A lot of people who sign up for a blog or a Twitter account or any one of the endless number of social networking tools, end up quitting after just a few weeks. Well, that’s not the case with the World’s Oldest Known Military Blogger. Solomon Fein continues to write on his blog regularly, sharing his amazing military experiences from World War II. I’ve had the honor of speaking to Solomon by phone and email over the last year, and if you’d like to read my previous stories, here’s a post which has links to my online interviews with him.
Here’s an excerpt from his latest blog:
When the War was over in MAY,we were taken out of Antwerp and shipped to Carentan, France and assigned to a prisoner of war hospital where some 850 Germans were recovering from wounds after being treated, then housed and being rehabilitated to normality.
We took out groups of those in good physical shape to do some sort of manual labor to ease their boredom and to keep them busy.
Reading Solomon’s blog is like going back in a time machine, and reading his accounts for the first time. Although, if I had my own time machine, chances are I’d go back to the Jurassic Park era. My kid’s birthday’s coming up and I promised him a puppy or a kitten, but unfortunately the wife’s allergic to dog and cat hair...
Next best Birthday gift: a baby Dilophosaurus. I’m the world’s Greatest Dad!
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(Pitch Weekly) A story on Wired's website a week ago outlined how a Department of Defense "warning order" solicited feedback on a potential ban on the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook by military personnel.
Such a ban seemingly would fly in the face of efforts by Lt.General William B. Caldwell, who oversees the Army's Command and General Staff College on the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Missouri. Caldwell recently ordered every officer at the CGSC to complete a course of "strategic communication" in order to graduate.
Assignments include blogging...
Read the entire story here.
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If the Marines were still allowed to update their profiles the British Army might not have rushed into releasing its rather constrictive list of rules, especially as a quick glance suggests that compliance promises to be a big pain in the backside. In fact, it might have been easier and fairer for the MoD to ban social notworking outright.
The MoD apparently wants to encourage soldiers to use the websites as it helps them to keep in touch with their families and the population as a whole.
Read the entire story here.
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As I’ve said often since Milblogging was acquired by Military.com back in 2005, Military.com gets ‘blogs’. Heck, they had the foresight to purchase MilitaryBlog.com before blogging was big and they use that site now to publish news and stories from other great military blogs. Military.com gets it when it comes to citizen and soldier journalism and I’m glad to be part of the Military.com family of bloggers. Earlier this week, Military.com announced the acquisition of CinCHouse.com – a social media site dedicated to Military Wives.
The acquisition also brings the number of Military.com bloggers to like 4,567. Which also means Op-For blogger John has new friends too. Big, big relief. Just saying...
I heard John was spotted at an Air Force base talking to a squirrel.
Here’s more information from the press release by Military.com.
SAN FRANCISCO – July 30, 2009 – Military.com, the nation’s largest military and veteran online membership organization and a business unit of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW), today announced it has acquired CinCHouse.com, the largest destination website and social network for military wives and women in uniform. The acquisition bolsters Military.com’s preeminent position in the online military community space. CinCHouse.com will play a significant role in Military.com’s strategy of being essential to every member of a military family, at every stage of life.
“The makeup of military life often creates bonds among those with direct military experience as either a service member or spouse, and the acquisition of CinCHouse.com furthers expands our reach and our ability to provide the military community the best and most relevant information they seek,” said Navy Rear Adm. (retired) T. McCreary, president, Military.com. “In addition, with approximately 27 percent of the U.S. population ages 20-34 having direct experience with the military, this enables us to broaden our reach within that key segment of the U.S. market, where lifetime brand devotions are often formulated.”
CinCHouse.com will continue under the leadership of founder and Navy wife Meredith Leyva, who will join Military.com as senior director, Women and Family Initiatives. She will help develop a coordinated strategy to better reach this important segment of the military family.
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(ChannelWeb) The app simplifies how military personnel can stay in contact with family and friends for free. The folks back home can leave messages for their loved ones during any time of the day. When the service member connects to an Internet trailer, the messages are all in one place and readily accessible. "It's like a care package in audio form," wrote U.S. Army Sgt. Dale Sweetnam on Google's blog.
Read the entire story here.
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As for YouTube, the Air Force has created its own channel — which can’t be accessed from work computers.
Despite the popularity of social networking Web sites and the hard-sell push by some Pentagon officials for the military to embrace these new communication tools, the Defense Department’s policy toward the sites is at best improvised.
The future of social networking in the military is caught up in a tussle between those pushing for open communication and those charged with guarding the security of the networks.
Read the entire story here.
And for those of you who like pictures, it looks like one of the interns at Stripes.com even photoshopped a diagram of "Social networking schizoprenia".
Man, if I could get a Military.com graphic artist to draw up some images to go along with my stories, we'd be BFFs forever.
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You can read his farewell post here.
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Maruyama was born in 1903 and conscripted into the Japanese Navy in 1942. His family believe he died, aged 39, possibly in the Battle of Buna in New Guinea, but they do not know how. His diary ends abruptly on December 20, 1942, when the date is written but there is no entry.
