Milblog Conference - Video

I finally got 3 little segments to load into PhotoBucket. Check here. Sorry about the quality.

Friday Funny and News

News first: JP is a DadX2! Read the comments on this post. (thanks for the heads-up, SK!)

Last night, I spent several hours editing the crappy video I took at the milblog conference. The sound never got quite as good as I'd like, but the real killer was trying to upload it. I think I need a new router that doesn't drop the connection every 500K. Anyhoo, the good news is that some presumably good video will be posted soon according to Andi.

For those of you who missed the conference, video of the entire day will be available in the near future.

I'll try uploading my stuff again, but the alternative will probably look and sound better.

Now for "teh funny" from TweetiePie. WARNING - very un-PC!

***

Four women were driving across the country. Each one was from a different place: Idaho, Nebraska, Texas, and Mexico.

Shortly after the trip began, the woman from Idaho started pulling potatoes from her bag and throwing them out of the window.

"What the hell are you doing?" demanded the Nebraskan. "We have so many of these damn things in Idaho, I am just sick of looking at them!"

A moment later, the gal from Nebraska began pulling ears of corn from her bag and tossing them from the window."What are you doing that for?"asked the gal from Texas . "We have so many of these things in Nebraska, I am just sick of looking at them!"

Inspired, the gal from Texas opened the car door and pushed the Mexican out.

***

A Lotta New Friends at Walter Reed

Like I reported earlier, it was wet. Not that it scared too many people off - we had a great crowd of FReepers, friends, heroes and milbloggers who were in town for the Milblog Conference.

THANK YOU GUYS AND GALS!!!!

JP/Boobah showed up as promised. He wanted to show his support for our wounded warriors and make some people smile at his antics.


I'm completely swamped at work this week, thus this post is really skimpy on "stuff" and mostly pics.


Boobah brought his own rain gear.








Stacy, Carla and friends show up.








and pick their signs. Stacy got one of my favorites! Smart lady...










It starts to rain.







HOORAY! The warriors arrive!











and then pose in front of tgstTakoma's new MOAB (Mother Of All Banners).










Carla makes a new pal of Rob.









MaryAnn points at me. I'm still trying to hide...









This is one of the most modest supporters out there. She will be very embarassed to see her photo here, but

AGNIESZKA - YOU ROCK!!!!

You are so appreciated by so many people - Thank You!





Heidi, BiffF, and MaryAnn








Wet revelers.





























Here's the 8 stinky Pinkos. They suck.




BillF and I went down just to get some perfunctory shots of the moonbats. Perry "the guitarman" came halfway across the street, blabbing some hippy phrases to make sure that we knew that he knew we were there. 'tard.







*Yawn*


Hey! "Princess" Pinko, check out how a real man wears a kilt!





These guys are almost irrelevant now. Nobody (milbloggers and friends) even went down the block to check them out. Just don't matter anymore.






LL, SK, Agnieszka, Alex and JoyJoyfromNJ stayed 'till the bitter end and helped tear down and put stuff away. Thank You!!!!







This is the bus from Fran O'Brien's. It may be the last time we ever see it. WAAAHHH! Write to Hilton's and make them renew Fran's lease. Andi has the info and history. All may not be lost yet.

Andi also has the most comprehensive list of blogs reporting on the milblog conference.

Conference Wrap-up

Panel 1 - Milblogs: Past, Present and Future
CJ, SMASH, B5, John (obscured) and Steve S.

It was this single caveat that enabled an agenda-driven media establishment to shroud, obscure and effectively steal the honor of honorable men like John, forever altering the course of their lives.

MilBlogs, especially those written in-theater, changed that. Permanently.

Never again will the Walter Cronkites of another day or another war have a monopoly on communication of the ground situation that could lead to disastrous manipulation.

This small quote summarizes perfectly the reason for having a Milblog Conference and celebrating the fact that there are such things as milblogs. Check out Stolen Honor Reclaimed by Steve Schippert for the rest of his story from Saturday.

First, all glory and huzzas to Andi for her brilliant idea to hold the conference and all her hard work for pulling it together in such a spectacular way. You ROCK!

Conference opened by Col. Austin Bay.

