You've got to love this headline by Agence France Presse (AFP): "Guns, grenades and iPads for Singapore soldiers".

The news of Singapore's military issuing new iPads to recruits is making the rounds on the internet including on Techmeme where the discussion has reached popular technology sites such as CNET and Engadget.

The defence ministry said Monday it will be issuing "about 8,000" of the sleek, touch-screen tablet computers -- already wildly popular with the city-state's tech-savvy youth -- to recruits from November.

The ministry said it was also planning to issue the devices to other servicemen next year. The cheapest iPad2 device currently retails in Singapore for Sg$668 ($538).

Defence chief Neo Kian Hong said adopting the iPad would allow the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to take advantage of the technological abilities of the city-state's youth.

In November I wrote an article about Singapore and how its armed services use social networking after reading a story in ComputerWorld.  Singapore's military was apparently a bit late in adopting social media, but it certainly has taken charge. 

There are 4 military blogs from Singapore listed here on Milblogging, but none of them have been updated in years. 

I must confess, I haven't scoured the internet for any Singapore military blogs, but if you happen to come across any, drop me a line to let me know or submit them.

You can find the Singapore Ministry of Defence's web site here: www.mindef.gov.sg.

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Diary of Civil War soldier John Mattoon. Last month at Hoopes Park as part of St. Joseph School’s The Healing Field, two flags flew next to the pond near the gazebo. They were in memory of my great-grandfather John “Watson” Mattoon and his twin brother, Cornelius “Wilson” Mattoon. Their cards simply said, “Civil War.”
(auburnpub.com)

Netanyahu’s Son Creates Facebook Controversy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair posted anti-Arab and anti-Islam remarks on his Facebook page, according to the Ha’aretz newspaper. The comments from the teenager, who also serves in the Israeli army, were said to have been deleted once the newspaper reached out looking for comment...
(All Facebook)

Protecting your online image. As more of your life moves online, you need to manage your online reputation by limiting the information that’s out there — while at the same time presenting your best side to superiors and potential post-military employers...
(AirForceTimes)

Jailed Egyptian Blogger Calls Out to U.S. As soon as I read Senator Mark Kirk and Congressman Frank Wolf’s letter to General Tantawi, the military governor of Egypt, calling for my release from prison, I felt a great positive energy surge throughout me. It is something I have really needed in prison...
(The Daily Beast)

Deep in a war zone, yearning for home. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - I remember as a teenager watching countless episodes of the TV show M*A*S*H and always having a peculiar attraction, apart from the blood and gore of the operating room, for the austere conditions, challenges, and camaraderie of the doctors and support staff of the 4077...
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

Hechler tells Civil War story through grandfather's letters. In September of 1861, 20-year-old George Hechler left his family's farm, crossed the Ohio River and enlisted in the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at its encampment in Parkersburg. For the next four years, the German-born enlistee took part in some of the Civil War's bloodiest battles. His vivid descriptions of a soldier's life, captured in letters to his favorite sister, Kate, form the backbone of "Soldier of the Union," a new book published by Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. of Charleston...
(The Charleston Gazette)

Chavez Greets Supporters on Twitter. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent out a series of messages via his Twitter account Friday, the leader's first dispatches through the social networking site since June 4 and one of his few communications since having surgery earlier this month in Cuba...
(WSJ)

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The story of SEAL Team 6 is one headline that continues to grab people's attention.

With all the attention being showered on active duty and former SEALs, more phonies are being caught. 

Annys Shin has the story:

When news of bin Laden's death broke, these investigators say, they were soon overwhelmed by reports of suspected SEAL phonies. Robinson, who had hunted fake SEALs for 10 years, was called out of retirement to help fellow volunteers track down claims.

Military-service impostors can go to extraordinary lengths to bolster their lies. A West Virginia man recently went to his grave saying he had won a Purple Heart, a Distinguished Service Cross and a Silver Star — and had news clips from the 1940s to back him up. But when Doug Sterner, of Alexandria, Va., a decorated Vietnam War veteran and war-hero boast-buster, began digging around in March and obtained the man's service records, he found a note from 1945 inserted by an officer that said the man's medal claims were bogus.

SEAL impostors are among the easiest to catch. With a few clicks, their names can be run through a comprehensive and regularly updated database of all men who trained and served with the Naval Special Warfare units, which include the SEALs and their precursor units, from the end of World War II to the present day. (SEAL is an acronym for sea, air and land; members are part of the Naval Special Warfare Command, based in Coronado, Calif.)

