Iran to probe death of jailed blogger. Iran's parliament announced Sunday it would probe reports that a jailed blogger died suspiciously in custody earlier this week, according to the official IRNA news agency.  This was Iran's first official reaction to the death of Sattar Beheshti, in a rare example of parliament taking up allegations of human rights abuses first raised internationally. The case gained publicity over the weekend when U.S. State Department and a press freedom group called for an inquiry.  It was known that the blogger died in custody, but how he died was not disclosed...
(Live5News.com)

Scammers are using soldiers' pictures to swindle women. They are the faces of war - soldiers on the front lines and many of their pictures online, making them perfect pawns in a sophisticated scam.  Joint Base Lewis-McChord says it's become a huge problem-- scammers using soldiers' pictures to swindle women looking for love.  These days, a lot of women want to be Army Major Gordon' Hannett's Facebook friend. In fact, they want to be more than friends.  "Two women asked me to marry them, just straight up in Facebook messages."
(NWCN.com)

At Mao-style conclave, China embraces Twitter age. During China's last party congress, the cadres in charge of the world's most populous nation didn't know a hashtag from a hyperlink. But five years on, there's a new message from Beijing: The political transition will be microblogged.  Party officials have this fall embraced social media with unprecedented enthusiasm, hoping it can help guide public opinion and stir up excitement about the staid and scripted party meeting taking place this week in Beijing that kicks off a transition to a new, younger set of top leaders...
(Live5News.com)

War Veterans Home couple recalls how they met 66 years ago.  There are love stories ... and then there are the Champagnes.  Roland, 97, and Marian, 92, are both Marines who served during World War II. They are also the "First Veteran Couple" at the Southwest Louisiana War Veterans Home in Jennings.  Their romance began at the end of the war, in 1946, as both were planning their discharges. Their story is a lasting romance between a Louisiana boy and Ohio girl which flowered during the World War II era...
(Sulphur Daily News)

Franklin World War II Veteran Focus of New Documentary. A Franklin man now has the distinction of being a member of the Greatest Generation, a war hero, and now a movie star.  A new full-length documentary, called "Jimmy Gentry's  Tribute To The Foot Soldier," debuted at the Franklin Theatre Monday night.  It features the story of Gentry's service in World War II.  Most know Gentry from Gentry's Farm in Franklin, but his emotional firsthand account of his time serving in World War II continues to captivate people across the country... 
(NewsChannel5.com)

World War II Veteran Tells His Story. Ronnie Young is someone you could sit down with and talk to for hours as the 89-year-old World War Two Veteran shares stories about military events he saw first hand.  In 1942 Young signed up to serve in the U.S. Navy.  And, it wasn't long before he was in the middle of the fighting in the Pacific.  "I was in the first and second battle of the Philippine Sea, I was in Lady Gulf, I was in the Mariana Turkey Shoot," says Young.  "I don't know if you have heard about the Mariana Turkey Shoot.   That was in the Carolina Islands where the fleet and the airplanes off the carriers shot down 400 and something airplanes in less than a 24-hour period."
(WTVA)

Video: RAF Marham’s Military Wives remain upbeat despite losing album chart race to Robbie Williams, JLS and Calvin Harris.  They were hoping to rule Supreme by storming to top of the album chart in their first week and say they have No Regrets at missing out to popstar Robbie Williams.  But now the Marham Bluebirds Military Wives Choir hope their efforts on the new Military Wives album, Stronger Together, will reach the summit this Sunday following Remembrance Sunday.  The album, which has Marham choir members singing on three tracks, was released last Monday but finished fifth in last week’s album chart behind the Take That star, JLS, Calvin Harris and violinist Andre Rieu...
(Eastern Daily Press)

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I wrote about fallen military blogger and flight medic Army Sgt. Eric E. Williams in July and August.

Williams was just starting his long journey home from Afghanistan when he came under enemy mortar fire and died.

In his last post published only days before he was killed he wrote of coming home on his blog titled "Eric Williams" which can be found at http://myfriendthemedic.blogspot.com/

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times wrote that his wife and mother hope his blog can be published to help the public understand the war from the perspective of a soldier on the front lines.

Full story here.

