Podcast Cat

The podcast that includes my interview at BlogWorld Expo about Soldiers' Angels and Valour-IT is up on Military.com. Ward Carroll did a great job of asking questions--it was probably the easiest interview I've ever done, and lots of fun.

Ward, thanks so much for giving Soldiers' Angels a platform!

Your motivation for listening? You get to hear what I sound like after shouting over the "ambiance" at Planet Hollywood until 2:00 in the morning (while smoking a pack of cigarettes secondhand).

And unlike the Bloggers Roundtable the day before, I actually sound like I know what I'm talking about. Hah!

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Panelling

Yikes! Both exciting and scary at the same time:

We’d like to invite you to be a panelist on panel #2: Milblogging as a Community. This panel will focus on the various communities that have been built around Milblogging and how those communities that have been formed have helped to provide support, and raise money for military families, wounded warriors, charities, etc..

Hmm.... I think I better start blogging regularly again. After all, I have a reputation to uphold, now. ;)

Hope to see you there!

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Tiptoeing Among the Giants

The first report on my interview with Ambassador Ries, the senior American in Iraq responsible for economic matters is now up at The Castle.

Yesterday I also had the chance to speak through my flu-induced haze with another senior officer of the 3rd Infantry Division. Like the Ries interview, results are posted at The Castle.

And the fun isn't over yet--next week I expect to interview Major General Rick Lynch, and my name was put forward by a friend this morning in response to a blogger-focused inquiry from D.C.-level military leadership.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out whose life I've been living recently, 'cause it sure ain't mine!

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Housekeeping

I've moved the Chuck Ziegenfuss quote about Valour-IT from the blog header to the sidebar, and added text to the header that attempts to describe what this blog about.

Dear readers, what do you think? I struggled a bit with the header text. Any constructive criticism, or suggestions for wording that would better describe this blog and its mission would be greatly received.

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Interviewing the Big Guys

Last Friday I had the surprising experience of interviewing--in my capacity as a "Denizenne" of The Castle--the 3rd Infantry Division Chief of Staff, direct from Baghdad.

As I understand it, 3rd ID is reaching out to bloggers and other independent media at a more engaged and detailed level than the blogger roundtables that the Office of the Secretary of Defense facilitates. It is an ongoing process, with selected bloggers receiving repeated, one-on-one interview time with individuals in leadership positions. Finding myself involved in this is somewhat shocking, but I'm very glad to have the opportunity (next week I will interview the Division CSM).

The interview with the CoS was extremely educational, both in direct content and in time spent preparing. It was interesting to interact with someone in Iraq right now who can see things from from a "forest-level" perspective rather then the anecdotal level we get through deployed bloggers (entertaining and invaluable/irreplaceable though those milbloggers are).

I don't want to read too much into the CoS' comments, but there were two moments in the interview that jumped out at me, times when he seemed particularly passionate about what he was saying. The first was when he was talking about the evil (his word--said after a hesitation, as if he wasn't sure he should use it, but then he said it with emphasis) that is killing Iraqi "families, women and children." The second was when he spoke of his "appreciation" for Iraqis' courage and determination, which came from living among them during his previous deployment to Iraq. That admiration also came through in his excitement in reporting how much the Iraqis had been involved with Ashura security.

If I may be so bold... He may have a desk jockey job, but underneath it all I'm betting he's still a front-line soldier--it's obvious where his heart is, where he'd rather be, and how much he believes in the nobility of the mission. It's encouraging to find a warrior's heart in such a high administrative position. [And it's great to see senior officers these days are starting to have had at least one "boots on the ground" wartime deployment before they move up. The senior generals are still from the peacetime military, of course, but it's good to see experienced guys moving up the ranks like this.]

He was a challenging interview for someone like me, and I don't think I'd want to sit down and have a drink with him. But I came away with a great deal of respect for him.

Lessons learned?

1) Prepare more questions. I thought I had more than an hour's worth, but I was wrong because most of his answers were quite succinct. We were fine until I ran out of questions and tried to make 'em up on the fly--asked a couple of stupid ones, and he sounded irritated by them. However, it couldn't have been too bad because they've invited me back. ;)

2) Ask more more open-ended/general questions. Even though I asked very few yes/no questions, looking back on it, I think my questions were still a little too specific at times (leading to his shorter answers).

3) Relax. I was so focused on sounding competent and professional that I never relaxed enough to find the right words to truly break the ice.

It was a challenging interview, all the way around. Hopefully I'll be able to improve in the next one.