Read the entire story here.

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If you’re not familiar with the Command and General Staff College’s Golden Pen Awards, the program recognizes CGSC faculty for published writing contributions that enhance the mission of the college.  The Golden Pen Award is given for a book or book-length series of articles.

According to the Fort Leavenworth Lamp, this year's awards were presented June 17 in Eisenhower Auditorium in the Lewis and Clark Center by CGSC Deputy Commandant Brig. Gen. Sean MacFarland.

There were three categories of winners - golden, silver and bronze.

Here’s a list of all the winners.

See pictures of the event here.

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Rape in wartime: Listening to the victims. This is the first of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war. The second story looks at the untold stories of rape in the Holocaust. Both stories contain graphic language; discretion is advised.
(CNN)

The Big Bin Laden Boom in Hollywood. A string of films centering on the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from Rendition to Green Zone to the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker -- had failed to lure audiences. But now, in the wake of bin Laden's death at the hands of Navy SEALs, the genre couldn't be hotter.
(The Hollywood Reporter)

Bahrain: Leading blogger Ali Abdulemam sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with other human rights defenders.  Nine months after leading blogger and human rights activist Ali Abdulemam was arrested along with other political and human rights activists in Bahrain, a military court has sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
(Global Voices Online)

Steven ‘Scooby’ Doolan: A soldier’s story, part three. In the third report on injured soldier Ste ‘Scooby’ Doolan, OLIVER CLAY looks at how he coped with horrific injuries sustained in a roadside blast in Afghanistan.
(Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News)

Iconic war reporter to speak in Trafford. AWARD winning war correspondent Martin Bell OBE (pictured) is coming to Trafford to share his experiences of life on the front line.
(Messenger Newspapers)

Venezuela's Chavez reappears on Twitter from Cuba. The reemergence of the loquacious leader on the social networking site will do little to squash speculation that his prolonged absence means he may be seriously ill.
(Reuters)      

Apple removes pro-Palestinian app. from iTunes. At Israel's request, Apple has removed an iTunes application calling for a third Palestinian uprising, or infitadah, reports CBS Radio News correspondent Robert Berger. Facebook removed a similar page three months ago.
(CBS News)

Military strategy games storm their way onto Facebook. War. What is it good for? Well, when it comes to Facebook games, a whole lot of strategy fun. War-themed strategy games have been popping up all over the social network lately, and surprisingly many of them are great.
(Gamezebo)

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The Virginia Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission has created a cool site that lets you track a soldier’s history across Virginia’s Civil War sites.

WTVR in Richmond, Virginia had a great write-up on this that says people can directly connect descendants with the places where their ancestors served and fought.

"This is a great initiative by the Commission to find the intersection between the history of the war and the impact it had on real people of the time,” said Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter. “If you had an ancestor, or if a friend had an ancestor, you now have the ability to ‘walk where they walked, see what they saw’ and begin to have a fuller sense of what this war was about - America's pursuit of freedom".

You can read the full story here.

To learn whether your ancestors fought in the Civil War and walk in their footsteps visit the official website here.

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War reporting: what it's really like.  I ONCE watched a man dying in agony. It was in Afghanistan, I was crouching behind a low wall during a mortar attack and he lay in front of me, eyes bulging like those of a dying hen, his left leg trailing from a string of tendon in a puddle of blood and muck. I will never forget the look on his face...
(The Herald)

The Pentagon's New Vision for Cyber Warfare. When The Wall Street Journal broke the news last month that the U.S. would, for the first time, be classifying cyber attacks as an act of war, the report constituted one of the first leaks from the Pentagon's two-year effort to develop a formal cyber strategy, as it contends with the growing threat of hackers sabotaging U.S. subways, electrical grids, financial systems, and nuclear reactors...
(The Atlantic Wire)

Woman pleads guilty in U.S. Navy Veterans fundraising scam in Ohio. A woman associated with the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a group whose fundraising has raised questions in Virginia and elsewhere, pleaded guilty today to corruption, theft and money laundering...
(The Roanoke Times)

Making the Facebook Revolution Work for Israelis and Palestinians. A few months ago I was standing at the Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah, waiting for an Israeli journalist from Israel’s Channel One Television who was scheduled to interview me about the Facebook revolution...
(Turkish Weekly)

Vote on Facebook for the next president of Egypt. In a bizarre pandering to Egypt's social media users, the ruling military has posted a Facebook poll to gauge the popularity of nearly 20 presidential hopefuls...
(New Statesman)

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News publications, blogs, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are regularly warning people of the latest military scams. 

