Outrage over Jeep's 'sexist' Facebook picture of bikini girl in army gear. A PHOTO of a scantily clad woman on Jeep Australia's Facebook page has caused a social media storm, with outraged users decrying the company as sexist. Yesterday Jeep Australia published a picture on its Facebook page of a woman posing on an army jeep in bikini bottoms and a tight T-shirt reading "I love Marine Boys''. The caption on the photo, which has done the rounds of the internet since at least 2007, read "Defence force budget cuts may not be a bad thing. Surely this Jeep and uniform are less expensive than what is currently used?''
(The Australian)
Inland Empire men used social media in terror plot, FBI says. Two of the men charged in Southern California with plotting to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban allegedly posted terrorist videos on Facebook and communicated via Skype, federal authorities said Monday night. In all, four men with Southern California ties were charged in the international terrorist plot that authorities say stretched from the Inland Empire to Afghanistan.
(Los Angeles Times)
Eric Brazil: War reporter Ed Kennedy deserves Pulitzer. On May 7, 1945, Edward Kennedy, chief of the Associated Press bureau in Paris, filed what was then the most important news story of the 20th century, Germany's World War II surrender. It was an exclusive report, headlining the front page of every Western newspaper and dominating radio broadcasts. In bringing it to the public, Kennedy had defied and defeated political censorship.
(Monterey Herald)
Tattoos Telling The Story Of A Decade Of War. Soldiers are telling the stories of more than a decade of war and not in a way most people might expect. Like them or not, tattoos are a huge part of military culture, and some soldiers say they're only scratching at the surface of deep emotional scars. Some tattoo-wearers say they only want to be understood. Army PVT John Reyes is part of the long-standing military subculture of tattooing, but he says he often feels judged by the color of his skin.
(KCEN HD)
WWII Veteran, POW Survivor to share his incredible story. The Pell City Library will welcome World War II veteran and prisoner of war survivor, Shorty Goodwin, on Wednesday, November 21st at noon in the library. He will tell his story, as the guest speaker for the library’s ongoing Wild and Wonderful Wednesday series. A Pell City resident for over 22 years, Goodwin was born in Dora, Alabama and grew up in the Pinson area, attending Tarrant High School. He entered the military at Camp Walters, Texas, near Fort Worth in February of 1942.
(St. Clair News Aegis)
How social media is rewriting the rules of modern warfare. There’s been a lot written about how the Israeli army has been using social media to broadcast the details of its latest military campaign against Hamas — live-tweeting rocket attacks, uploading YouTube videos of hits on specific victims, aggregating Instagram photos from the battlefield, and even posting infographics to a Tumblr blog.
(GigaOm)
Image source: Supplied
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I first wrote of Rob’s journey in early September, as he started a fundraiser on indiegogo with a goal of raising $5,000 to help cover expenses that he is responsible for as part of his embed.
The former Marine met his $5,000 goal in October with the help of over 80 people.
While Rob has been busy with school and preparing for his upcoming embed, he hasn’t written any new entries on his blog, but he has kept readers up to date on his Facebook page located at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RB-Portraits
On November 10, Rob posted to Facebook:
My embed has been officially approved for Afghanistan in December! Looks like I will be with 3/9 out of Camp Lejeune! Happy Marine Corps birthday indeed!
Rob plans to blog once more before heading out of country and will be returning in late December.
If you haven't seen his artwork, you can check it out at rb-portraits.com.
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Will Twitter war become the new norm? War is not just about bombs and rockets. It’s about words. That’s been true for centuries, of course. But the public got a rude awakening this week about just how much those words can matter in the digital age when the Israel Defense Force live tweeted its strike that killed a Hamas leader. The military’s live spin about the strike, and Hamas’ response on a separate Twitter feed, have been called an unprecedented use of social media.
(CNN)
Turkish journalist missing for months in Syria freed. A Turkish journalist who went missing in Syria in August and was believed to have been held by government troops has been freed and handed to Turkish lawmakers touring the country on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported. “I am very happy, I am doing well,” Cuneyt Unal was quoted by the agency as saying by telephone from Syria.
(DAWN.com)
Wars, the Military and Social Media: A Sticky Wicket. In ancient China, soldiers along the Great Wall would use smoke signals conveyed from tower to tower to warn about a possible attack. The Roman Army established numerous forts and stations spread out along major road systems connecting the empire; relay points provided horses to dispatch soldiers and vehicles to quickly transmit messages. Those were rather rudimentary forms of social media but they successfully worked for centuries. Fast forward a few thousand years. The relationship between the military and social media today has developed light years beyond what the ancients envisioned. The most recent example is still playing out.
(iMediaConnection Blog)
Prisoner of War Museum opens after dark. ANDERSONVILLE, GA (WALB) - The National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville opened its gates this Saturday evening for folks to experience the harsh conditions of a prisoner in the winter nights during the Civil War. "It allows us to interpret, or talk about or teach about the prison conditions during the winter and during the night time," says park ranger Stephanie Steinhorst. The Andersonville National Historic site opened it's gates for folks to tour the prison camp grounds and listen to historians tell the stories of those union prisoners.