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Did Petraeus' mistress leak sensitive information on Facebook? Former aides say biographer disclosed details of military operations in lighthearted posts. The coterie of officers and advisers surrounding Gen. David Petraeus had become suspicious of the woman, now known to have been his mistress, due to her playful Facebook status updates they claim disclosed sensitive details of military operations in Afghanistan.  Paula Broadwell, the woman who penned the military chief's biography and ultimately began a romantic relationship with the married 60-year-old, became a cause of concern back in 2009 when those in Petraeus' inner circle saw her lighthearted postings on the social networking website... 
(Mail Online)

Boston Veterans Launch Military Social Network. It was only after Aaron Kletzing and Yinon Weiss met at Harvard Business School that they realized they’d served together.  At the same outpost outside of Taji, just north of Baghdad, Kletzing served as an Army fire support officer and Weiss commanded a team of special forces. Seeing each other again in Boston made it sink in how armed service members have strong, but often brief, professional interactions.  “People in the military moved around so much,” Kletzing said. “And they meet new people professionally everywhere they go, and then they move again.”  On this Veterans Day holiday, the two retired officers are using their Harvard Business School training to launch a new social network. Called “RallyPoint,” the idea is to help military personnel and veterans stay connected...
(WBUR)

Soldier’s insider attack story to be a teaching tool for war. Not a day goes by that Zach Camp doesn’t replay that terrible August day over in his mind.  Was there anything he could have done differently? Were there any signs that an Afghan Army soldier was going to turn his machine gun on the American troops he had been training alongside for months?  Nearly three months after the assault that sent Camp home with a gunshot wound, the Army first lieutenant says he doesn’t think there was any way he or his fellow team members could have anticipated the insider attack... 
(The Durango Herald)

War stories, in words, photos. War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were given a camera and an assignment - use photos to tell your story, to convey what it was like to be deployed, come home, get medical care, get along in the world.  Eighty photos and accompanying quotes were assembled for an exhibit, "From War to Home," that opens Tuesday at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, timed for near Veterans Day.  The images, submitted by 40 veterans from the Philadelphia area, convey the horrors of war and difficulties of coming home...
(Philly.com)

Monroe County's frontier forts: Diary details captain's 18th-century life at Fort Hyndshaw. This is the third in a four-part series highlighting the history of the four frontier forts that were built from 1755 to 1756 at the command of Benjamin Franklin.  From December 1755 to January 1756, frontier forts were built in and around present-day Stroudsburg and Shawnee-on-Delaware, but there was a necessity to protect the settlers who lived in the northeasternmost corner of the area... 
(Pocono Record)

Ken Hall: Combat veterans have earned right to tell war stories. This will be a special Veterans Day for Tammy Duckworth. She lost both her legs in combat in Iraq, then turned to politics. Last week she won the election to represent the 8th Congressional District in Illinois.  It was, as they say in political circles, a hard-fought battle — not that it came close to the real ones veterans like her have survived or the others that veterans face when they return home.  The contest attracted national attention because she and her opponent, one-term incumbent Joe Walsh, let each other have it...
(recordonline)

New LA film festival highlights veterans in movies.  The GI Film Festival Hollywood has chosen Veterans Day weekend to launch its first event in Los Angeles.  Festival co-founder Brandon Millett said Sunday that films at the two-day festival highlight the successes and sacrifices of American military personnel and the worldwide struggle for democracy...
(Houston Chronicle)

US military looks to social nets for intelligence strategy.  Students at a U.S. military graduate school in California are mining social media with new methods that may change the way the armed forces collect intelligence overseas.  Students and researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School have tackled two projects that could begin the shift in the way intelligence is gathered...
(TechHive)

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Have you seen the brutal videos and photos from Syria?

Have you found yourself sympathizing for one side or the other?

You may have been fooled.

An article that appeared in the GlobalPost today has a good analysis on many of the fake disturbing videos that have been circulating on the internet, which are assumed to be from Syria, but really aren't.

“The sham videos can have very real effects, creating sympathy for one side or the other. Last week, the United Nations accused the rebels of war crimes, based on a YouTube video of fighters executing prisoners. This type of atrocity makes intervention less appealing to the West.

While that video appears to have been real, many other bogus ones have found their way onto major television networks in the United States and beyond, and are spread widely by social media. It’s not uncommon for the two sides to use the same footage to make opposite claims.”

To have a look at some of the most viewed fake videos, go to GlobalPost.