Although some scams are perpetrated on sites like Facebook by imposters pretending to be service members, there are all sorts of ways you could be duped.

Military scams don't just take place online.

Jeff Schogol the writer for The Rumor Doctor (a Stars N' Stripes blog), wrote this week about scammers targeting veterans and military families claiming they have won a sweepstakes from Stars and Stripes.

Forbes and other major news sites have been reporting about Jesus Garcia of Connecticut who is facing charges for falsely claiming to be an Army Ranger wounded during four tours in Afghanistan.  He was able to get money and other things like free train rides as a result of his scam.

An article that appeared online on Memorial Day discussed the top scams that target service members and how the BBB is helping.  The list included:

High priced military loans
Fake rental properties
Phony jury duty summons
Misleading car sales 
Expensive life insurance policies 
Veteran’s benefits buyout plans

You can read the full article here to learn about the scams and how better to protect yourself.

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Commander Kelly to Retire, Write a Memoir With Giffords.  NASA commander Mark Kelly announced today on his Facebook page that he is retiring from the U.S. Navy and leaving NASA, effective October 1.  “From the day I entered the United States Merchant Marine Academy in the summer of 1982 to the moment I landed the Space Shuttle Endeavour three weeks ago, it has been my privilege to advance the ideals that define the United States of America.”
(The Christian Post)

Israel to Apple: Take down 'Third Intifada' app.  Computer giant Apple has authorized an application called "The Third Palestinian Intifada," which updates users on upcoming protests, features articles critical of Israel and pictures of martyrs, Army Radio reported Tuesday.  Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora, who recently successfully lobbied to remove a Facebook page of the same name, sent a letter to Apple founder Steve Jobs demanding the application be removed.
(Haaretz)

Civil War diary survived years. GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — A Civil War diary credited with saving the life of Nebraska's first lieutenant governor will tell his wartime story as part of a Nashville, Tenn., museum exhibit.  The diary is part of a new exhibit at the Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum commemorating the Civil War's 150th anniversary. The exhibit tells the war's story through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it.
(Omaha.com)

Egypt military posts Facebook poll on next leader.  Egypt's military rulers have posted a Facebook poll to gauge the popularity of nearly 20 presidential hopefuls, an attempt to show their commitment to a democratic transition in the face of rising criticism of their management of the country.
(AP)

Britain Focuses on Dangers of Social Media. Since its inception, the Internet has spawned hackers looking to gather valuable information. These eavesdroppers on computer conversations and social media can create security issues, especially when it comes to military operations.
(Technorati Blog)

Fallen Civil War infantryman's stories come to life in his letters.  Sgt. Stephen Taylor Buckson, of the 4th Delaware Volunteer Infantry, didn't live to tell his Civil War stories.  He was killed in June 1864 as Union forces, trying to disrupt supply lines, attacked Confederate defenses near Petersburg, Va.
(The News Journal)

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It’s a bit unusual to read about a military organization in AdAge, a popular online advertising and marketing news publication.

But if you visited the website today you may have read an interview with Col. Rob Porter of the National Guard, who is the equivalent of a Chief Marketing Officer in the corporate world.

It has nearly 910,000 Facebook likes and 16,000 Twitter followers, a YouTube channel with 7 million monthly views, a Nascar sponsorship, smartphone apps and cutting-edge social-media campaigns.

Mr. Porter's role is critical for the Guard, which not only needs to build its brand and awareness, but also needs to attract high-quality recruits. Social media is proving indispensable in reaching its 17- to 24-year-old target, and while that may not be surprising, the speed and proficiency with which it has embraced social media is notable.

Beth Bulik with AdAge has posted a Q&A interview with Col. Porter that discusses the National Guard’s marketing challenge and how it differs from that of traditional marketers.

You can read the full interview here.