(WALB)
Pin-Ups For Vets in Playboy!. Dear Pin-Ups For Vets Supporters: Happy Thanksgiving! We wanted to share some exciting news with you! The December issue of Playboy (with Marilyn Monroe on the cover) features an entire page about our 2013 Pin-Ups For Vets Calendar! Shannon Tweed-Simmons, featured as our July calendar girl is a former "Playmate of the Year"! Shannon is wife of KISS bassist & huge troops supporter, Gene Simmons.
(Pin Up Calendars for Vets)
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There is a lot of talk among news sites about the Twitter war between Israel and Hamas.
The online war between these two groups isn't a first for social media.
One good example is the Kenya versus Al-shabaab Twitter war that started in 2011, when Kenyan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir warned Somali civilians in several different towns of imminent attacks.
On November 1, 2011, Major Chirchir who tweets under the username @MajorEChirchir tweeted: “BAIDOA, BAADHEERE, BAYDHABO, DINSUR, AFGOOYE, BWALE, BARAWE, JILIB, KISMAYO and AFMADHOW will be under attack continuously.”
That message was followed up by: “The Kenya Defence Forces urges anyone with relatives and friends in the 10 towns to advise them accordingly.”
In September 2011, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force exchanged messages online with Taliban’s spokesman via Twitter.
These are just a few examples.
While the social media campaign between Israel and Hamas is more widespread than ever before by a military, it's certainly nothing new.
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(Fast Company)
Scammer Uses Facebook Information To Scam Grandmother Out Of $2,000. We have a consumer warning for you, after a senior citizen was scammed out of a lot of money by a mysterious phone caller. The caller claimed to be a loved one needing help. Zeldena Cooper is a sweet grandmother who already has her Christmas decorations up. She said she was excited to get a recent phone call. "He called on the phone and said hello, Grandma, this is Josh," Cooper said. She said she doesn't get to talk to her grandson much, let alone see him in person, because he is stationed with the Army in Germany...
(NewsOn6)
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. Movies have at least one main character, real or fictitious, who play a military role with respect...
(San Jose Mercury News)
British neocon blog exposed as Israeli mouthpiece. In the past 24 hours the UK-based neo-conservative blog Harry’s Place has exposed itself as an outright propaganda outlet of the Israeli armed forces. For months I have been posting comments on the blog, which in 2006 won the annual Islamophobia award given by the Islamic Human Rights Commission. Although my comments have been generally tolerated, I receive constant verbal abuse for my beliefs as a Muslim from commentators on the blog...
(Redress Information & Analysis)
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Senator Tom A. Coburn, M.D., released a report called Department of Everything that examines five areas of the Pentagon budget, that he says, have little to do with national security where taxpayer dollars could be saved and deficits reduced without impacting our national security.
The five areas, pulled straight from the report, include:
1) Non-Military Research and Development: Research projects that have little or nothing to do with national defense or medical needs related to military service ($6 billion).
2) Education: The Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) that educates children of military families here in the United States and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs that duplicate the work of the Department of Education and local school districts ($10.7 billion). The Department of Defense Tuition Assistance Program which provides college funding for military members on active duty and duplicates the Department of Veterans Affairs ($4.5 billion).
3) Alternative Energy: Duplicative and unnecessary alternative energy research by the Department of Defense ($700 million).
4) Grocery Stores. Pentagon-run grocery stores here in the United States ($9 billion).
5) Overhead, Support, and Supply Services. Over 300,000 military members performing civilian-type job functions and too many general officers. ($37 billion).
When it comes to social media, the report says the Pentagon’s analysis on regional slang and dialects by Twitter users is a waste of money.
“While this may be interesting to linguists or even potentially federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, it is difficult to see how spending limited resources to study the use of the slang and dialect by Twitters users in the United States advances the mission of either the Air Force or the Navy.”
You can read the full report here.
Via: AOL
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(Al Jazeera English)
Israel, Hamas engage in Twitter war during real war. Ever since Israel killed a Hamas leader via air strike Tuesday, the two groups have delivered constant updates on attacks via Twitter, giving an eerie virtual image of a real war. The official Twitter account for the Israeli Defense Forces, in English, is @IDFspokesperson. It provides real-time claims about attacks launched on Gaza, missile fire from Hamas on Israel and links to pro-Israeli videos and articles...
(FOX19)
What happens when the military becomes its own media? One question this raises is whether such videos and photos violate the terms of service of social networks. Most networks have rules that ban graphic violence or threats, and they will have to decide how stringently to apply those restrictions to national governments...
(Poynter)
In UK, social media rants land some in jail. One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell". A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead...
(News24)
Back Story: Photos vividly brought Civil War home. If Vietnam was the nation's first televised war, then the Civil War was the country's first photographed war, dramatically and vividly bringing into American homes the horrors and carnage their husbands, brothers and sons faced on the battlefield. In his recently published book, "Maryland's Civil War Photographs The Sesquicentennial Collection," Ross J. Kelbaugh, a Pikesville collector of vintage Maryland images, has assembled more than 400 photographs of a conflict that killed more than 600,000 Americans between 1861 and 1865...