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Prisoner of War tells his story. A chance to honor those who have served in each branch of the armed forces.  Every service member that has put their life on the line in combat has their own personal account of what they endured.  But for one local soldier in particular, cossing enemy lines was more than he bargained for.  Former army specialist and prisoner of war, Edgar Hernandez said, "I still remember everything like it happened yesterday.”  Back in 2003, Hernandez and a small group of 33 soldiers riding in a convoy in iraq got lost...
(ValleyCentral.com)

A Veterans Day story: 'Why Johnny and not me?'  This is a Veterans Day story in two parts. It involves my late father, Harold Silverberg, and a deadly battle in Germany he survived during World War II. Like many war veterans, he rarely talked about those times. But 41 years later, at the age of 65, he finally was able to express in writing its lingering impact.  The first part is his 1985 account of an attack by his unit, the 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division, on Nov. 27, 1944. Its objective was to capture a vital hill near the Hürtgen Forest from the enemy, despite steep embankments, deep mud, barbed wire, land mines and German artillery fire...
(Newsday)

From waterboy to war hero, a Veterans Day story. Ben Overstreet badly wanted to play football, but when he started his senior year at Gulf High School in 1949, he stood 5-feet-5 and weighed 105 pounds.  He was as fearless as he was slow. His parents knew he would try to play and probably get hurt. They talked to the coach.  Ben made the team, but as equipment manager, not player. He cheered from the sidelines, celebrated the other boys' glory, brought them water.  His time would come...
(Tampa Bay Times)

87-year-old veteran breaks silence, lets loose his war stories. The stories of World War II came Stateside first in newsreels, papers and radio dispatches from the front.  Then the troops returned home, and they went to work or college on the G.I. Bill. Drafted as teens and turned into adults, it was time to earn a living, get married and start a family.Meanwhile, many kept their most painful memories hidden, or they leaked out their war stories over decades.  Gerald Bregman's tale of war, capture and salvation spewed out suddenly, over Spanish food... 
(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Local man shares story of Korean War battle. The Korean War is often considered the “forgotten war.” But for those who were there, including one Leavenworth man, the conflict is impossible to forget.  Hersch Chapman, 85, will serve as the grand marshal of the 93rd annual Leavenworth County Veterans Day Parade.  He has since 1980 been one of the owners of Lavery’s Jewelry in downtown Leavenworth. But among the massive jewelry display cases in the circa 1892 store is one at the end containing maps, pictures, articles and items from the Korean War. Every piece has a different story and Chapman is more than willing to share...
(The Leavenworth Times)

Veterans Day: Pennsylvania soldier's art helped him get through WWII. WWII veteran Williard Dominick’s story is one of many in the new exhibit: “The Soldier Experience” at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle. The following account is based on a 2000 interview with Dominick.  Williard Dominick was born in Bolivar, Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1920. He started drawing at an early age and discovered that he had an innate talent for sculpture. In the 1930s, he entered a soap-carving contest sponsored by the Ivory Soap Co. He won a national prize by carving a colt. While he was growing up, he kept sketchbooks and diaries...
(PennLive.com)

Haverhill WWII veteran shares memories of a long escape. John Katsaros’s adventures in World War II seem like something straight out of a Hollywood movie.  For now, his story is told in a book he wrote four years ago called “Code Burgundy — The Long Escape.” It is the basis for talks he now gives regularly at schools, colleges, and community organizations.  “I don’t do this for myself,” Katsaros said, after speaking to the Student Veterans’ Organization at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “I want people to know what the Eighth Air Force did, how we helped to win the war.”
(Boston.com)

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I watched a great video, Note to Self, produced by CBS. 

Military blogger and Iraq War veteran writes a note to his younger 21-year old self on the eve of war.