#1 Panelists: Buzz Patterson, LtC USAF (Ret), Moderator
CJ (A Soldier's Perspective (Ret))
Lt SMASH (The Indepundit)
Matty O'Blackfive and his wrap-up
John Noonan (OpFor)
Steve Schippert (Threatswatch)

Panel 2 - Milblogging Family Style
Andi, Carla, Carren, Chuck and Deb

#2 Panelists: Andi (Welcome to Andi's World), Moderator and Mega-promoter
Carla (Some Soldier's Mom)
Carren and Chuck Z (From my position...on the way!) and after.
Deb (Marine Corps Moms)

Panel 3 - Blogging from Theater
Col. Hunt, Jeff, Fred, Bill, Capt B, MDFay (CJ in foreground)

#3 Panelists: Col. David Hunt (Two Babes and a Brain)
Jeff (Dadmanly)
Fred (In Iraq For 365)
Bill Roggio (ThreatsWatch/The Fourth Rail)
Capt B (One Marine's View) and his post-conference post
WO Mike Fay (Fire and Ice)

The last panel was rapid-fire as Col. Hunt kept everyone on their toes and moving fast.

Through it all there ran the live-chat, moderated by the Greyhawks of Mudville. It must have been like herding cats! I tried to check in a couple of times, but couldn't keep up with chatter and ramblings going on. It seemed rather childish and nonsensical... am I jealous? Oh hell yeah! I missed a lot of fun!

Anyhoo, here are some pics. I promised a lot of them and 1) I didn't take enough and 2) too many of the ones I did take didn't turn out. I really need a new camera that has better stabalization, faster focus and save. If anyone's got suggestions, please feel free to comment.



FReepers Concretebob and IraqiKurd









Front of Capt. B and back of Cbob. Marty Horn (AnySoldier.com) in background.









Col. Hunt

Where's Taco?

Pentagon Channel's McMahon.










La Shawn Barber typing away...
probably on this.

The Church of What?$?

CJ asking JP questions and complaining that the audience camera showed his bald spot.







Thanks to SK/Mrs. Diva, we have this picture of Sgt. Allen licking JP/Boobah at Fran O'Brien's Friday night.

JP/Boobah getting a question in.

JP/Boobah encroaching on Panel 3

JP/Boobah finally getting interviewed.

A terrific time was had by all. Castle Argghhh! has a terrific wrap-up, and Sgt. Hook has some intel you won't find anywhere else.

Dereliction of Duty

OK, I was a complete slug yesterday and didn't even turn the 'puter on. I will post the few pics that turned out and write some more about the conference this evening.

Huge kudos to Andi and special thanks to the Greyhawks who moderated a most unruly bunch of bloggers/commenters on the live chat. Anybody know if the transcript is available somewhere? I couldn't walk, chew gum and keep up with JP.

2006 Milblog Conference - Panel 3

This one is entitled "Blogging from Theatre"

Col. Hunt (of Two Babes and a Brain) is moderating - he's great!!!

Panel includes DadManly, "InIraqfor365", Bill Roggio, Capt B (OORAH!) and MDFay (OORAH!).

Hunt asked all the guys what branch, where were you, what did you do. Not really much about blogging yet just military speak (and jokes!). Picked on Roggio's 'tan' socks.

He's asking each panelist if they lost anybody. Loosing someone and then blogging about it.

MDFay - Op Steel Curtain, Nov. 16th, had just moved to 3rd squad from 2nd. Cat's n Dogs in direct fire. Marines were leveling everything, several Marines killed and more wounded. Lt. McGlochlin (sp?) was killed, someone who Fay had drawn just days before. It was really hard blogging about it.

Hunt asked if the Marines like Fay (Combat Artist). He replied yes, Hunt asked 'How do you know', Fay - 'They told me so"

Hunt asked Capt B if he's a Marine. HAHAHAHAHA! When do you get the time to blog?

Capt. B - credits Anysoldier.com for starting it. Says his guys knew about his blog and loved it. He never blogged about someone he lost until the family was notified.

Hunt thinks the branches should be getting the news out, instead of milbloggers. Roggio was with Capt. B and MDFay after Op Steel Curtain. Hunt asked him how he got operational info as a civilian. Called him a nutjob for paying his way into combat.