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Meet "LT G"

If you've been reading Blackfive (as you should), you've already met scout platoon leader "LT G" of Kaboom: A Soldiers' War Journal. If not, here's another chance:

...Man-sweat and body heat saturated the room, despite the front doors and all the windows in the immediate area being wide open. I decided no air was worth fighting through this scene, and I began to plan the details of my great escape to the Internet room. My slight hesitation proved costly, as Sheik Abu Franco - the leader of the most undisciplined and disorganized and corrupt local citizenry group in our AO – slithered in next to me, having already gathered up an interpreter. Like a ‘roidhound baseball player testifying before Congress, I was stuck.

The last two paragraphs are the best part.

If tales of outside the wire are more to your interest, try this post. He hasn't been blogging long, but he's already on my sidebar--If you start at the begining and spend some time catching up on him, I promise you won't regret it.

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Blogging Adventures

A couple of days ago I noticed a very interesting entry on my sitemeter. It was from DC-based communications consultant Susan Davis International, and the "outclick" was on my "email me" link. I waited anxiously to see why in the world someone from that company would want to email me.

The email never came and I figured it must've been a 'bot or a mistake.

It all began to make sense when I realized I wasn't getting email notification of new comments, either. I finally tracked it down to the point of discovering that my "premium email" account with Yahoo didn't get renewed because I'd long ago canceled the credit card they had on file for the yearly subscription.

So, employee of SDI, please try again. Same goes to anyone else who tried to email me at that address in the last 2-3 days. My apologies, I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

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Riding a Tiger

I write with a bit of bewilderment this morning... Much to my amazement, I seem to have won another blogging award. Not for Fuzzilicious Thinking, but for the Valour-IT Project Blog.

The "Best of the Blogs" award was created by the German news agency Deutsche Welle, and both finalists and winners were determined by a panel of bloggers, journalists and media experts. The Valour-IT blog won in the category of "Best Blog - English" because it is an "innovative" use of the medium.

To say I am surprised would be an understatement. I had no idea we were being innovative when we created the project blog in 2005. We simply saw it as a solution to our need for a flexible Internet presence for Valour-IT that would help us interact better with the bloggers who form the core of our support.

Two and a half years ago as Valour-IT started to take off, I felt like I was riding a tiger. I still do.

Just amazing.

P.S. I was particularly moved by the realization that an international panel conducted the judging. During our most recent fundraiser, it was clear that there are Americans who cannot help but see assisting wounded American soldiers as a partisan political act. And yet, during a time when anti-Americanism is rampant (especially when it comes to the military), a collection of people from around the world set aside political considerations and looked at Valour-IT as the apolitical, humanitarian effort that it is. It appears that sanity still has a toe-hold in this world...

P.P.S. Anybody have any suggestions for what to do with an Arkos 405 Media Player? Auction it off as a fundraiser, maybe?

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Cox and Forkum

Valour-IT was just getting off the ground John approached Cox and Forkum for assistance in spreading the word. Forkum stepped up with some anonymous design work that was spot-on perfect; as is true with his wonderful drawings, pictures said more than words ever could.

A couple months later, John again asked them for assistance. And so one day in the midst of our first Veterans Day fundraiser (2005), I opened my email to find this:

The tears were instant. No words that any of us had found to explain Valour-IT and why it mattered had come close to what was encapsulated in that amazing frame. C&F went on to give us the rights to reproduce it in any form, and auctioned the original pen-and-ink drawing for a $650 donation to Valour-IT. For the following year's fundraiser auction, they offered up a bidder-commissioned caricature.

Cox and Forkum were a huge part of getting Valour-IT off the ground, giving it an online presence that has endured; just search Google Images for "Valour-IT" and see what you get...

Why do I mention this? Because C&F are dissolving their partnership as of today. It is most certainly our loss, but I wish them the best. Not only did they entertain and educate me with their witty and insightful political cartoons, they forever captured my heart.

Thank you, guys. You are irreplaceable.

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Regret, MEGEN, Valour-IT, and the Navy

Beyond busy this week and weekend, so don't count on seeing anything new here. Maybe I'll have time/faculties to post... maybe not. In the meantime:

First, I though I might regret this post, and I do. First and foremost because, as a friend reminded me, a not-insignificant portion of what I wrote was lacking in compassion. People may not make the choices I do, but they could very well be coming from a background/experience that makes the situations I described better than the alternative, in their minds. I used to know that, but have apparently forgotten (not excusing the scenarios I outlined, but looking at them now through compassionate eyes that understand a bit why those choices may seem good to those people).

