Tuesday, April 25: Check out a BBC article about the conference.

Gunn Nutt has posted lots of photos and a wrap-up.

Captain Argghh! has a wrap-up, as does Blackfive.

Also see Instapinch, Sgt. Hook, Beltway Blogroll…

OPFOR: “Met LaShawn Barber on the elevator first thing in the morning. What a classy broad. ”
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(Pictures here. Join the video/audio feed and chat here. )

I’m here!

All week I’m working at home, sun streaming through the window. This morning I awake to a chilly, nasty, drizzly day. Yuck. But here I am at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning live-blogging for my country! MilBlog Conference 2006 will be the first of many, God willing.

Other live bloggers: Gunn Nutt, Euphoric Reality, Soldiers’ Angels, and Two Babes and a Brain.

Military wife Andi of Andi’s World (met at BlogNashville) spearheaded this conference. I just met Matt of Blackfive. Don’t expect many pictures. Most of these guys blog under their first names and want to remain unidentified. I forgot my camera anyway.

Milblogs: Past, Present and Future

8:48 a.m.: Austin Bay is opening the first MilBlog Conference. Panelists are Buzz Patterson, Matt of Blackfive, CJ of A Soldier’s Perspective, Citizen Smash (”Lt. Smash”) of Indepundit, Steve of Threadwatch (met at BlogNashville), John Noonan of OPFOR…

This is why it’s important to keep journals. CJ (who says his blogging is therapeutic) is talking about reading his grandfather’s journals as a kid. His grandfather fought in WWII. Think of the memories and recorded events found in those pages. I’ve kept a “journal of life” (16 black-and-white composition notebooks) since I was 16 years old, over 20 years ago. It’s tough to read some of that stuff. Young, stupid, learning, growing. But it’s a chronicle of my life and my physical, mental, and spiritual development. It’s a record of events that are important to me. If I wanted to write a memoir one day, those journals will come in handy.

Smash is talking about how he started milblogging back in 2002 just to chronicle events. He’s talking about his quick rise in the blogosphere as the go-to soldier blogger when the war first started, although he wasn’t in Iraq at the time.

One of Matt’s friends was killed in an ambush in Iraq. One of the people his friend saved was a Newsweek reporter, who didn’t mention the man when he wrote about the story. That made Matt angry, understandably, and this prompted him to start Blackfive.

Steve has been out of the military since 1993, but he started milblogging because he missed the camaraderie. And he wanted to report on what was happening in Iraq unfiltered by the media.

What is a milblogger’s responsibility to the audience? the military?: CJ says he contacted every national news agency to cover the milblog conference. The BBC and the Boston Globe are the only organizations that sent a reporter. CJ mentions something we all know is true: he is hard-pressed to find good news about Iraq; rarely do you see coverage of Iraqis shaking American soldiers’ hands or soldiers eating dinner with Iraqi families. Milbloggers take on the responsibility of getting the word out about what’s really going on, good and bad.

Smash to fellow service men and women: We do a lot more than “breaking things and killing people.” We’re fighting for freedom. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel ashamed of what you do for your country. The milblogger’s job is to be honest about what’s going, good and bad.

Matt discusses why he started blogging. In addition to venting about the Newsweek reporter’s faux pas, Matt wanted to put the news in context, good and bad. (Notice a pattern here? Milbloggers aren’t trying to whitewash the war; they want more balanced coverage from the media, and they don’t ask any less of themselves.)

John is talking about “active duty blogging.” They’re using a lot of military jargon, but I’ll try to translate. John says there’s a concern about giving away too much to the enemy when blogging.

10:13 a.m.: John of Argghhh! is in the audience. He says milbloggers have to be careful about what they say. Smash encourages milbloggers to write their own story and not get caught up with the latest news or what everyone else is doing. Good takeaway:

Think about the timelessness of what you’re writing, beyond the next election. What do you want the next generation to know about the war?

Someone asked what milbloggers can do to make sure they don’t go over the line or upset the higher-ups. CJ says if he thinks something he blogs about will ruffle feathers, he’ll let his public affairs officer know what he’s going to post. CJ said it’s his blog and he runs it on his own time, so even if the officer doesn’t like it, he’ll still post it. I assume he hasn’t gotten in trouble yet.

Smash: How to stay out of trouble blogging from theater? Don’t give the enemy something to use against you. Don’t reveal position or location. Smash talked about a bomb attack in Iraq, I think, which happened within a few feet of his position. He couldn’t blog about it, of course, because the enemy may have been reading his blog. Who knows?

A guy at Winter Solider (helped set up the Swift Boat Veterans web site) asked how milbloggers can combat (pardon the pun) media bias and inaccuracies. John gives an example re: the white phosphorus buzz. The media accused the military of using chemical weapons, but milbloggers got on the story and debunked the false reports.

CJ is talking about Abu Ghraib. The so-called scandal (prisoners on dog leashes) was isolated in a small part of a big camp. Smash says he was ashamed of what happened and was glad that people were punished. CJ says they got off easy. Some of our soldiers were killed because of the backlash. They dishonored the military.

[At the time I thought the whole thing was overblown, and I still do. But for these men, it wasn’t just a sound bite on 24-hour news channels or screaming headlines or a blog posts. They were angry, and it made the whole military look bad.]