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World War II soldier tells story of his survival. Beaten, tortured, starved, enslaved, racked with tropical diseases, nearly drowned and brushed by an atomic bomb, Alistair Urquhart never should have survived...
(BYU)

Study finds Facebook users have improved social lives. Military spouse Autumn Whipple, 26, recently moved to Killeen from Fort Carson, Colo., with her husband, Spc. David S. Whipple, and their three young children. She said that Facebook helps her keep in touch with family and friends back home, and meet up with new friends and fellow unit spouses here...
(Killeen Daily Herald)

Twitter Analysis As an Intelligence Tool in Libyan Engagement. The NATO-led Libyan campaign has increased the monitoring of Twitter and other social media in its mission planning, according to the Financial Times. Because there are "too few special forces on the ground", NATO "will take information from every source we can", according to RAF Wing Commander Mike Bracken, the Libyan operation's military spokesman...
(Huffington Post)

Egypt army web page tests presidential hopefuls. – Egypt’s military rulers have launched an online poll to test the popularity of potential presidential candidates, a move analysts said may be aimed at judging appetite for getting a former officer back in the post...
(euronews)   

A replacement soldier's war memories. A Virginia doctor has written a new book recalling his World War II memories of both the homefront in Amsterdam and the last days of the war in Europe.  George A. Tralka was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam the afternoon that radio broadcasts were interrupted to report the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tralka at first thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska...
(Daily Gazette)

Journalists questioned by military for publishing "false information" released without bail. At around 1pm on Sunday, 19 June, two hours after appearing in front of the military prosecutor, Al-Fajr editor in chief Adel Hammouda walked out of the now infamous C-28 building; where activists and journalists have been called for questioning by the military prosecutor with increasing frequency...
(Ahram Online)

World War II vets share their stories.  Father's Day, often an occasion for bottles of scotch or new neckties, is also a day to let dads share their favorite war stories. The tales in Alameda on Sunday were impressive, including those of the first black aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and a first-person account of John F. Kennedy's war heroism...
(San Jose Mercury News)   

Britain warns of social media dangers. "Loose Lips Sink Ships," the admonition on information security is as pertinent in the 21st century as it was in World War II, if not more so...
(UPI)  

Egyptian journalists say it's more of same. Some Egyptian journalists say they're still being harassed by the government months after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak...
(UPI)

NATO Reportedly Uses Twitter To Fight Gaddafi.  Twitter is part of NATO's "fusion center" of intelligence gathering, the organization said during a June 10 briefing. NATO uses the microblogging service alongside other sources that help NATO map out how it can use weapons, as there are not enough forces on the ground to help determine troop positions...
(Huffington Post)

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Solomon Fein, the World’s Oldest Known military blogger, at 88 years of age, has been very active on his blog as of late.

For good reason -- this month commemorated the 67th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. 

And Solomon, who is a Normandy D-Day vet, wrote about it in case you missed it earlier this month.

On June 6 Solomon wrote:

When you've seen enough bodies of friends or enemies, you stop running for cover when there is shelling from 88s. You get scared of getting out of your foxhole because one of your skittish neighbors is quick on the trigger.You start thinking a little differently.Your existence depends on how good the guy next to you in the field is. He and the others who are still alive, start thinking pretty much the same way. Don't worry about yourself so much, just watch out for your fellowmen, because they are the only thing that is keeping you alive.

Here we are, more than 67 years after this event and I defy you to tell me how many casualties the pre-D day invaders suffered. I'm sure that this figure is best kept with the overall population of American and Allied losses.

The full entry can be read online here.

Prior to his D Day anniversary entry, Solomon wrote two posts leading up to it including D Day First Light and 5 Days Before D Day.

Solomon Fein recently announced he was back to blogging after a six month hiatus, so expect a lot more great stories.

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Activists Using Video to Bear Witness in Syria. Jamil Saeb stared intently into the bluish light of his laptop screen, feverishly editing video as antigovernment chants rose up the hillside from the makeshift refugee camp on the valley floor below...
(New York Times)

Fliers in a fix turn to Twitter. Airlines take people on some of the most important trips of their lives — to a wedding, a job interview or a trip back home from a war zone. And when things go wrong, passengers are increasingly turning to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube to rant about it...
(Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Bloggers say West violated federal law by diving with American flag.  A couple days before Flag Day, Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West went for what was supposed to be a fun excursion for the Army vet: A patriotic dive off the coast in Broward County. Little did West know he was entering hot water...
(PolitiFact)

What the 'Gay Girl in Damascus' Hoax Says About the Blogosphere.  Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is one of the most famous novels ever written about combat, in general and in the American Civil War, where the book is set. Yet Crane, who was born six years after that war ended, had never seen combat when he wrote the story. This understandably irritated a number of actual veterans...
(Big Think)