‘‘From morning to the afternoon, the enemy aircraft flew over regularly. Had narrow escape from death. Fellow navy members were wounded,’’ he wrote a month earlier. His diary is also dotted with personal entries, such as ‘‘Unloading operations. Dreamed of home,’’ in August.
The diary was found at the Australian Army Artillery Museum near Manly after being discovered in New Guinea by an Australian soldier.
Read the entire story here.
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I wrote a story a couple weeks back about Colonel Timothy Kopra possibly tweeting from outer space. Well, the historic military social media event took place earlier today. His first tweet from the Space Station:
What a fun shuttle mission - especially w 13 people on board station. Life here is amazing - still getting used to floating!
That's it. No shooting ray guns or flying saucer reports. It's not necessarily an Earth-shattering tweet, but I guess we should just be thankful he wasn't being attacked by Martians.
Man, I’d like to own a Military Twitter milestone like Col. Kopra’s, but since I only tweet from my couch, I’m pretty sure I won't be in the Guinness anytime soon. I can say I'm the only person to Tweet while changing a dirty diaper and being forced to watch Twilight for the 3,485th time by my wife. Unless of course...anyone up for taking a journey to the center of the Earth and tweeting? I'll bring the chem-lites... and the beer. Whhhheeeeeeee!
TWITTER UPDATE: I just received a tweet from one of my Twitter pals. Thanks to Scott for the clarification. Unfortunately, it looks like Astro_Mike was actually the first "person" to tweet from Outer Space. Sorry for the error folks, but I'm not necessarily a reporter and I get my facts wrong some times.
I'll just tell people I write for the WashPo. Zing!
Here's the official news story from Space.com.
Follow Col. Kopra on Twitter here.
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Munson says, " I just posted about how frustrated I was." The information was forwarded to USAA---the financial company that caters to the military.
Read the entire story here.
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Last week, Danger Room broke the news that the Defense Department is considering banning access to Facebook, Twitter and all other Web 2.0 social networking sites from military computers, on the advice of the I.T. gurus at U.S. Strategic Command. “They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,” a Stratcom source said of the sites.
But Price Floyd, the military’s new social-networking czar, said no final decision has been made yet regarding a Web 2.0 block. “An analysis… is being conducted,” Floyd, pictured, told Danger Room.
Read the entire story here.
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Dela is a happily married mother of four grown children, who in her own words has led a “couch potato existence”. She’s joined the U.S. Army, and at the age of 40 is preparing for Basic Training at Fort Jackson. She’s also blogging about her experience:
In an effort to keep family and friends abreast of the happenings with me and to give out vital contact information (I say vital because that may be all that gets me through basic training!), I started an email group list. Now the list is so long that it forced me to rethink my strategy and come up with something a bit more manageable for my husband.
Thus, this blog.
This is awesome. First of all, it’s wonderful to hear she’ll be blogging about her experience, as I’m sure she’ll have plenty of interested readers beyond her family and friends. Secondly, God bless her for making the decision to join the military at the age of 40...
Honestly, I’ll be lucky if the most exciting thing I do at 40 is play Bingo.
Thanks to Beth for the tip.
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With two dogs, a cat, and five girls aged 8 and younger, it tends to be chaotic inside the little house. But in the next room, Tedaldi, 35, finds a quiet moment to type a message to the one family member who's missing.
Somewhere thousands of miles away, her husband, a deployed Air Force officer, starts typing back.
"There's something wrong with my car," Tedaldi later says. "Of course it doesn't happen when my husband is here."
Tedaldi is one of about a half-dozen subjects being filmed for a BBC documentary called "American Dreams," which is exploring the real-world effects of the new presidential administration on American families.
Read the entire story here.
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Here’s the link to Noah’s updated story on Wired.com. If you’d like to catch up, here’s a link to my response to the original Wired.com story that broke the news earlier in the week.
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He has joined up with Armed Forces Minister and Harlow MP Bill Rammell in Helmand Province from where the Saffron Walden Reporter journalist has been filing a regular diary about his time spent with the soldiers.
Alistair, left, and Mr Rammell have met with soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Fusiliers and toured their base in Helmand Province.
The Fusiliers lost a comrade on 19 July when Cpl Joseph Etchells was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol.
Read the entire story here.
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Kirk -- running for President Barack Obama's former seat -- is a Naval Reservist and he appeared to tweet while on duty, raising two potential issues.
Read the entire story here.
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The U.S. military is strongly considering a near-total ban on Twitter, Facebook, and all other social networking sites throughout the Department of Defense, multiple sources within the armed forces tell Danger Room.
It’s the latest twist in the Defense Department’s tangled relationship with so-called “Web 2.0″ sites.
But while earlier social media blockades have been thrown up over bandwidth and secrecy concerns, this fresh ban stems from fears that Facebook and the like make it far too easy for hackers and cybercrooks to gain access to the military’s networks.
