An article on Wired.com caught my eye today – the US Army is putting an end to unrestricted blogging by its members. Loose lips sink ships and all that. I decided to dig deeper.
Want to know EXACTLY how it’s going down on the front lines, from the very men and women who have taken part in the action first hand? Military blogging is nothing new, but recently, mirroring the society-wide phenomenon, it has boomed (ahem). This has caused a bit of a security headache for anyone walking around with a couple of pips on their shoulders. The result – the implementation of severe restrictions on blogging by military personnel as outlined in Army Regulation 530-1 dated 19 April 2007. The restrictions enforced in this 79-page tome are applicable to both blogging and email:
“Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum.
(1) This includes, but is not limited to letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail (e-mail), Web site postings, web log (blog) postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or
other forms of dissemination or documentation.
(2) Supervisors will advise personnel to ensure that sensitive and critical information is not to be disclosed. Each unit or organization’s OPSEC Officer will advise supervisors on means to prevent the disclosure of sensitive and critical information.”
Well, that’s the nitty gritty of it anyway. And it all makes perfect sense. You don’t want some Commander Keene blogging to all and sundry that “the frontal assault was mad success, dude, we’re doing it again this Thursday, but this time we’re gonna try it from the south.”
Loose lips.
Milblogging.com is the number one military blogging site, with 3,240 registered users. It has a top ten with 365 and a Wakeup king of the hill at the moment. This blog chronicles 18 months of service by a US soldier in Iraq.
Here’s what this military blog is about, generally speaking:
– Experiences of men and women in the harshest of conditions
– Memories of fallen comrades
– Being away from home and missing family and friends
– Politics and elections
– Crazy and cruel life in the military
– Personalities met while in service
– Insurgents
– The utter boredom and day to day grind of a military career
The author describes himself as “a husband, a son, a brother and a soldier”.
For soldiers caught in inhuman and unnatural situations, blogging reminds them of their humanity and brings a degree of normality into their lives. Their stories are real and insightful but sadly, like the letters of old sent to loved ones back home, are doomed to be blackened by the censor’s ink.