Hat tip: Blackfive

Source: CBS

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Thousands demand recount after fake news said military ballots weren't counted. Thousands of Mitt Romney supporters have begun to clamor for a recount after reading that military absentee ballots were delivered one day late. The Duffel Blog reported on Wednesday that, “hundreds of thousands of military absentee ballots were delivered hours after the deadline for them to be counted, with preliminary counts showing that they would have overturned the vote in several states and brought a victory for Gov. Mitt Romney.”
(Examiner)

7 Navy SEALs disciplined for role with video game. The U.S. Navy SEALs are part of an elite force that operates in the shadows, best known for killing Osama bin Laden. However, CBS News has learned a group of SEALs has been disciplined for revealing secrets.  The seven members of SEAL Team Six are all still on active duty. One of them was on the raid which killed Osama bin Laden and made SEAL Team Six a household name. For two days this spring and summer, they worked as paid consultants on a recently released video game, "Medal of Honor: Warfighter."
(CBS News)

History preserved through Military Museum of Butte County in Oroville. Located inside Surplus City, the museum has dozens of items, including a 1917 Swiss Army ammunition wagon, a 1942 M-16 Half Track, a troop carrier tank and various posters.  A tank and a Nike missile outside are also part of the museum. Of course, the missile's electronics are gone, said owner Steve Seidenglanz in a phone interview Wednesday. Seidenglanz began collecting military memorabilia 51 years ago...
(Oroville Mercury Register)

Army Wives 'Battling Bare' For Their War Torn Husbands Are Everywhere From CNN To Psychology Today. I first wrote about Battling Bare and Ashley Wise in June when her case made it to a small Clarksville, Tn newspaper and onto the web.  The story went viral and made its way to the Daily Mail, by the end of the day I'd signed Ashley and her group on as contributors and they've submitted some powerful pieces...
(Business Insider)

War exhibits in danger of being lost to time. Many valuable collections of military artifacts and memorabilia may be lost as aging custodians become fewer, military veterans and historians say.  "Our volunteers here are Second World War and Korean War vets," Jim McKinny, a veteran with the Nutana branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Saskatoon, told CBC News. "So the youngest one would be in their low 80s."
(CBC News)

Gravesend nurse’s diary tells the story of WW1 victims. For Remembrance Day, Anna Dubuis opened the pages of an album that returns to the days when Gravesend Hospital housed the victims of the First World War…On Christmas Day, 1901, a girl named Kate Harvey was given an empty album by her father. Fifteen years later, she was working at Gravesend Hospital when the First World War broke out, and she took the album with her...
(Gravesend Reporter)

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News reports are being heard around the world about General David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell.

Emails sent by Paula Broadwell, Petraeus's biographer, to another woman who knows both of them, led the F.B.I. to the C.I.A. director, reports the New York Times.

“When F.B.I. agents following up on the complaint began to examine Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails, they discovered exchanges between her and Mr. Petraeus that revealed that they were having an affair, said several officials who spoke of the investigation on the condition of anonymity. They also discovered that Ms. Broadwell possessed certain classified information, one official said, but apparently concluded that it was probably not Mr. Petraeus who had given it to her and that there had been no major breach of security. No leak charges are expected to be filed as a result of the investigation.”

Full story here.

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Social Media Is Saving Soldiers' Lives In Ways You'd Never Expect. “TROOP IN TROUBLE” was the beginning of the status update posted last week by the military Facebook page Awesome Shit My Drill Sergeant Said. The humor-based page that originally started as a place for Drill Sergeants and soldiers to share stories had just become the last lifeline of a suicidal soldier.  Just before going to sleep around 11:30pm, Dan, a Staff Sergeant in the Army National Guard who is one of the page administrators and goes by the pseudonym “HMFIC”, decided he’d check the page activity one last time. There was a message in his inbox...
(Business Insider)

Female officers sent nude photos to general. Two female Army officers testified Wednesday they provided nude photos to a general facing sex crime charges.  A married captain testified that Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair repeatedly asked her to send him nude photos of herself, which she said made her uncomfortable. Eventually, she said she placated the married general by sending him downloaded pornographic photos of other women cropped so that their faces weren't visible...
(KTIV)

Comedian Victoria Jackson fooled by spoof blogger over Romney loss. Brushing off the criticism by Wednesday night, Victoria Jackson tweeted about a military blogger going by the name of "Drew" who posted an article titled "Military Absentee Ballots Delivered One Day Late, Would Have Swung Election For Romney."  The only problem is, the article is obviously a spoof...
(Examiner)

Facebook Page Connects Fort Hood Families. What if everything you needed to know about your new hometown was conveniently placed on one Facebook page? Well, that's a reality for Fort Hood families. All thanks to a stay at home military wife. And she's helping more than 9,000 people for free.  As a stay at home military wife, Jessica Mitchell found her calling in sewing. But it wasn't until she saw a post about vendors at a local event on the Fort Hood Area Events Facebook page that she decided to use those sewing skills to  make some extra cash for her family...
(KCEN HD)