Well, there you have it. I can certainly understand the need for tighter security. While it was cool to think of the military relaxing their restrictions on these sites, if they pose a security threat, it’s a no-brainer. Alternatively, according to recent job studies (yes, conducted by yours truly), many civilian jobs don't even allow access to these sites. I know, it sucks. But, on the plus side --- I was actually able to get work done without the distraction of an Internet browser. Who'd thought??
Man, since when did computers come with other programs like spreadsheets and Microsoft Word? Ohhhhhhh, and what’s this?! Solitaire? That sounds productive...
One more note: Noah always seems to post cutting-edge breaking stories, particularly with the military and social media. He must have some great 'sources'. Makes me wish I had sources like him. My official source sucks... *staring at Ruffles (my lazy ass dog) lying on his side, eating*...
"WOOF!"
What's that, Ruffles?
"Jessie and Prospector are trapped in the old abandoned mine? And Prospector just lit a stick of dynamite thinkin'it was a candle…and now they're about to be blown to smithereens?"
Read the entire story here.
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(newsminer.com) The University of Alaska Fairbanks seniors signed onto a monthlong hitch in one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
They leave today on a trip to Baqouba, Iraq, northeast of Baghdad, where they’ll embed with soldiers from Fort Wainwright’s Stryker Brigade to learn what war reporting is all about.
The trio, chaperoned by Associate Professor Brian O’Donoghue, plan to file stories with various media outlets and post to their blog, shorttimers.blogspot.com.
Read the entire story here.
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The Nielsen Wire reported earlier this year that about 60 percent of people on Twitter end up abandoning the service after a month. That hasn’t been the case with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Mike Mullen joined Twitter this past April and he’s been engaging his followers on a regular basis since then. He even announced the launch of his Facebook page on July 2nd via Twitter. Here’s a look at some of his recent tweets:
Spoke with students from the Junior Statesmen Foundation. They asked very informed, insightful questions. They are our future.
12:44 PM Jul 24th from web
Heading to a press conference in one hour (2pm) with SecDef on the Pentagon Channel or follow live @ www.pentagonchannel.mil
12:48 PM Jul 20th from web
Arrived home last night, terrific trip! Rich in experience and feedback.Troops proud of difference they are making, and I am proud of them.
6:00 PM Jul 19th from web
Visited with Marines in Helmand yesterday. They truly understand counterinsurgency, not one civilian casualty. Protecting the Afghan people.
9:17 AM Jul 18th from web
Conditions in Pakistan IDP camp I visited are good, considering heat and numbers of people. Well-led by Lt Gen Nadeem. Still more to do.
11:33 AM Jul 16th from mobile web
So far, Admiral Mike Mullen has only managed to follow 2 people back out of nearly 4,000 followers, though. I dunno, I’m guessing he’s pretty busy with work and stuff.
By the way, I follow everyone back in case you just joined Twitter. I’ve found it’s a great way to meet new and interesting people online...Like Tatiana the talking, tweeting dog. I nearly peed my pants when I checked out her tweets...
...So glad you think I'm cute -- I WUV your smile!! I have two big Bengal cats that I play with. Woof!
Genius! Although I must say, I'm growing suspicious that a human might be behind this whole thing...a dog that can correctly spell 'strengthen', 'intuition', and 'errands'? Clearly, I got cheated at the pet store. I'm staring at my dog right now, and I'm pretty sure he just farted. That's the extent of his talent. *Patting Ruffles on the head - "DADDY is so proud of you, YES HE IS*.
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When the Seattle P-I stopped publishing its print edition, not only did it shutdown Seattle’s oldest business, but it also shutdown its Military/Veterans Affairs blog. The Seattle P-I, did keep its website running at seattlepi.com, but failed to keep the blog going. Fortunately, the original author decided to keep the blog running on Blogspot. Here’s what the author has to say on Now Hear This - the new home of the military blog:
This blog picks up where the military/veterans affairs blog I wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ends. After 25 years at Seattle PI, I was among the more than 150 people laid off when the newspaper closed its print edition, and with it the military/veterans affairs blog "Now Hear This." Quite a few veterans asked me to keep it going but I had important family business to pursue. My dad, an Army retiree, finally passed away July 5 from complications due to dementia. I spent 25 years at the PI, including a stint covering the Green River serial murders. I served a hitch in the Marines 36 years ago, receiving an honorable discharge with a service connected disability. I spent 15 years as an Army brat, a tough upbringing I would not trade for the world. I have a degree from Penn State and studied at Boston University and UPenn. I also attended seminars at the Army War College and the Institute of Strategic Studies. As a reporter, I tried to focus on the human element of those who serve and their families. I'll try to keep this going and do justice to all of you who selflessly serve and served.
You’ll be happy to hear that the Seattle P-I has several other blogs running on their website still, including The Cat Lady. You really can’t help but wonder what they were thinking. Cats, people. Not cats that talk or even cats that do arithmetic or do household chores while you're at work. Just lazy good-for-nothin cats. Sorry Mom, just saying.
This is almost as bad as running a blog dedicated to rabbits or cheeseburgers.
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