Category: Blogosphere

Matt at Blackfive, one of the very best MilBloggers out there, has a huge announcement — a planned publishing of a military blogging anthology.

Simon & Schuster has agreed to publish a collection from military bloggers sometime in late 2006. I submitted the proposal and will be the editor and one of the many authors.

We will bring together the best of the military blogs, the purest distillation of the myriad voices of this war. These bloggers provide a powerful insight into the military, the War on Terror, and the heart of our nation. By bringing these voices together, we offer the first real-time, “oral” history of a war while it still going on. We will provide stories from many of the military blogs that cover the full range of the experience of this war – from the decision to serve in the military to their return home, from the front lines to the home front, and from the med-evac units and hospitals where the price of freedom is paid in blood and suffering to the friends that made the ultimate sacrifice.

In his announcement, Matt requests reader input on possible material. Also in the post is a description of MilBlogging enticing enough to be worthy of the book’s cover jacket.

In the past, the experiences of war have produced poetry and novels and memoirs. The War on Terror is different: we’re seeing through a new set of eyes, a new kind of literature. In real time, on the Internet, officers and enlisted men and women are chronicling the war on weblogs.

[…]

Imagine if the men and women fighting World War II could have somehow told their stories daily for all to hear…imagine if Audie Murphy or George Patton could have broadcast their experiences of a battle the day after it occurred – while the experience was still fresh in their minds and without time taking the edges off of their memories.

That’s what military bloggers are doing today – offering unfettered access to the War on Terror in their own words – each one speaking to anyone, everyone who has access to the Web. For the first time, the public does not have to wait months or years to hear what happened from the individual soldier’s point of view. They don’t have to settle for the government’s approved messages. These bloggers are soldiers who return to their bases and type their daily experiences onto the Internet for anyone to read. Never before has this happened, has the information come so fast, so real and so unfiltered. This is the power of a blog.

Normally, knowing all too well the grumbling, griping nature soldiers seemingly instinctively put on along with the uniform, I would be hesitant about such instant access to a world-wide audience for everyday troops. Surprisingly though, with few media exceptions, the blogs of the troops have been the only voices showing the actual action of this war and demonstrating the generally positive morale of those fighting it. The media has brought us the casualty figures, but the MilBloggers have brought us the stories of the war.

Hat tips to Outside the Beltway, the Mudville Gazette and the Gunn Nutt for repeatedly pointing me to this story today.