Taking social media by storm. The American adage “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is equally applicable to Balochistan. No matter how many bullet-riddled dead bodies of missing persons are recovered in a single week or how many liberal professors are systematically assassinated, the news from Balochistan barely makes front page headlines in the mainstream national media...
(The News)

How one Syrian dissident found his voice on the internet. For years, Mohamed Feezo tried to speak up about all the things Syrians were trained to ignore: cronyism and corruption, oppression of the Kurds, aid to the Iraqi insurgency and the preferential treatment given to Alawites, the minority sect of President Bashar Assad...
(The Sacramento Bee)

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'Facebook soldier' won't be probed. Soldier who posted photos of herself next to blindfolded Palestinians won't face criminal probe, deputy state prosecutor says; however, investigation to be launched against 'dancing soldier'
(Ynetnews)

Nato using Twitter for airstrikes on Libya. Officials confirm micro-blogging site is one of intelligence gathering tools. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is reportedly information from users of micro-blogging site Twitter to gather information, such as geolocation, to identify air strike targets in Libya, where it is not allowed to send in ground troops.
(Computer Business Review)

Chinese military warns of U.S. cyberwar threat. The Chinese military wants to beef up its cyberdefense efforts as it anticipates greater threats originating from the U.S. "The U.S. military is hastening to seize the commanding military heights on the Internet, and another Internet war is being pushed to a stormy peak," the Chinese military wrote in its official newspaper, Liberation Army Daily.
(CNET)

British Forces News broadcasts from Germany blog.This week British Forces News is live from Germany - bringing you a week of in-depth features and expert analysis about the issues that concern you. Our special correspondent Geoff Meade reflects on his experiences of life in BFG.
(British Forces News)

Through blogs and tweets, new generation of Pakistanis push for change. Meet Pakistan’s “Teeth Maestro,” a dentist who uses his blog to get to the root of the country’s many pains. One day it might be trigger-happy soldiers. Another day it’s corrupt bureaucrats. Sometimes, it’s U.S. meddling.
(Washington Post)

MoD Warns About Twitter and Facebook Through Video Campaign. Recently the United States Ministry of Defence (MoD) has started a video campaign to warn against the perils of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook etc. The purpose of such a campaign is only to alert servicemen and women of possible security risks that could arise through using Twitter and Facebook. These videos of the awareness campaign are posted on YouTube channel of MoD and there are more such videos planned to be released in the coming months.
(Ground Report)

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Milblogging.com has now grown to 3,100 military blogs, with several blogs being submitted each week.

The latest batch added since the beginning of June includes blogs written from Afghanistan and Iraq, military spouses who write, a Veteran and a Reservist, parents who are chronicling their daughter's time in the USMC, and even a blog maintained by the Delaware Public Archives that is being used to repost notes and observations of Cyrus Forwood, a soldier who served in the Civil War and kept a diary.

Here are the latest blogs listed in the Milblogging index.

Husband / Father / Sailor Deployment Journal
Written anonymously using an "Answer Key," this is the daily account of a 14 year Navy Reserve sailor who has been deployed to Afghanistan. Strictly adhering to the rules of OPSEC, it is a raw account of the ups and downs of deployment.

Navywifechronicles
On April 23, 2010, my husband was in a car accident while deployed in Iraq. Needless to say, this day has changed our lives. I write about how we’re picking up the pieces, Navy life, adapting to the civilian world, & silly things our kids say.

Boundless
A general [military] lifestyle blog, I frequently share my photography/design, recipes, & adventures. I'm fairly new to this military life, but I enjoy sharing my perspective + tips and tricks to making the challenges presented fun and humorous

The Camouflage Keyboard
Strange, unbelievable, mundane, and life-changing happenings from a reservist mobilized to active duty overseas.

Semper Fi Parents
A chronicle of my daughter's time in the USMC, as well as articles of interest to any thinking of joining the Marines, articles about Marine Corps history, boot camp training, military news, etc.

Household Six: Dual Military, Veteran, and Military Spouse Expressions
Personal views and opinions on military service, as well as other misc. subjects to include current events.

Cyrus Forwood - A Delaware Soldier in the American Civil War
As part of the State of Delaware's Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration, the Delaware Public Archives is using this blog to repost notes and observations Forwood wrote in his diary during his time as a soldier--day-by-day.