Smash is talking about his experience at an anti-war rally. He went just to see what it was like. He heard Americans saying it was their duty to help the people of Iraq resist America’s efforts, and in the same breath, said they supported the troops! Smash says it is disloyalty. He also mentioned protests at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. An anti-war organization thinks the U.S. is sneaking in injured soldiers so they won’t be counted among the wounded.

Milblogging Family Style

11:27 a.m.: I learned a new term today: OPSEC. Operation Security (hope I got that right). Service men and women, especially public bloggers, have to be concerned about this, for obvious reasons.

Andi is moderating. Panelists are Carla of Some Soldier’s Mom, Carren and Chuck of From My Position, and Deb of Marine Corps Moms. Deb is telling us why she started blogging. After her son went to war, she wanted to connect with other military parents and get news. Through her site, she’s able to provide that connection for herself and other parents.

Carren started blogging after her husband Chuck was injured. Blogging has been a great stress-reliever for her. She thanks everyone for their support during the last 10 months.

Carla talked about getting a call about her injured son. She had to wait days to find out if he was OK. Soldiers’ Angels and Fisher House were able to provide her with more info than the military gave her. They helped with travel and a place to stay. (Donate to Fisher House here and Soldiers’ Angels here)

Run-ins with anti-war types: Deb says she receives calls from military moms, even the ones who oppose the war. Chuck doesn’t like protests in front of hospitals. Set up your soapbox somewhere else, in front of the White House…anywhere but in front of hospitals housing injured soldiers. There is a time and place for everything, although people have a right to protest in front of hospitals. Carla tells dissenters that her son is in Iraq fighting for their right to be wrong. (!)

Someone in the audience asked what the MSM isn’t doing. Carla says they’re writing opinion and not news. They present the facts they believe are important and make unattributed assertions about what’s going on. No balance in reporting. Story after story of children killed or soldiers injured, and very little about who is being saved. I complain about this, too. Editorials disguised as news stories, op-eds on the front page.

Panelists and others are live-blogging, so be sure to visit their sites.

Someone asked if negative press affects morale. Chuck says sometimes it does. Troops sometimes laugh about cable news sound bites because they know what’s really going on.

Deb talked about an unemployed Iraqi man with nine children who refuses to accept “insurgents’” offers to fight against the Americans for money.

12:26 p.m.: Breaking for lunch. I shall return…

Blogging From Theater

2:20 p.m.: Just returned from lunch. Had a nice lunch chat with DC-area blogger Matt Sheffield (met at a DC blogger meet-up in 2004), creator of News Busters, and formerly of Ratherbaised.com.

Panelists: Capt B of One Marine’s View, Bill Roggio of The Fourth Rail, Fred of In Iraq For 365, Dadmanly, and Michael of Fire and Ice.

I’m having a hard time summarizing the discussion on this panel because the moderator, Colonel Hunt, is asking different questions and frequently interrupting the guys as they answer. It’s actually kind of funny.

Somebody in the chat channel said I was beautiful. Trying to track him down…

2:51 p.m.: I think they’re talking about OPSEC and how or whether to control milbloggers in theater.

John of Argghhh! is live-blogging and posting photos. Hunt asked what milbloggers want for war blogging. Jeff says there’s a story not being told, and he wants embeds to return. The military can be more active and get positive stories out there. Bill Roggio says the press would view that as tainted. But I say the news is already tainted and strained through left-leaning, anti-military media organizations.

A marine in the audience was passionate about good things happening in Iraq. He’s very angry about the media’s tendency to report car bombings and cover protests about Muhammad cartoons and not report stories about saving babies’ lives or Iraqis killing their own people or Iranians coming in and killing civilians. Hearty applause.

3:35 p.m.: An Iraqi in the audience is making a comment. He said the first time they got freedom was the first time they became human. He says when Saddam was in power, women would be taken from their homes. Now, that doesn’t happen anymore. The man was close to tears. His English is bad. He apologizes. He’s grateful.

A serviceman tells the Iraqi man that he and his countryman need help the U.S. help them. Panelist Fred concurs. He talked about Iraqi soldiers obtaining info from American troops and feeding it to insurgents. That’s got to stop.

A director named Deborah Scranton made a war documentary called The War Tapes, filmed by soldiers. Read about the film.

5:22 p.m.: It was good to put faces to blogs today. Sometimes we forget that real people run these blogs. That’s a tip for trolls: most of the things you say about blog hosts you’d never say to their faces. Anyway, please follow the links in the post to get other perspectives on the conference. I must admit that aside from Blackfive, Indepundit, and Mudville Gazette, I don’t read many milblogs. Today I’ll add a few more to the aggregator.

There’s a growing community of milblogging families, I was pleased to learn. Follow the links in the “Milblogging Family Style” section to find out who they are.

OPFOR has posted a few audio files.

Visit the MilBlog Conference 2006 site for more links.

Forgot to mention that I met “Major E.,” who sent guest posts to Power Line while in Baghdad. He and his wife have the happiest baby I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a recent Boston Globe article about some of the milbloggers.
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(Top photo: Capt B of One Marine’s View and Michael of Fire and Ice)

(Photo credit: Euphoric Reality)