The appeal to milblog for me while on deployment to Afghanistan during OEF V, was to break up the boredom in between missions. I wanted to share stories about my experience with family, friends, and readers back home to assure them I was okay (Non Op Sec stuff, like the time my Gunner climbed into his sleeping bag headfirst).
I also wanted to write home and tell my family about the losses our unit suffered when two soldiers from my battalion were killed only three weeks in country by a roadside bomb - or tell them about a buddy who killed himself with less than two months in country - or explain that my buddies and I were okay, but that 18 Americans were killed just outside our wire when a Chinook crashed during a dust storm. I wanted to say so much and more, but instead, I coped with my deployment by writing stories about care packages, about my 4-year old son, and about my battle buddies.
Everyone milblogs for different reasons. These men and women still blogging from the frontlines are offering firsthand accounts of war that won't be told by the mainstream media.
Last week, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Matt, the military blogger known as Blackfive - in my first of many interviews with military bloggers.
This is a transcript of the interview that has NOT been edited.
JP, MILBLOGGING HOST: You have started a milblog that has gathered a Survivor-like following on the internet. Why did you start milblogging?
MATT, MILITARY BLOGGER BLACKFIVE: A good friend of mine, Maj. Mathew Schram, was killed on Memorial Day, 2003. In fighting his way out of an ambush, he saved the life of a Newsweek reporter who never wrote a story about Mat.
Newsweek really pissed me off and I started blogging about the good, the bad, the humorous and the ugly of military life because most MSM outlets like Newsweek weren't. If it didn't fit the template of "Bush sucks, the war sucks, the military is failing," then it didn't get published by most of the MSM.
Soon after the start of Blackfive, there was a distinct void of
coverage of what was actually happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. My friends were sending emails that were contradicting what I was reading in the New York Times and the Washington Post. So I started posting those.
JP: Milblog, milblogger, milblogging - these aren't words you'll find in Webster's Dictionary. I did find it on Urban Dictionary. And I quote, "We don't need more sissy reporters at the front. Just tell those pansies in the mainstream media to copy/paste from the milblogs." What is your definition of a milblog?
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Good interview. I read Blackfive's blog a few times a week, but I did not know that much about him.