'm sure he would appreciate your comments.

 

[Centurian1985]

Reference the Capt Dave blog site:

There's the right to free speech and then there's not thinking. 

For anybody deploying - no blogs! If you want to keep memoirs, use a diary, then write your 'I was there' book after the misson is over!

Other persons using blogs during deployments might want to read up on current legal cases where employees have been dismissed from their jobs for maintaining a blog site and refering in a non-complimentary way about their jobs or employers (which often contradicts the company PR campaigns!). 

 

[Michael Dorosh]

For anybody deploying - no blogs! If you want to keep memoirs, use a diary, then write your 'I was there' book after the misson is over!

Diaries used to be verboten because they provided a potential source of informatoin to enemy soldiers in the event the owner was killed or captured with it on his person. Is there currently a regulation regarding that?

 

[Old Guy]

The US military seems to have come to a grudging acceptance of milblogs, provided the bloggers use their heads.  By that I mean they avoid anything related to OPSEC.  After all, a good deal of the time it's their own security that could be at risk.  And current blogs steer clear of criticism of ongoing operations, both because it will get them shut down and because the intelligent ones realize they only see a portion of the overall situation.

I think one reason the Army, in particular, has allowed a great deal of leeway to blogs is that bloggers are providing a surprisingly useful counter-balance to the crap being spewed by most MSM outlets.  The men and women blogging from Irag and Afghanistan have a built-in audience interested in their well-being.  After all, rather than being innocent 'kids', as the MSM all too often portrays them, these people are mostly young adults with parents, spouses, children, and extended families who will not only read what their deployed loved ones have to say, but will spread the word in ways the MSM can't match -- at least in the long term.

Every year more people get their news via the Web, leaving the media to bray their slanted garbage to each other -- and to the anointed elites on the Left.

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box.

Jim

 

[Babbling Brooks]

I started a group blog focusing solely on the CF past, present, and future a few months back called The Torch: http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/

We try to keep things as non-political as possible, and we're always open to having new contributors come on board.  Email me if you're interested: damian-dot-brooks-at-gmail-dot-com.

 

[Babbling Brooks]

Canadian milblogging is back in the news with the shut-down of Matt in Afghanistan (http://miafghanistan.blogspot.com/), a blog by a reservist sapper just sent over.  Of course, even with the current site content deleted, you can still find all of it on Google Cache (http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:GqSD7BWhkUwJ:miafghanistan.blogspot.com/+miafghanistan&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1).

I was interested to discover via The Star (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1156284610693&call_pageid=970599119419)that the CF has no specific policy regarding blogs written by uniformed personnel.  In fact, I wrote about it in some detail at The Torch (http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-bright-side-at-least-you-wont-get.html).

The U.S. armed services are all over the issue of blogging from a couple of angles.  First, over a year ago, HQ Multi-National Corps Iraq laid out guidance for its deployed personnel (pdf file here: http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/historystuff/Web%20log%20policy.pdf).  The policy seems pretty straightforward: register your blog with your chain of command, your unit commander monitors it for OpSec, and you're subject to discipline if you post anything you shouldn't have.  Second, the U.S. military is looking at promoting its own stories through milblogs, since they acknowledge just how badly their own Public Affairs bureaucracy is at getting their stories out through the mainstream media.  Hence folks from PAO offices at the Pentagon showing up to observe and consult at the recent Milblogging conference in Washington, DC (http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/005660.html).

Milblogs, both by active-duty personnel and by ex-military types, have their pitfalls (OpSec being the most obvious example), but they also have some pretty astounding upside too.  Look at the traffic here at Army.ca or even at a newcomer like The Torch, and you can see that we're getting messages out to the public that they're not getting elsewhere.  If milblogs are encouraged by the CF, that message will get louder, and maybe the Canadian public will get a slightly better sense of what serving members do, how they do it, and why its important.

The current public affairs model certainly isn't lighting things up, and never really has.  Look at what the established milblogging community has done in the U.S., and ask yourself why it couldn't be done on a smaller scale here.

Besides, the internet is a big enough sandbox that you can't really stop the flow of information anyhow.  Like a friend of mine in the U.S. has said:

"Shut 'em all down, and what will be left? The malcontents will blog - anonymously - with no countervailing voice which currently overwhelms the discontented. Which is an expression of the fact that most of the troops are generally satisfied in the big sense with how things are going (we *always* bitch about the details) and the positive voices drown out the unhappy voices. Bring down the Crushing Boot of Doom... and only the malcontents will be left. Think about it, Powers-That-Be. Listen to your PAOs, and not as much to your lawyers and weak commanders who don't like any critical voice, however much else positive comes from those voices. But mostly, listen to your warriors. They have all our best interests at heart."

Video on the net (like the recent CF/Taliban firefight on YouTube), e-mails copied and pasted to protect the original sender, and anonymous tips to reporters and civilian bloggers alike - you can't stop the tide.  So set up some smart policy to guide that tide and make it work in the CF's favour.  Is anyone at NDHQ listening?

Thoughts?

 

[boondocksaint]

http://www.beloblog.com/KGW_Blogs/afghanistan/2006/07/

they host scott kestersons work, the dude that shot the video's

 

[patrick666]

Just stumbled on this today,

http://canadian-forces.blogspot.com/2006/08/being-good-recruit.html

Good advice for new recruits.