Roggio - while there is action out there, most of the country is quiet. I want the complete story. It's more important to tell a correct story than a positive story. applause

Fred appologizes for having log hair, and says he's not in the military anymore. Was in Public Affairs getting news out thru a feed. Don't blame public affairs! We tried to get the news out, no one wants it! We lost more than soldiers and Marines, Fred lost his interpreter who was a great guy. People need to know the names of those we lost YES!

Hunt - picks on Marines and Roggio again.

Jeff - worked in Military Intelligence (Hunt says he doesn't like either). Was in Tekrit. Mortar strikes came in and he blogged about it. Mentioned great blogs like Ma Deuce Gunner (HOOAH!)

Hunt - in the next war, we have cameras that feed right to blogs, you got someone feeding while the guys in front of the camera gets his head blown off - what do you do?

Capt B - the main point is to keep safety in mind.

Hunt - MSM sucks! Kerry sucks! Micro technology will enable troops to carry little devices into combat and relate instantaneous news on blogs.

Capt B. that technology already exists - Marines are smart enough to know when to use it.

Hunt - Marines didn't let emmbeds into Iraq with them (what?)

Jeff - MSM sucks - they don't have the knowledge to dig into any story, just data points. They don't know what the info means in context - no subjective crap.

Hunt says Marines already OKed live feeds from the field, as evidenced by FOX's Greg Kelly's reports. (but Kelly is Marine reservist!).

I'm having trouble typing and listening. Hunt is keeping this panel really moving.

Capt B - we did have emmbeds.


CJ asked a question, prefacing it with "JP isn't here." Well, then who's this guy?

CJ asked "Jerky or not? Boxers or briefs? This camera shows my bald spot"

Now the panelists are discussing blogging and controls. not buttons, drop downs, linked lists...

Jeff wants the emmbeds back. Thinks that they're necessary.

Capt. B said Roggio spewed lots of stories while with his company, the MSM could have done the same thing.

Marines (Taco, Capt B, MDFay) doing really well! Great stories. Got it on video for later.

Roggio thinks there should be a parallel news service (milblogs and MSM) rather than the Pentagon feeding all the news.

Jeff thinks milblogs v MSM is self correcting as the milblogs are getting more and more news from milblogs.

Hunt is voiceing Taco's idea of mandatory National service.

MDFay - loves the bread the Iraqies made. They liked going on patrols at the end of the day when the bread would be leftover from dinner and given to the Marines. We owe it to these really nice, big hearted people to keep them free and safe until they can take care of themselves.

Iraqi FReepers says "We need America forever!"

Michael Moriarty - We need the Iraqis to step up and do more to help themselves. He always needed more help from locals who had IEDs and stuff blowing up near their patrols.

Fred - Saw high-ranking Iraqis feeding intel to the insurgents. Iraq needs to help clean up the system.

Hunt - asks 'are we moving on to politics? or are we going to talk about blogs?"

Questions taken from the on-line version. "Do you think today's event will make any difference?"

MDFay says "I'm getting lots of attention to my work, blog, and writing for NY Times. Yes, it will start a ball rolling"

Capt. B - Yes, there will be a difference. It's a beginning to a phenom.

Roggio - It's important to meet everyone and put a face on people.

Fred - The Army needs to be told how important blogging is to the public. Follow the Marines and encourage blogging. He was glad to see CENTCOM here to get a better idea of who milboggers are and to trust them.

Jeff - We need to watch ourselves and self-regulate, so these face-to-faces are important.

Question - Will the rise of milblogs create more animosity with the MSM that sucks?

Roggio - No, not necesarily (sp?)

Jeff - the journalism schools suck! They need to change and teach the difference between subjective and objective reporting.

MDFay - The Marines seem to first and foremost put confidence in the Marines. PAO says "stay in your lane and you can talk to anyone you want. Its your voice and story, share it". He's been given wide latitude.

Question for Roggio - Did you carry a weapon in Iraq?
Roggio - journalists aren't allowed to carry.
Question - did you do it anyway? HAHAHAHA!
Roggio - no, I just stood near the guy with two weapons.

Roggio - milblogs may only get 5% of readers, but that number is increasing as the print media is decreasing.

brain fading again...

Jeff - Hollywood needs to get into the Patriotic business and show positive things about service to one's country.

See "The War Tapes" for www.thewartapes.com for a real video/movie- opening June 2nd in NY. All shot by E5's and 6's and put together by some nice filmmaker.