Battlefield Images, Taking No Prisoners. AS a form of photojournalism, war photography can sometimes seem to be telling the same story over and over across conflicts and eras. But as technology has grown more sophisticated, photojournalists have been able to bring us ever closer to its daily realities and to offer new ways of understanding the experience of those who live through it. That’s one lesson of “War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath,” now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, through Feb. 3...
(New York Times)

Campus veterans to share war stories.  “War: Through Their Eyes, Warriors & Nurses” exhibit will be held on Friday in Reeve Memorial Union Theater and Steinhilber Gallery to tell the stories of students and alumni who have seen war.  The Warrior & Nurses event is a multimedia project led by UW Oshkosh professor Grace Lim, students from the journalism and music departments, art director of the University’s Learning Technologies Shawn McAfee and others in the campus community...
(The Advance-Titan)

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Starting today the Los Angeles Film School will host the GI Film Festival.

The event which takes place Veterans Day weekend will feature “best of” award-winning films from the 6th annual GI Film Festival.

Attendees will be able to watch films, connect with top industry professionals, and even mingle with Hollywood celebrities.

To learn more, visit the GI Film Festival website.

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According to a story in ComputerWorld, students and researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School are working on two projects that could change the way intelligence is gathered.

One project uses software for Twitter that helps to gauge public opinion in some of the world's hot spots, while another project analyzes the situation in Syria with social media.

There are a lot of details provided in the story that explain each project in more depth.

Full story here.

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War stories shared by ‘hero’ from Memory Project. Drouin is one of 1,500 volunteers that make up The Memory Project Speakers Bureau , a national bilingual initiative of The Historica-Dominion Institute where veterans or still serving Canadian Forces members share their story with students.  “I think that he really is a hero,” said 12 year-old Anne Chambers with a big smile on her face.  “I’m just so happy to come from a country with people that brave who are willing to go in and help people.”
(Ottawa Sun)

A soldier's story: Injured WWII warrior found lifetime success in Granville. In Granville, there are many veterans worthy of thanks on Veterans Day for what they did for their country in the military service — none more so than World War II veteran and retired Denison University professor, Andrew Sterrett.  The quiet and reserved Dr. Sterrett’s life in and out of the military serves as an inspiring demonstration of human fortitude, considering the nightmarish sacrifices he and thousands like him who answered their country’s call have made...
(The Newark Advocate)

Ancestry.co.uk releases Remembrance Facebook app to raise funds for Royal British Legion. Ancestry.co.uk, the genealogy website has released a Remembrance app on its Facebook page while planning to open up its military records for free over the weekend of Remembrance Sunday.  The company has posted the app to allow users to donate £1 for each tribute that they leave, and £3 for each heroic story posted to the Hall of Heroes section, with the funds going to the Royal British Legion...
(The Drum)

Museum exhibit tells the story of the Civil War through quilts. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the American Textile History Museum  in Lowell presents “Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War,” through Nov. 25. An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum tells America’s story through the art, history, and science of textiles. The Civil War traveling exhibition is presented by guest curators Madelyn Shaw  and Lynne Zacek Bassett...
(Boston.com)

SC World War II vets' stories told in ETV documentary. Lou Fowler was a waist gunner with the 454th bomber group when he was shot down over Yugoslavia.  After being held in a German concentration camp for more than a year, Fowler, who lives in Columbia, planned and eventually made his escape.   It was 1944 and he and three other prisoners of war had just stumbled upon an American tank in the dead of night.  “That was the greatest day of my life,” he said. “My freedom.”  Fowler’s harrowing account along with others can be seen in the fifth installment of the series, “South Carolinians in World War II – A World War.”
(The State)

Concord vet writes memoir of his battle experiences to garner appreciation for the military. When Bob Whitworth was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1967 and served as a combat infantryman during the Vietnam War, he'd witnessed horrors that to this day remain vivid in his memory.  "The minute we stepped off the military base, there were snipers, ambushes, land mines in a jungle so dark you couldn't even see your hands," said Whitworth.  In his early 20s, Whitworth said he faced the fact that his life, which was just beginning, could possibly end in a blink of an eye... 
(San Jose Mercury News)

‘My Army Life in Photos’ seeks contest entries. “My Army Life in Photos,” a new contest by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Programs, is now accepting submissions.  Eligible FMWR patrons can upload photos capturing their Army experience to the entry application on Facebook.com/FamilyMWR. All eligible submissions will be entered into a random drawing for a prizes...
(My Guidon)

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83-year old veteran Bill Corcoran has decided to shut down his military blog CORKSPHERE which he launched four years ago to cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

At its peak, the blog reached over 3,000 page views per day according to Corcoran, but he also says interest in the blog had been waning since passing the 1 million hits a year ago. 