Ramblings from a Retired Shooter
A Journal based on my thoughts, experiences, and opinions based on combat experiences and journey with PTSD and other injuries.

Life in a Sandbox
Day to day life of a soldier on a deployment.

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The Uneasy Media-Military Relationship.  While the military and embedded media both seek to serve the public good — the military via defense of national security and embeds by ensuring that civilians back home are fully informed of the nation’s foreign policy and wartime commitments — there are nevertheless conflicts that can arise between the two.
(New York Times)

How social media users are helping NATO fight Gadhafi in Libya. Every morning at 7:30 a.m., in the picturesque woodlands of rural Ontario, a retired auto shop manager named Janice Clinch helps her grandson get ready for school and fires up her computer for another day of battle in the Libyan desert.
(The Globe and Mail)

Yon Is Wrong. Michael Yon is a great guy.  But he’s wrong.  Well, he can’t prove that he’s right, which is much the same thing.  And by championing a bad effort by the New York Times he gets stuck in a tar pit he didn’t have to swim across, but did anyway. I shouldn’t dive in and save him, but because I love him I’m going to do it.
(Line of Departure)

Hackers attack Indian Army website.  BANGALORE, INDIA: The Anonymous India, a hacker group, has take its fight against corruption in India to new heights. The group has announced that it has 'successfully' hacked the official website of Indian Army last week to caution the Government against corruption.
(CIOL)

Police: Man Faked War Story To Steal VFW Money. A north Georgia man faked being an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient to steal money from a Roswell Veterans of Foreign Wars post, according to Roswell police.
(WSB Atlanta)

Companies and Individuals Continue to File Trademark Applications for SEAL Team 6.  Last month, Disney attempted to cash in on the Navy SEAL Team 6 name fame by submitting a US trademark application for the name SEAL Team 6.  The US Navy countered with their own trademark submissions and Disney backed down by abandoning its applications.
(Hot Air)

"Page One": Will the New York Times survive?  "Page One: Inside the New York Times," Andrew Rossi's oddly exciting documentary about the august and struggling flagship of American journalism, is a movie without an ending. How could it be otherwise?
(Salon)

Communication with spouse linked to PTSD levels. A new study has linked lower levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms with frequent communication from spouses — but only for those with higher levels of marital satisfaction.
(NavyTimes)

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Apparently some news sites and blogs missed the news when it came out earlier this month regarding the British Ministry of Defence issuing new guidance on using social media. 

I posted about it here on June 3.

Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting articles popping up online today as a result of The Telegraph’s story (better late than never) entitled MoD issues videos warning Twitter generation that 'Careless talk costs lives.

Helen A.S. Popkin for MSNBC writes:
British women simply cannot be trusted with military information!  As Britain's World War II propaganda posters reveal, talking too much to the fairer sex — be it one's mum, or a hot blonde (who's not so dumb) — resulted in the Blitz ... or something.
[More here]

Adam Clark Estes for The Atlantic Wire writes:
It's hard not to make fun of the British Defense Ministry's new public service announcements about social media. Directed at servicemen and women who have mobile phones and computers and Facebook accounts, et cetera, the message is clear. "It's not just your friends and family reading your updates," says one of the new ads, or "adverts" in British. "Think before you tweet/blog/update/tag/comment/check-in/upload/text/share," instructs another.
[More here]

Tom Chivers for The Telegraph writes:
“During the Second World War, propaganda campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic warned Allied personnel to be careful where they mentioned sensitive information. In Britain, the key slogan was "Careless talk costs lives"; famous cartoons by Fougasse showed British citizens talking quietly, not noticing caricatures of Hitler or Goebbels listening in. Another showed a soldier, an airman and a sailor at a party, clearly trying to impress a young woman, above the words "Keep mum - she's not so dumb! In the US, the equivalent was "Loose lips sink ships".
[More here]

Jeff Neumann for the Defamer Australia writes:
The British Ministry of Defence is worried about oversharing military personnel and their oversharing families, so they’ve created a few videos that should really make everyone think twice about careless tweets and Facebook status updates.
[More here]

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Well-known military blogger Matt Gallagher who published the book Kaboom Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War has a nice piece today in The Atlantic that asks the question, “Where’s the great novel about the War on Terror?”

The article he published has a lot of familiar names among the milblogging community.