MDFay - plugging Pat Dollard of Hollywood Interupted is the real-deal. He made a great joke and I missed it. Oh, Heart of Darkness with a positive twist.

Hunt picking on this description.

Carren - we need to make the Military family a part of the entire community.

Ok, it's over. I'll wrap up later.

2006 Milblog Conference - Panel 2

This one is about Milblogging Family Style.

Andi, Carla, Carren, Chuck, and Deb. Andi is moderating. Will ask people why they are blogging.

Carla - When her son was notified of his deployment, she started looking for info on the net. Decided that there wasn't a lot of stuff out there and that she would start a blog just to let people know about what a family does with a son in harm's way. She was completely anonymous until he was hurt.

Carren - pass HAHAHAHAHA!

Chuck - started the blog to let Carren and Mom know what was going on. Was surprised at the first 20 hits (10 of them were his HAHA). "Screaming into the void" ... Wanted to leave a legacy for his children in case he didn't come back. Now they know he's an asshole. more laughs

The simplest reason for starting and continuing - the good news and bad news (joe shitbag the ragman railing against the military and GB and Algore invented the internet) needs to get out. He made his guys read Armor Geddon to see what other tankers were doing.

Deb - Blogging has been a real adventure. She's met amazing and wonderful people. Nothing was available to prepare her for her son's departure in '03. Her 'baby' shipped straight from FOI to Iraq and there was a lot of negative emotion and worry. There's wasn't enough news on CNN, FOX, etc. so she started looking at milblogs. Found that there were lots of other parents out there who needed the same type of info about what their kids were doing. Marine Corps Moms has started Operation Santa, which sent 6,000 stockings in 2004 and 12,000 in 2005!

She gets 4-5 emails a day from Marine parents who want someone with whom to connect and share their thoughts. Lots of people who don't have family in the military still want to help and are huge troop supporters, so blogging gives her a way to help people get involved.

Andi - Carren is an accidental blogger. On June 21, 2005 she became Chuck's voice.

Carren - She started blogging because she didn't want to let Chuck's (he says '5') readers worry about what had happened. A door opened into a whole other world. She got a lot of support and strength from Chuck's fans and readers. It is a great outlet. Thanks everyone for supporting she and Chuck. (what a sweetie!)

Soldier's Angels has been a blessing for us. Have helped in soooo many ways and facets. Red Cross was also instrumental in getting everything she/Chuck needed.

Carla - the Greyhawks (Mudville) were the first people who contacted us when we went to Germany to be with Noah (injured son). Were the most helpful people!

Andi - anti-war movement has been involved in each of the panelists lives.

Deb - Has had her share of run-ins with asshats. Has published her real identity and phone numbers so that other Marine families could contact her. But it gave a lot of anti-war 'tards the info to contact and harass her. Hippies don't have any ideas - just propaganda.

Chuck - Fred Phelps may end up roadkill because he may have an episode where he can't control his rebuilding arms and run him down. Code Pinkos are asshats. All the people inside WR are doing a job. Protesting outside a military hospital is just sticking a finger in the eye of military. They should go somewhere more appropriate. Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.

CBob was just recognized by Andi - HOORAY and OORAH!

Carla - luckily lives in a community of lots of retired military. MSM sucks! Military family members are the most anti-war folks out there, but don't tell her that her son is doing anything wrong. He is supported completely. But in her little town the local paper, all 15 pages, contains not one word about the war. That's why we need milblogs for news that no one else will carry.

Jesse (iraqikurd) - his mic is fading in and out Thanks the milbloggers and especially the military folks for all they're doing for Iraq and Iraqis.

Carla - MSM reports opinion, not news (they suck!).

(Note to self: read LaShawn Barber's site later. She's been typing away!)

Chuck - insurgent killed his own nephew on purpose 'cause he was in the line of fire of two of Chuck's Sgts. No one reported that. Iraqis would go on patrol with him with completely insuffucient armor and weaponry but went anyway. Brave souls who couldn't wear their uniforms to-and-from work for fear of someone firebombing the family's home. MSM sucks!