He attributes the “waning interest” to “war fatigue” by the news media and the American public.

Corcoran discusses the highs and lows of the blog in a story that was published in The New York Times yesterday.

“I’m a realist and I’m fully aware that after so many years it is hard for people to continue to care deeply about a conflict that doesn’t seem to have any end goal or sense of mission. So a few weeks ago, I decided I would stop the blog after the election. (I’m leaving the door open just a bit to a last-minute change of heart.) If I do stop posting, however, I intend to keep it on the Internet as a historical reference for anyone interested in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

There have been many gratifying moments. One involved a woman who wrote me after I had posted a video of a firefight in Afghanistan that included her son. She said that she had not heard from him in weeks and that she was thrilled to be able to see him in the video. She went on to tell me what a wonderful job I was doing for all the military families who felt as she did, that the media had let them down in its coverage of the Afghan war.”

Full story here.

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The last time I wrote about military blogger C. Blake Powers (aka “The Laughing Wolf”) back in September, he had just published a post telling readers he would tell them more about what it takes to do an embed.

Earlier this week Powers posted a new story called “Preparing For An Embed: Getting Started” that talks about the first step.

Powers writes on the military blog Blackfive:

“The first step in any embed is a journalistic outlet.  All embeds are journalistic embeds.  Period.  Dot.  They are not for morale, they are not for sightseeing, and they are not for cooking or other culinary endeavors.  Trust me, I spent a couple of months earlier this year trying to set something up for a chef who wanted to go cook for the troops, and despite my efforts and those of two very helpful people in DoD, no go, not even in conjunction with a real embed.  Now, that is not to say that an embed can't chose to do something once there if the unit approves, but that is not a valid reason for an embed and won't help your cause in applying.

Embeds are for journalism and journalism only.  Keep in mind that blogs (even milblogs) don't have the clout or prestige they once did and that there does still seem to be an institutional bias towards "real" media in some circles.”

More here.

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War Widow's Lawsuit Says Nat Geo, Fox Depicted Dead Husband's Body, Aired Family Photo. An Army staff sergeant's widow says in a lawsuit against National Geographic and Fox that a documentary from the companies depicted her husband's dead body and showed a private family photo she believes was taken from his laptop after he died.  The suit seeks unspecified damages and to ban Nat Geo and Fox from using military family members' images, names or likenesses for commercial purposes without their permission. Nat Geo declined to comment.  Donnice Roberts, of Carthage, Texas, has two children with Staff Sergeant Kevin Casey Roberts...
(Chicago Tribune)

'Witness' Documents the Work and Art of War Zone Photojournalists. “The violence is what you start out with because it’s the obvious story. I fill in the blanks with contexts about how these people live,” says Eros Hoagland. A photojournalist in war and conflict zones, he sees in his work both opportunity and limits. “You need layers and arcs and different things happening kind of at the same time, rather than in-your-face imagery of death and suffering. How much of that can you look at?” As Hoagland speaks, he’s packing for his next gig, the camera panning over his camera case, his helmet, and his body armor...
(PopMatters)

Social Media Wins and Fails: Eye of the Storm. Mashable tackled this very early on in a post they called “7 Fake Hurricane Sandy Photos You’re Sharing on Social Media”.  From a photo of soldiers in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, to a picture stolen from a popular disaster movie, to various photoshopped photos combining non-sandy images with random storm photos — people spent much of the day passing around images that were either blatant fabrications or legitimate photos that weren’t of Sandy at all. In fact, as I was stuck on the East Coast because of the storm, I spent a good couple hours practicing my troll skills as I debunked photo after photo on my own timeline...
(Business 2 Community)

