5 Years of War, and Milblogs

I came across a great round-up of what's out in the blogosphere about the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war from Lt. Nixon Rants:

Tuesdaze Bloggin' Roundup of Iraq (18 Mar)


and then (because my entire week has been a jumble, and so I'm behind on my milblog reading) came across this post from Monday over at Milblogging.com

Milblogs in the News: Five years later: Iraq war goes online


which just cracked me up, because I've been reading milblogs for at least Four years now, and USA Today is just now apparently catching on that they're out there? Snort.

But, that second post Did kind of send me down 'memory lane', back to the early days of my discovery of milblogs.


When I first came across some snarky soldier named JP who was blogging from Afghanistan (on a now defunct and lost -forever- in -the -mists -of -time- blog),and later started Milblogging.com (a site USA Today is apparently Unaware of,lol:)


Now, he's also going to be a 'TV star' (watch out, Chuck Norris :) as it says over on The Sandbox (another site that USA Today didn't seem to realize was out there)


And I marveled, that some people are just now catching on to Milblogs, when reading them has taken me on such a journey these past 4 years


......from my commenting on JP's first blog, to his becoming a friend these past few years. From celebrating when he got home from Afghanistan, and when he and his wife had their second child...to gearing up with the other 'fans of JP', to send what support we could to he and his platoon as they deployed to Iraq.


I then thought about some of the Other bloggers that I first found 'way back when'.....Sean, over at Doc in the Box , who is now,Holy Cow! on his Fourth deployment! (and whom I've actually Met in person :)


Sonny, at Hokie.Us , who was deployed to Afghanistan back when JP was, and is now Also deployed a second time,to Iraq.


Chuck, from From My Position...On the Way! who was wounded in Iraq, and became the catalyst for the Soldiers Angels Valour IT program The Power of the Internet and People Working Together


These soldiers have all continued blogging since I first came across their blogs.

There were also some great milbloggers back then who have since disappeared .. They were deployed, wrote some powerful posts, and then came home and gave up blogging when they got back to 'real life'.


But there are others stepping forward to continue the stories....like the previously mentioned Lt. Nixon Rants


and another great milblogger at Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal


Even though I think it's ironic that a major newspaper would write a story about Milblogs as if they were something fresh and new, when they've been around for just as long as the War(s) in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on.....I'm still glad that Milblogs are finally getting some attention in the 'main stream media'.


Because reading the stories of those fighting these wars is, IMHO, important.


So, why not take some time to drop by Milblogging.com and The Sandbox , and see what these soldiers are saying?