Milbloggie

Among many other fun and exciting things that happened yesterday, the 2007 Milblogging awards were given out. I'll have much more to say about it later (including how it benefited Valour-IT), but I thought I'd share with you the speech I made when I accepted the award:

In light of the recent concerns about how the new OPSEC rules, etc., might affect the Milblog Community, I felt it was very important for me to say something. I suppose Valour-IT, and maybe a few posts I’m not ashamed to claim have a little something to do with this… But the truth is, the spotlight should be on the Milblog community itself.

When I adopted deployed personnel through Anysoldier.com in 2004, I didn't know anything about the military. So, I went to the Internet to learn more about the people I would be writing to and what they were experiencing, and I discovered the Milblogs.

And it was the Milbloggers who educated me about the military, inspired me to action, and ultimately supported me in success. So, anything good coming from Fuzzilicious Thinking—from Valour-IT’s 1,000 laptops in 20 months to my modest role in highlighting and explaining issues like the Walter Reed problems and translating you all into “civilian speak”—all of that is a direct and exclusive result of my encounter with the Milblogs three years ago. People like John Donovan, Lex, Sgt. B of The Gun Line, and the Ziegenfusses—to name just a few—were my teachers, and my mentors.

In short, Fuzzilicious Thinking not only exists for you, it exists because of you. Without Milblogs there would be no Valour-IT, no Fuzzilicious Thinking… and there would be at least one more extremely ignorant civilian. And so it's about you—it's you who made it happen.

Thank you.