Veterans Day: Loveland veterans share their stories (video, form). Note from the reporter: Thank our veterans for their service to our country. Fill out the form at the bottom of this story; call 599-1218 and leave a message of thanks; or email jbenes@reporter-herald.com. The military experiences changed many veterans for life even though their service spanned such a short time. Some of the comments and voice recordings will be printed with a story on Nov. 11, Veterans Day...
(Reporter Herald)

Family defends Malaysian held over Facebook insult. The family of a Malaysian man detained for allegedly insulting a state sultan on Facebook called for his release Monday, saying the government is violating his free-speech rights.  Police arrested 27-year-old Ahmad Abdul Jalil in Kuala Lumpur and took him to southern Johor state late Friday. He was freed briefly Monday after a magistrate court in Johor refused to extend his remand order but police immediately arrested him again, said his sister Anisa Abdul Jalil...
(WBOC-TV 16)

Bookout shares stories of courage and loss during Vietnam. One peek into Army veteran Steve Bookout’s Newton home gives a glimpse into the two tours of duty he served during the Vietnam War: At his computer desk sits an armored seat, stripped from a helicopter much like the ones he used to fly.  His basement houses two helicopter doors, emblazoned with a red wild boar, the symbol of the Razorbacks gun squad, and a photo of Gen. William Westmoreland hangs on a wall, a personalized inscription scrawled at the bottom....
(Newton Daily News)

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Video of Syrian rebels executing government soldiers that surfaced last week has gone viral, while drawing condemnation from around the world.

This isn’t the first video of a war crime being committed in Syria by either rebels or government forces, and likely won’t be the last as the war continues on.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

“Summary executions by rebels of regime loyalists, soldiers and members of the Syrian security forces and police are believed to have occurred with frequency in the northern city of Aleppo, where fighting has been raging since July, according to human-rights groups, video footage and in some instances the admission of rebels themselves.

Amnesty International said it was working on verifying the video and the circumstances of the executions, but the preliminary assessment by its technical specialists indicated the footage was authentic and doesn't appear to have been manipulated.”

More on the story here.

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War reporter: 'My camera is my weapon'. As he strode on stage to accept the 1999 Rory Peck award for hard news journalism, Sorious Samura struggled to find the words that would fit the moment.  He hadn't expected to win the prestigious prize and so hadn't prepared a speech.  Looking out across audience, the pioneering video journalist made the snap decision to speak his mind rather than proffer faux gratification...
(CNN)

Civil War-era diary gives insight. Sally Hale holds history in her hands.  Wearing protective cotton gloves, the nontraditional history student gently turned the pages of the personal diary of Franklin E. Fox, a Michigan soldier who chronicled his experiences during the Civil War. She paused and referred to a page, separated from the binding of the 150-year-old diary.  “Here is a passage on the assassination of the president,” she said, referring to Abraham Lincoln. “They learned about it several days after it happened. It says, ‘The men were not in good spirits.’”
(Kearney Hub)

Civil War letters tell story of Niagara County veteran. For more than a century, the letters sat in a tiny Niagara County farmhouse, a precious link to one of the nation’s bloodiest struggles.  The long-forgotten ink – spread across yellowed pages – has roared to life once again, telling the story of a Niagara County man who battled through the Civil War and lived to tell about it.  More than 40 letters from Elmer Fox, who left Somerset at a young age to join the Union Army, are on display in the Royalton Hartland Community Library, 9 Vernon St., through November...
(The Buffalo News)

Blog Roundup: Three Blogs You May Have Missed. It was a busy week with Hurricane Sandy blasting through town and leaving many Sudbury residents without power. If you're catching up on your news from the week, look no further.  Throughout the week Patch's Local Voices bloggers share information, insight and opinion about what matters to them. Here's a selection of blogs from throughout the week.  In Not Forgotten: Sudbury Military Support Network Collects for Troops, Thom Kenney talks about collecting food and supplies to send overseas — where he recently returned from as a captain with the U.S. Army...
(Patch)

Korean War vet shares stories during Monticello visit. One of the Cold War’s most grueling and bone-chilling battles came to life during a Korean War veteran’s recent presentation at the Monticello Senior Center. Harry Burke grew up in Clarkfield, Minnesota, and currently lives in Bloomington. He is prominently featured in the book, “The Last Stand of Fox Company,” the story of how his military unit was cut off at the Chosin Reservoir. Burke visited Monticello Oct. 26 and spent more than an hour telling his tale of service to local listeners...
(The Monticello Times)