Secondly, MEGEN is on the West Coast! I hope to take her for visits at sites touching on Naval topics such as local medical facilities, SEALs, historical sites, aviation-related vistas, and even some local naval bigwigs. I'll be armed with a stack of Valour-IT business cards to spread the word to passersby. And I'll be foraging for vestiges of the Naval history of a no-longer-navy base. Stay tuned!

Third, and relatedly, start thinking about the Valour-IT Veterans Day fundraiser [2006 link]. We've been the recipient of some grants in the last year, but not enough to create an endowment. And the need continues, so let's all do our part. We plan to have another auction as part of the fundraising, so if you know where you can get military-related items that might make good donor gifts or auction items, now might be the time to get started. For example, I know one person who is lining up a couple authors for signed books, and I have an antique book myself to auction off. Now might also be a good time to cultivate media contacts who could be interested in doing a profile of Valour-IT. Watch this space for more info!

As to why I'm busy, here's one of two reasons why I'll be insanely busy on Sunday:

And then there are the demands of MEGEN....

Did I mention I was gonna be busy? ;)

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Bleg

A very kind (new) reader sent me an email today:

I've been reading a few things from you around the 'net and I'd like to ask if you'd please activate your site feed so someone with Google Reader can use it.

Found you again because of [this post], then spent half an hour trying to figure out why I couldn't subscribe to your blog. ;^p I'm a little slow.

Looked around a little and found an explanation of how to activate feeds [here].

So, could you? Pretty, pretty please?

Thank you very much,
Foxfier

I've noticed Foxfier is a reader of Villainous Company, which certainly speaks to taste and discernment. Very flattering... so how could I refuse?

Unfortunately, I'm apparently an idiot. I followed all the steps in Blogger to activate my feed, but it's not happening (see top of my last sidebar section). I suspect Haloscan and various hacked additions have screwed something up. Given enough time I could probably wade my way through all the HTML and technobabble, but I'm not positive about that--my brain is way too preoccupied. And as to "time," I'm spending the next week and a half implementing a household move (only a couple miles, but still a huge hassle, especially since it's going to be done in "stages," starting tomorrow.

So... anybody out there who can either offer me some simple tips, or is willing to wade into the swamp that is the HTML of my blog? I'd be ever so grateful.

I can think of at least a couple people who could use some karma points... ;)

[artwork: Spaghetti Code]

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Entertainment

As someone with personal or business (blog and charity) relationships with over three-fourths of the bloggers who talked with President Bush last week, I found the commenters on a Washington Post article about it absolutely hilarious.

Never would've guessed that some of the smartest, most-driven, accomplished, independent-minded, knowledgeable and honorable people I know are actually...

• Stupid
• Ardent Bush supporters (bwaaahahahaha!)
• Unquestioning defenders of authority
• Sycophants
• Loony (well, maybe that one is true...)
• Shills
• Pigeons
• Delusional

Well, you get the idea. If you're in need of some laughs, take a peek.

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How it All Started

In the last two years, I've often been encouraged to tell the story of how I got involved in milblogs, and how I ended up in the middle of Valour-IT. The story has been told in brief, but the truly interesting parts are in the details--it wasn't inevitable. This may break up into several posts, but here goes...

Ever since shortly after 9-11, when it became public knowledge that we had troops (Special Operations, etc.) in Afghanistan, I had been wanting to do something to encourage and support them; I felt deeply the imbalance of sacrifice when thinking of people fighting and dying on my behalf, but I hadn't even remote connections to anyone in the military. Every few months I would search online for ways to directly adopt soldiers, but could never find anything until the summer of 2004, when I discovered AnySoldier.

I immediately adopted several units and got to work turning my tiny living room into a Care Package Assembly Line (I loved it!). Being a complete civilian, I was acutely aware of my ignorance of warfighters' daily lives and experiences on the front lines. So I turned again to my computer and did some online word searches in order to learn how to better "support the troops."

And then I found the milblogs...

I mostly lurked, but I learned and learned, and I left comments of love and appreciation on the blogs of deployed personnel. Another commenter wrote something particularly lovely on "American Soldier's" blog in January 2005, during his pre-deployment training. AS now password-protects that post, but I still have the words written by someone who called himself "Sgt. B:"

As you travel in pursuit of your Duty, remember another song… “We Are With You”

And, when you have a chance to pause, and rest during your training, and on your missions, you will feel a gentle pressure on your right shoulder…

It is the pressure of a million hands… A million hands laid upon your shoulder in support of what you are doing, and why you are doing it.

It is the pressure of a million hands, whose owners bow their heads in prayer, praying for your safety, praying for your family, and praying in gratitude that there are men and women like you who go in Harm’s way in the name of Freedom, Duty, Honor, and Country.

