"If I were cool, I’d join the friggin’ Ranger Battallion and start talking shit about how I’m gonna try out for Delta or SEAL team six. In real life I’m a geek. I’ve never read Black Hawk Down. I miss the city and I just want to get back and finish school. This 'war on terror' crap has totally ruined my semester."
That's a blazing post from Jason Christopher Hartley's old blog he kept as an active duty soldier. As Hartley details in his memoir, Just Another Soldier, that blog got him in lots of trouble with the National Guard.
So how does one of the first so-called "military bloggers" feel about the current state of digital writing from soldiers? Well...
Welcome my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog: Jason Christopher Hartley:
In 2005, you told NPR: "Coincidentally, the [military] blogs that remain up are the ones, in my humble opinion, that are very insipid." Do you still feel like that? How has the military blog community evolved since 2005? Who are your favorite military bloggers right now?
I don't read military blogs. It's literally the last thing I want to do. I have enough to think about with regard to the military; I don't want to clutter my already militarily-overdosed mind with more military slog. Continue reading...
OH, me, me! I'm going and would love to get together with other bloggers.