Photojournalists "Witness" war zones in new HBO series. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some people liken a bad day at work to being in a war zone but for the photojournalists chronicled in HBO's upcoming documentary series "Witness," that's not an exaggeration.  The series, which premieres on November 5 and will air every Monday for the rest of the month, follows photojournalists in Mexico, Libya, South Sudan and Brazil as they navigate violence to report issues such as drug trafficking, gang violence, corruption, and ethnic warfare...
(Chicago Tribune)

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According to the Associated Press, an online activist charged with insulting the Bahrain king on Twitter has been sentenced to six months in prison. 

"Bahrain has been hit by unrest for nearly 21 months as the island’s Shiite Muslim majority seeks a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet," wrote the AP.

Full story here.

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Army MWR announced this week its first annual My Army Life in Photos Contest.

The Grand Prize includes a complete digital camera set, a $1,000 gift certificate and the photo to be featured in an Installation Management Command, Army MWR branded campaign.

Via U.S. Army MWR:

Beginning 1 November, right here on ArmyMWR.com, you can win great prizes by submitting your best photos of Army Life.

So start saving those snapshots from favorite MWR events, memorable homecomings and more!

Weekly winners will be awarded for submitting photos in the following categories:

Theme 1: Army Strong Families
Theme 2: HOOAH Homecomings
Theme 3: Vacation Fun
Theme 4: Patriotic Pets
Theme 5: MWR Moments

Participants may enter at any time during the promotion.

Simply submit photos that fit the week's theme and you will be entered to win!

Grand prize winner will be generated through a random drawing of all photo entries at the conclusion of the promotion.

More information about the photo contest here.

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Update: Facebook Reverses, Allows SEALs' Post Critical of Obama. UPDATE: Facebook Manager Andrew Noyes emailed the following to Breitbart News this morning: We wanted to follow up on the Special Operations Speaks PAC (SOS) article published on Breitbart.com last night. I assure you that removing the image was not an act of censorship on our part. This was an error and we apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.  Over the weekend, Facebook took down a message by the Special Operations Speaks PAC (SOS) which highlighted the fact that Obama denied backup to the forces being overrun in Benghazi...
(BREITBART)

The battle for Maarat: Using social media to cut through the fog of war. Following Syria’s civil war is never easy. The old adage that the first casualty of war is the truth still applies, and such is the relentless brutality it is often difficult to even confirm when an incident took place. But we’ve been following the Syrian conflict through social media since the beginning, and have developed a number of methods of cutting through the fog of war to get a clearer picture of what’s taking place in the embattled state.  The recent battle for Maarat al-Numan was a case in point...
(Storyful Blog)

Old tricks, new target: cyber criminals scam soldiers.  No one earns their paycheck more than the men and women who defend our country. Scam artists are now using old tricks online on new targets; members of the American military.  "When you sign up for the military, it's a sign up for service, and pay is never mentioned as part of the good deal,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Robert Natter.  Natter spent 41 years in the Navy. From his start at the prestigious Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md, to consulting the Commander in Chief, he admits that the military pay is sufficient as long as thieves can't get a hold of it...
(ActionNewsJax.com)

Learn about soldier through diary at Frank House. As part of the Saturday at the Frank House series, Sally Hale of Kearney will present her research on the Franklin Fox Diary.  The program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Frank House on the University of Nebraska at Kearney West Campus.  Hale said Fox was a Union soldier in the Civil War, and he volunteered in Michigan.  “The Franklin Fox diary was discovered in the Frank House by archivist Rachael Downs,” Hale said. “I was then assigned the task of electronically preserving the document.”
(Kearney Hub)

Expanded Social Media for Army-Navy Game Presented by USAA.  The Army-Navy Game Presented By USAA, already the top football rivalry game in the country, will have an expanded presence on Social Media, leading up to and following the annual service academy matchup.  The Army-Navy Game, will take place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Dec. 8 with kickoff set for 3 p.m.  Now, fans will have the opportunity to follow and participate in a host of new initiatives surrounding the event. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube will all be utilized to showcase this rivalry in the weeks leading up to the game as well as on gameday itself...
(NAVYSPORTS.COM)

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