We’ll see you when you get home!

It was so beautiful, and seemed the perfect words to include in my care packages to new adoptees. So I emailed Sgt. B for permission to steal his words and--to my gratified surprise--he responded with more than just a "yes" or "no." I discovered Sgt. B was a former Marine who was itching to be out there again, and he closed his email with, "...it was an honor to serve."

That little phrase was the catalyst. I wrote back, "I suddenly realized that I understand that phrase much more than I used to." And thus a friendship was born.

I continued my email reply to Sgt. B with a report on the education I'd been getting from milblogs and my adopted soldiers, and my sense of guilt for being the recipient of others' sacrifices. That was when he got downright prescient:

...the real support that us "homefront" types can show is to help these war-fighters make the transition from a front line soldier, back to that father, mother, brother, sister, regular human being...

And this is where compassionate people like you come into your own. By taking the time to understand "your" soldiers, you'll be better positioned to be part of that whole healing process. I would submit that your best days (in the field of
troop support) are ahead of you. [...]

So: Just because you aren't running through the ruins of some far off town, guns blazing and a bayonet clenched in your teeth, don't feel like you are any less important to this effort than the guy behind the rifle. You and I are a VITAL part of this, but we enter the ball game towards the end, and our actions might have an even greater overall impact than all of the combat actions combined, because we're in this for the rest of their lives.

I scoffed (remember, this was January 2005; FbL hadn't even been "born," yet). I thought he was kind but utterly absurd, especially for having based his comments on nothing more than my two emails. And yes, I told him he was. I didn't even know any soldiers outside the Internet and the letters I sent to units in Afghanistan and Iraq! How could an ignorant civilian like me with no direct connection to veterans possibly be part of a warfighter's emotional and physical recovery? As if a combat vet would even care to talk to me... Silly man.

Actually... Silly me.

[pic found here]

UPDATE: Part II

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Valour-IT and the Gun Bloggers

For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, "Gun Bloggers" refers to bloggers who are shooting enthusiasts and strong supporters of the right to "keep and bear arms." This can include everyone from avid hunters and former military, to antiques collectors and those who simply enjoy the confidence in learning and maintaining basic firearms skills.

This year, their Gun Blogger Rondevous has a connection to Project Valour-IT. Gun Blogger "Mr. Completely" writes in an email:

This year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous will be donating all money raised to Project Valour-IT. Major Ziegenfuss [the inspiration for Valour-IT] will be our Guest of Honor.

For more information on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous check the Rendezvous site and the Mr. Completely blog.

Any publicity you can get out that would encourage Gun and/or Mil bloggers or readers/commenters to attend would be greatly appreciated.

It is a small and informal event that allows everyone to get to know everyone else, so you get to put a face to the bloggers you've been reading! It's a great lot of fun hanging out with an amazing bunch of folks!

The event will be held in Reno, Nevada, October 6-8.

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Talking with Heroes Reaches Portugal

According to Technorati, twenty-two bloggers--the vast majority of whom first visited in the last week and seem to have no connection to the U.S. military or milblogging--have now linked to Talking with Heroes, including a number of foreign-language blogs. Of course, there are likely more who have linked but don't use Technorati.

One blog in particular caught my eye, one from Portugal. The blogger's post was highlighted with that wonderful header picture of a half-dozen American soldiers' faces from TWH and contained the following text (translated below):

Porque atrás dos comunicados de imprensa, da revolta, da raiva, da notícia de última hora e das baboseiras do presidente Bush, estão homens e mulheres fardados...

Visitem, POR FAVOR, http://talkingwithheroes.blogspot.com/ e leiam na primeira pessoa o que significa para esta gente estar num cenário de guerra...

Because behind the notices of the press, of the revolt, of the rage, of the news reports of last hour and of the follies of president Bush, men and women are in uniform...

Visit, PLEASE, http: // talkingwithheroes.blogspot.com / and read in the first person what it means for these people to be in a war zone...

I think that's just a lovely testament to the effectiveness of Bob's attempts to put a face on the good work of American military personnel. I'm honored to be associated with him.

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The Bad, the Good and the Ugly--UPDATED

The Bad: somebody thought it would be fun to call Talking with Heroes a spamblog.

The Good: in the process of verifying that it was not a spamblog, somebody at Google/Blogger decided it was a "Blog of Note." This led to further good, as most commenters seemed to enjoy hearing something different from Iraq than the regular MSM spiel. It also gave me the opportunity to point them to some other embedded bloggers.

The Ugly: of course, the trolls came out of the woodwork.