Here’s an excerpt:

The American war writing tradition is a proud one, and booming in this era of the Global War on Terror—at least in the non-fiction realm. Hundreds of memoirs and press accounts from Iraq and Afghanistan have been published since 9/11. These works run the gamut from personal testimonies of combat (Colby Buzzell's My War and Kayla Williams's Love My Rifle More than You), to attempted explanations as to how and why these wars unfolded the way they did (Donald Rumsfeld's Known and Unknown), to embedded press accounts by correspondents with infantrymen half their age (Sebastian Junger's War) or exiled Iraqi prostitutes (Deborah Amos's Eclipse of the Sunnis.) There has been such a proliferation of non-fiction war writing over the last ten years that it's nearly impossible to talk to anyone in the publishing industry without hearing phrases like "war fatigue" and "market saturation."

Fiction has proven an entirely different animal. Almost a decade after the first bombs were dropped in Afghanistan, even the most avid bookworm would be hard-pressed to identify a war novel that could be considered definitive of this new generation's battles. The explanations for this vary from the esoteric—wars need to end first before fiction writers can fully capture their impact—to the pragmatic: People don't read fiction anymore.

There’s much more to the story here.

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I’m not making the assertion that China has the ‘Most Influential Military Bloggers’ in the world, but David Axe over at The Diplomat is. 

In an article that appeared online early today, David says few country's milbloggers are more influential than China’s.

Here’s why:

With China possessing so few government-sanctioned outlets for military news, foreign observers of Beijing's military modernization increasingly rely on milbloggers for the latest information. Chinese bloggers have obliged by posting amateur photographs revealing new ships, armoured vehicles and aircraft.

The December revelation of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-20 stealth fighter prototype by some enterprising amateur photographers represented the Chinese milbloggers’ greatest coup.

Read the entire article here.

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Vietnam War diary becomes book
From his tour of duty in Vietnam, Jim Oyster brought back a head injury, a leg injury and a right hand with one less finger.  He also brought back a diary. Hundreds of hand-written pages he filled with the details of what he saw and how he felt fighting against the enemy...
(The Marion Star)

Military's Twitter feed stops publicising troop movements.  The Finnish Defence Forces have tightened their social media policies in relation to the ongoing Whirlwind exercises, after the operation’s Twitter feed let slip the positions of some troops...
(YLE Uutiset)

Indian hacker group kicked-out by Facebook.  The Indian arm of a hacker group 'Anonymous' - called Anonymous Operation India - has been removed from Facebook and Twitter...
(NDTVGadgets)

Syrian lesbian blogger is revealed conclusively to be a married man.  Tom MacMaster's wife has confirmed in an email to the Guardian that he is the real identity behind the Gay Girl in Damascus blog, reports Esther Addley...
(The Guardian)

Egypt's Twitter users materialise in first #TweetNadwa.  A gathering of Egyptian activists and bloggers convened Sunday in Dokki, Cairo to take part in the first ‘Tweet Nadwa’, a meeting organised for members of the social networking and micro-blogging service Twitter “to engage in new conversations and discover new contacts” according to organiser Alaa Abd El Fattah...
(Ahram Online)

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors.  The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks...
(New York Times)

Honor Through the Ages: Aggie’s Bataan Journal Emerges.  One of America’s darkest military moments came when U.S. defenses on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines fell to the Japanese on April 9, 1942. But for Capt. Cary M. Abney, Jr. ’34, the mass surrender was just the beginning of an individual battle to ensure the truth about what happened to him and his comrades got out after the war ended...
(Texas A&M News & Inform)

'Don't forget us': History buff edits soldier's war stories.   More than 100 years after his memoirs were first printed, "The Civil War Memoirs of Erastus Winters" have been brought back to life by a Murfreesboro editor...
(The Daily News Journal)

Pentagon Papers to be released. Precisely 40 years after they began to appear in The New York Times, triggering a constitutional crisis over freedom of the press, the Pentagon Papers will be released at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum and other sites Monday...
(Houston Chronicle)

The Civil War’s still-unfolding story: uncovering, cataloging disappearing monuments and stories. For proof, witness an off-the-beaten-path monument nestled between two mid-20th century homes on Sulphur Springs Road in Waynesville. The stone and cement, conical-shaped marker is shaded by trees and clad partly in ivy. A small Confederate flag and wreath are pinned to the ground next to it...
(Mountain Xpress)

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