(Baltimore Sun)
Service Members Now Have Their Own Social Network. Whether individuals are current service members or veterans, they can certainly create an account on Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social media website and work toward making the types of connections that can give them a career advantage. While LinkedIn is designed for professionals, Facebook and Twitter users tend to be more casual...
(US News University Directory)
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A photo of Misharawi holding his dead baby opens the story.
Via The WashPo:
"An Israeli round hit Misharawi’s four-room home in Gaza Wednesday, killing his son, according to BBC Middle East bureau chief Paul Danahar, who arrived in Gaza earlier Thursday. Misharawi’s sister-in-law was also killed, and his brother wounded. Misharawi told Danahar that, when the round landed, there was no fighting in his residential neighborhood."
The story has hundreds of comments from readers.
Nearly 500 comments at the time of this post going online.
Some of the comments are messages of condolences, while many are not.
You can read the full story here.
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French soldiers’ wives strip in protest at late payments. Hundreds of French women have bared their backs in a Facebook campaign for the payment of their soldier-husbands’ salaries. The French Ministry of Defence's faulty payments system has left them in the lurch. For one group of angry French soldiers’ wives, posing semi-naked has become a way of protesting against a computer glitch that has left their husbands unpaid. Their Facebook campaign, “Un paquet de Gauloises en colère” (a group of angry Frenchwomen) -- which features the wives, girlfriends, daughters and other supporters of serving soldiers baring their torsos -- has more than 17,000 members...
(FRANCE 24)
Facebook group helps war veterans cope at home. Canadian veterans such as Port Moody's Kevin Berry have taken to a private Facebook group where they connect, vent and use black humour to help fellow soldiers deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, divorces, day-to-day nuisances and even suicidal crises. Berry finds the Military Minds private group an innovative way to help about 70 other veterans work their way through issues arising from any occupational stress injury (OSI) - the umbrella term the military uses for disorders like PTSD and depression. The group's members - most of whom are Canadian but some hail from America, Denmark and the United Kingdom - first found each other through the larger public group of the same name, which aims to create awareness of PTSD issues...
(Vancouver Sun)
Hurricane Sandy offers Army lesson in social media best practices. Hurricane Sandy is the latest example of how ubiquitous social media has become. First responders, news media and citizens sent out more than 3 million tweets before Hurricane Sandy even landed. Many communicated helpful information, like nearby shelters or hotline phone numbers. But others were simply wrong. As the Army found out, setting the record straight once misinformation goes viral isn't easy. During the storm, a photograph surfaced on social media showing the Old Guard on duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. The photo was presented as having been taken during the heavy rains produced by Hurricane Sandy...
(Federal News Radio)
Israel announces military action on Twitter, setting new precedent for the service’s ability to spread news. Live-tweeting military action may feel slightly tawdry, but in this modern age, a press conference has a certain reach, as do tweets. Both, in unison, can spread a message perhaps farther than either on their own. That said, according to Fast Company, “[the] Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip was announced today via Twitter in lieu of a formal press conference.” Twitter, in this case, is press room, wire service, and billboard for the country’s war. Perhaps the country will pay to promote the initial declaration of violence, to ensure that it reaches as many individuals as possible...
(The Next Web)
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Have you heard about the Twitter account @WeAreTheDead?
We Are The Dead is a Twitter memorial to Canada's war dead.
A story in the Vancouver Sun explains how the feed works.
“At 11 minutes past every hour, every day of every week, for the past year, the name of one of Canada’s war dead was selected at random by a computer algorithm and recited on Twitter.
The “We Are The Dead” project, sponsored by the Ottawa Citizen, begins a second year of honouring Canada’s fallen through social media, helping make remembrance a solemn constant that stretches beyond a single day in November.
Over the past year, the Twitter accountName, regiment, date of death and, where available, age were listed without comment.”
And a story posted earlier this week on the Ottawa Citizen explains how it all got started.
According to the Vancouver Sun, “it will take another 12 years of this hour-by-hour roll call, until sometime in June 2025, before every name of Canada’s war dead has been mentioned, barring a substantial number of new entries to the list.”
More on the story over at the Vancouver Sun.
You can follow We Are The Dead on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wearethedead
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have always been big users of social media.
The IDF's response to the recent rocket attacks and campaign against Hamas has led to a number of stories on tech news sites and blogs, not necessarily because of the conflict taking place, but because the IDF has been live blogging and tweeting about its actions.
There is a lot taking place.
Here's some snippets from news stories:
Daily Dot's Kris Holt writes, "At 9:29am ET, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) sent a tweet from the @IDFSpokesperson account which read: “The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets.”
Donald Sensing writes for Sense of Events, "It's a war of weapons, but also a war of words."
Joseph L. Flatley with The Verge writes, "It looks like the realtime social media offensive is only getting weirder as it plays out. In addition to aerial photography and YouTube videos, it looks like the IDF will be letting us know whenever it manages to take out a substantial target, via Twitter pic."
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(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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(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 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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(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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(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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(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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