I've been moderating comments from the beginning, for two reasons: 1) I didn't want Bob to deal with the distraction of getting into discussions with commenters while he was over there; 2) I was unsure as to what our clientele would end up being (I had visions of exactly what has happened).

If someone wants to disagree in a polite and rational manner, I'll happily put their comments through. But the following is the only stripe of disagreement we've gotten over there:

"his work is an attempt to bring out the positive things that are happening in Iraq".

Ah, so you are a shill for the zionist neo-kunts in Washington. Here is a place where you can get the real news about the 'positive' things happening in Iraq: [link to a baldly anti-semitic/aryan website].

And then there's this from the one person brave enough to leave his name/blog... an Indonesian and academic/author:

This blog is a joke. Heroes? You are not liberating Iraq, you are annexing it! Get out of Iraq.

Heh. Count on the academics to have a firm grasp of the situation. *rolling eyes*

UPDATE (8/30/07, 8:15 a.m.): Labeling Talking with Heroes a spamblog was obviously a lame attempt to suppress it. But it more than just failed to suppress us... Two days ago (prior to the Google/Blogger attention that resulted from a Blogger human verifying we weren't a spamblog) we had 12 visitors, after a one-day maximum of about 200 since we started. In the first eight hours today we've had over 2,000 (after 1300+ yesterday), and are popping up on sidebars in everything from comic fanblogs to mommyblogs to typical vanity blogs. I think the plan backfired... :D

Many commenters seem new to the idea of milblogs and embedded bloggers, so it's exciting to realize we're reaching into a new "market." And yes, I've got a "sticky" post at the top of the blog that not only explains what it is, but encourages people to check out a list of other Iraq embeds and leading milblogger Blackfive.

[cool drawing above available as a print here].

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VAJoe

I'm apparently the latest in a long list of minor (and major) milbloggers snagged for an interview by VAJoe in an effort to raise their profile among the milblogs.

VAJoe blog is becoming a great place to learn more about the variety of milblogs out there, and it's a nice place to check the headlines and see if you've missed anything. They've also highlighted a number excellent milbloggers for guest-posting duty. The latest is Duty in the Desert, who fantasizes on GEN Petraeus' delivering his upcoming remarks a la GEN Honore of "stuck on stupid" fame.

But back to the interivew of moi... you can discover three things you probably didn't know about me, and other rambling that may or may not interest you. Check it out!

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FbL as Spamblogger

I'm aware of the practice in some quarters of flagging an uploaded video, a comment in a discussion thread, or even an entire blog, etc., for "objectionable content" as an attempt to suppress its distribution or availability. You can look at the upper left corner on my blog here and see the "Flag Blog" button. But never thought I'd run afoul of it myself.

Apparently the Talking with Heroes blog--which I have been updating for Bob while he's in Iraq--has been flagged as a spamblog. According to Blogger, this could happen one of two ways:

1. The automatic filter identifies your blog as having spamblog characteristics--such as excessive posting in one day, excessive links to the same set of blogs/sites, etc.
2. Somebody has been hitting the "Flag Blog" button on your blog's navigation bar.

Take a look at Talking with Heroes and you tell me which one you think it is... And how much do you want to bet ideology fits into this somewhere?

Heh. A human will be reviewing the blog to verify that it isn't spam or otherwise "objectionable content," and will then remove the verification requirement. In the meantime, I can still post after jumping through the verification hoop. So I suppose it's more amusing than anything else, but it's also pretty sad commentary on certain types of people out there.

It all fits. Except it's not evil they're trying to avoid...

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Photos from Iraq

Update: The construction site photos mentioned below are now up.

Bob Calvert sent me some photos of his visit to a newly-renovated children's hospital in Bagdad, which I posted on his blog. I'm still awaiting the hosting of a great audio-only interview he sent, and I also have pics of a telecommunications construction project he visited (will post them tomorrow).

I've been generally aware of the renovation/rebuilding efforts in Iraq, but the things Bob has been reporting have led me to dig more deeply--Until recently I didn't understand what a massive, coordinated and integrated (Iraqi-centric) effort there is to not only develop a modern infrastructure for the Iraqi people, but to also rebuild the professional, technical, and societal organizations/knowledge that will keep it running. It's an amazing undertaking, and the Iraqi leaders of these efforts are true patriots of iraq.

Please check out Bob's latest reports and photos for more on what I'm talking about, and keep your eyes open for the interview and new pics.

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Oops!

Just discovered why people have been telling me my email address hasn't been working: the "Email Me" link on the right included an extra character in the embedded address, due to some HTML problems.

Sorry about that! All fixed, now. :)

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