The military has a substantial amount of meaning and impact on my life. The majority of the men on both sides of my family have been, at some point in their lives, in the military or affiliated with it. All my life I have had a great appreciation for members of the armed forces because of this fact. I made a major decision after high school, turned down acceptance to Purdue University, and did exactly the opposite of what everyone expected; I joined the Navy. So much has happened between then and now that I really don't want to get into but, the short and very simple version is that I got hurt and was discharged.
Now that my brief history is finished, I can go on with the true subject of this blog. I just wanted to explain why this subject has such meaning to me.
My English class was given an assignment the other day to find two blogs that we thought were interesting. Before this assignment I have had ZERO experience with blogging. It took me forever to find two that even remotely looked appropriate for class. I ended up choosing two milblogs. One titled American Soldier and the other From My Position...On the Way. The former is solely one author while the latter is a compilation of blogs from different authors. Both discussed the happenings of a soldiers daily routine. Some entries contained descriptions and personal feelings about major news breaking happenings overseas, while some just focused on the tediousness of being away from home and the daily monotonous routines that are quickly established by the men and women on deployment. Having military background, I found it interesting and dare I say, entertaining to be able to read these. Milblogging gives civillians the chance to experience the true meaning of what it means to be at war. I know this particular war is controversial, and most do not support it, I know many soldiers who do not, but that doesn't mean that people in general don't support the troops. Milblogging is in its own way, able to demonstrate the types of ordeals that soldiers go through on a daily basis that may, or may not, change their opinion on whether or not to support soldiers in general.
I also noticed that, to some extent due to the need to be discrete, the truth comes out. Pictures and links from news stories were often used in blogs followed by personal accounts of what happened. These blogs give readers a front row seat so to speak, to what has been going on overseas. That in itself is amazing considering that not even a hundred years ago it would take weeks or even months before news would reach the homefront, and now it takes only seconds.
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Very creative title as opposed to some of the other ones..anyway, i find your stlye of writing, in a way, similar to mine. I think it was quite courageous of you to do what you wanted against what everyone else had expected of you. I deeply appreciate you joining the Military. My brother also joined the military right out of high school, although, he is the only immediate family of mine that was involved with the military. I agree with you one hundred percent with the fact that while people may not support the war, and that would be MANY, much more support the troops.
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