Sheik needed to take a member off the city counsel. Counsel had the right to remove this 'dirty' member. this was a great post! But the Sheik needed a lesson in civics 'cause he didn't understand that he had the power and authority to make decisions and didn't need to get permission from the Governor. MSM related the story as if Chuck was manipulating the counsel rather than helping them. A week later he raided the 'dirty' guy's house anyway and found a hugh cache of bad stuff.

He thinks a fully autonimous, democratic Iraq will scare the crap out of Iran. Now he's telling the story of a fat, French reporter who he scared to death. Now he's chastizing the MSM for sucking ever since Vietnam. There are three kinds of people in this world: people who are going to hell, going to heaven, and those who are on the fence. God hates the middle of the road crowd. Pick a side, dammit!

Deb - not all wars are fought on the battlefield. Her son's life was saved by an Iraqi (I'm having trouble hearing her). Her son spent several hours talking with an Iraqi father of nine who had been out of work for a year, but had to that point resisted the insurgents offers to help him out if he'd become a terrorist. Deb's son coordinated with Civil Affairs and found the man a job. This is called Nation Building.

Carla - (find out about this company) said a gunlube company sent lube for free to the troops. Chuck says the stuff is great.

Chuck answers a question from Mrs. Greyhawk about Valour-IT and how it's helped other wounded warriors at Walter Reed and beyond. 2 Marines at Bethesda asked their caregivers to cut back on their pain meds so that they could stay awake longer to email and IM their buds back in theatre and family members. That made a huge difference in the progress and healing process.

Break for lunch - be back in a while.

2006 Milblog Conference starts

Video of "Hidden Heroes" - really good!

Austin Bay is introducing the coordinators and telling us that the wristbands in our "goodie bags" get us free lunch. Hooray!

Now he's talking about the "Puppy blender" encouraging him to brew his own beer. ...Now, communications getting faster and faster. ...The speed provides us with such wonderful new things as CJ's Nigerian Scammers. ...MSM sucks ...MSM reeeeaaallly sucks! ...Col. Hunt insisted that I (Austin) mention "sex". *laugh*

Oooo, Boobah /JP just showed up. He went to Fran's last night without me. I'll have to find out what he did.

Back to Austin...
Understanding friction - it's a process, or accumulation (MSM sucks!). Michael Yon is close to this war's Ernie Pyle, Matty O'Blackfive, SMASH are great. ...Capt Z is one who tries to tell most of the story. ...Lt. Prakash (ARMOR GEDDON) told the story of "mine detections". great story!

Now Buzz Patterson is up introducing the panelists and talking about his books and how he's hooked on milblogs.

Lefties, academics, Hollywood, all 'fifth-columnists'.

CJ spoke about starting blogging as a means to talk to 'someone' and 'no-one' at the same time. Now SMASH is up.

Good morning. I'm Scott and I'm a milblogger. hahahaha He's the first milblogger, but until he got to Doha there was no internet access (late 2002). Dad said "you must post every day, 'cause your Mom will worry..." ...He got his site crashed when the Puppy-blender and a bunch of others mentioned his site. 200,000 hits in one day... too many people were commenting, emailing... no one in my unit knew about the blog! There weren't any rules in those days, but I figured if I wrote this for my Mom, Dad and Osama bin Laden - no rules need apply!...

I'm like everyone's blogfather. CJ asked if that means he'll pay for all our college tuition? Uh, no! HAHAHAHA!

Now Blackfive is up

What's the maximum effective range of a blog? Thanks all the other bloggers.

Now John from OpFor. He introduced Charlie, the partner/other author.

Marine's don't have a right to blog. Boooo hisss Blackfive: it had to start sometime!
John: I just want to win. That's part of every post I do, part of all that the blog is about. Too many people out there are working against us. Officers' Club is now OpFor.

Now up Steve from ThreatsWatch. Starts out picking on John for the Marine jokes, says he dictates to John 'cause he's still trying to learn to read and write.

I was a lounge-lizard at the Belmont Club for a year. Started reading Mudville and discovered that the MSM sucks! Whole family is military. I grew up believing the Tet Offensive was a huge loss for us until I started reading milblogs. Walter Cronkite types will never again force-feed that kind of crap to us again because of milblogs.

Col. Patterson corroborates Steve's ideas about the MSM being 5th columnists sucking.