The main blog is located at: http://canadian-forces.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Patrick

 

[a_majoor]

For all considering creating blogs, or posting to existing blogs, internet sites etc., there is guidance from CANFORGEN 136/06 CDS 050/06

http://vcds.dwan.dnd.ca/vcds-exec/pubs/canforgen/2006/136-06_e.asp

CANFORGEN 136/06 CDS 050/06 011318Z SEP 06
GUIDANCE ON BLOGS AND OTHER INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS - CF OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
UNCLASSIFIED


REFS: A.QR AND O 19.36, 19.37, AND 19.375
B.DAOD 2008-1, 2008-4, AND 2008-6
C.NDSP CHAPTER 30



RECENTLY THERE HAS BEEN CONSIDERABLE INFORMATION POSTED TO THE INTERNET DESCRIBING THE EXPERIENCES OF CF MEMBERS, PARTICULARLY THOSE DEPLOYED ON OPERATIONS. THESE POSTINGS HAVE INCLUDED COMMENTARIES ON PERSONAL WEBSITES, WEB-LOGS (BLOGS) AND E-MAILS, AND UPLOADED STILL AND VIDEO IMAGERY. THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN POSTED BY CF MEMBERS DEPLOYED ON OPERATIONS OR IN GARRISON, FAMILIES AND ACQUAINTANCES OF CF MEMBERS, EMBEDDED JOURNALISTS AND OTHER MEDIA, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC


THIS CANFORGEN IS INTENDED TO ENSURE CF MEMBERS, THE CHAIN OF COMMAND, AND SPECIALIST ADVISORS AT ALL LEVELS ARE AWARE OF THE RISKS INHERENT IN MAKING SOME TYPES OF INFORMATION OR IMAGERY AVAILABLE TO THE WIDE AUDIENCE USING THE INTERNET, AND OF THE MEASURES TO BE TAKEN TO PREVENT SUCH RISKS


OPERATIONAL SECURITY IS PARAMOUNT. IT IS INCUMBENT UPON ALL CF MEMBERS TO CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL FOR CREATING RISK TO THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, THEIR PEERS, AND THE MISSION BY PUBLISHING INFORMATION TO THE INTERNET. SUCH INFORMATION OR IMAGERY MAY, EITHER INDIVIDUALLY OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER INFORMATION, PROVIDE EXPERT ANALYSTS INSIGHTS INTO CF CURRENT OPERATIONS, EQUIPMENT, CAPABILITIES, TACTICS, AND INTENTIONS, OR MAY PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT PUTS PERSONNEL IN SPECIALIST ROLES OR THEIR FAMILIES AT RISK


CF MEMBERS ARE TO CONSULT WITH THEIR CHAIN OF COMMAND BEFORE PUBLISHING CF-RELATED INFORMATION AND IMAGERY TO THE INTERNET, REGARDLESS OF HOW INNOCUOUS THE INFORMATION MAY SEEM. THE CHAIN OF COMMAND HAS ACCESS TO EXPERT ADVISORS, SUCH AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INTELLIGENCE STAFFS, WHO WILL ENSURE THAT SUCH PUBLISHED INFORMATION IS NOT ULTIMATELY PREJUDICIAL TO CF OPERATIONS AND PERSONNEL


CF MEMBERS ALSO HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT ANY INFORMATION OR IMAGERY THEY SHARE WITH A THIRD PARTY WHO MAY NOT SHARE CF OPERATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS IS NOT OF SUCH A NATURE THAT IT COULD CREATE RISKS IF PUBLISHED


COLLECTION OF INFORMATION OR IMAGERY BY EMBEDDED JOURNALISTS OR OTHER MEDIA IS SUBJECT TO AGREEMENTS BETWEEN SUCH MEDIA AND THE RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF, WHO WILL ENSURE THE APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT AND RELEASE OF INFORMATION


IT IS NOT THE INTENT OF THE CF TO RESTRICT THE INTERNET ACCESS PROVIDED TO CF MEMBERS AS DESCRIBED IN THE REFERENCES. WITHIN GENERALLY WELL-UNDERSTOOD LIMITS, CF MEMBERS ARE ENTITLED TO COMMUNICATE WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES, AS ARE ALL CANADIAN CITIZENS


THE CF CHAIN OF COMMAND, PARTICULARLY IN A THEATRE OF OPERATIONS, HAS THE AUTHORITY TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE INTERNET IF IT IS DEEMED ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAINING OPERATIONAL SECURITY


LEGAL ADVICE ON THIS CANFORGEN IS AVAILABLE TO THE CHAIN OF COMMAND FROM THE NATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE OF THE CF LEGAL ADVISOR (CFLA)

Essentially, use common sense when deciding what to post, and inform your Chain of Command. OPSEC and PERSEC considerations are paramount, we don't want to be giving our foes useful tips, even by accident. Still, telling our stories and letting the public know what we are doing (in a general sense) is also important, keeping our population informed so they can make intelligent decisions.

 

[George Wallace]

There are no excuses or exceptions.  This CANFORGEN is posted throughout this site as a reminder to all.

Guidance on Blogs and other Internet Communications

GUIDANCE ON BLOGS AND OTHER INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS - CF OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES

Canadian Military Blogging

 

[auntybrat]

  I am a co-author on an American milblog and of COURSE we are well aware of OPSEC. No matter what the regs are - and yes we DO know them - we would never do anything to harm any of the troops. That's just not going to happen.  What we do, is show news that the msm seems to ignore.  Yes, the site was created by two Tanker Bros in the US military - both in Iraq - but I am Canadian.

Although Tanker Bros was originally called "Two soldiers in the war on terror" and was strictly about the US Army, now it is more a coalition focus. 

You can check it out at:

http://mikegulf.blogspot.com/

or email ME at
Tankerbrosbrat@gmail.com

We ARE all in this together..........and I am proud to be a Canadian doing my part to share some of the good news that doesn't make it out to the public.  "Oh Canada".....

 

[The Bread Guy]

Found this one hosted by Slate Magazine's site - mentions AFG & IRQ

http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/