CJ - No MSM here today. I contacted all Nat. news and local news in the DC/Baltimore area. BBC, Boston Globe and the Pentagon channel are the only ones who came. The news we got in Kuwait was all about anti-war protests and negative reports. "You never heard about the people underneath our weapons trying to shake our hands." (on the push to Baghdad).

SMASH - We're fighting for all things American and the freedoms we treasure. We (military) are proud to have taken out the dictator of Iraq. Anyone who took part in that historic event (ongoing) should never feel anything but pride in that work. HOORAY!!!! ...talks about 'Marlboro Man' and the caption underneath that asked 'How many will it take to win?'. The MSM was waaaaaay wrong in the predictions about the number of US casualties and we (milbloggers) are telling the story.

Blackfive - The AbuGriab (sp?) were knuckleheads who the MSM make into something else altogether. The whiney Generals brought reporters out of the woodwork to ask us about our thoughts on the matter. Most of us said 'Eh, they're entitled to their opinion'. Most "journalists" congratulate themselves. They suck. I became an activist (aka pain-in-the-ass).

Marines get it, but the Army needs to understand that if you crack down on bloggers, you'll end up with a whole bunch of whiny babies blogging their angst bucking for article 15s.

John - No one wants to see opsec violations from milbloggers, especially us active duty guys!

CJ - Looking at the list of countries that visit my site, a whole bunch of them are on the terror watch list. I think about who's reading my site.

John (Castle Aarrrgh!) - there are rules. How did you (blackfive) react to the "io" training? They really pounded on Lt. Prakash. We have to be careful of what we write. fbl wrote something... something else ...

my brain is starting to wander YankeeSailor.blogspot.com is something

SMASH - Write what you know. Don't worry about what's happening tomorrow.

CJ - I didn't know the Library of Congress invited you (SMASH) to write on the bathroom wall? My public affairs officer knows all about my site and has standing invitation to read and comment.

Blackfive - R8's like to control things. Anything new is "scary". Gen Cody made life hell for Lt. Prakash and held him up as the poster boy of OpSec violators most unfair!!!!

SMASH - the post I didn't write. 0303 Kuwait - we were in a vulnerable spot. I was in the command tent when I saw the walls coming in and then heard the explosion. 3000 lb warhead from missile fired from Basrah. We couldn't do anything to let the enemy know where we were and what the effect of the missile was.

Steve - milblogs are not going to be shut down. Not by any general holding his hands up against the sea shouting 'stop'. That will only make more dissidents.

These guys never step on each other. They're so good at this.

John & B5 - NY Times sucks. Bloggers put ideas out and someone, somewhere will have an expertise in the area and will unlock the truth.

CJ - as an interrogator I have often wanted to slap someone around, beat the crap out of someone, or put a bullet in someone's head, but IT NEVER HAPPENS! We police ourselves and it was a fellow guard who turned in the knuckleheads who posed the inmates at Abu Grihab (sp). Maximum CJ thinks the knuckleheads should have gotten the fireing squad

SMASH - We can't let people off-the-hook when they say crap like "I support the insurgents". We need to confront these people. If we back down, they win. Take that Code Stink!

Buzz - its all part of a well organized operation to make us lose the war so they liberal hippies can relive Vietnam.

SMASH - Code Pink smells to high-heaven for protesting outside WR.

Bill Roggio - Our enemy is more adept at propaganda spreading than we are.

Capt Z. - The news isn't passionate about winning the war.

Steve - we need more journalists to go out as ebeds again.

Buzz - journalists are pussies (my words) and won't go outside the Green Zone to get a story.

Steve - The MSM should make journalists out of military people, rather than the other way around.

SMASH - no more stringers. We need an army of Ernie Pyles. Michael Yon should be the standard, not the exception.

Milblog Conference - pre stuff

We're here!

I had to make my own nametag. Two people saw it last night, but this morning it was gone.

Anyhoo, watch the live feed here - see it faster than I can type.














The stage from where the live-bloggers sit.













ConcreteBob, CJ, and tgslTakoma

Things are getting started kinda late. I'm going to start a new post so the pics above don't have to keep reloading.

Really Short WR report

It was wet.


We had a great turnout of FReepers, heroes, and bloggers and friends. Everyone got soaked.

Except the people who went straight to Fran O'Brien's. They most likely got sloshed.

More tomorrow!

A Marine's Poem

From one of the brightest lights on my sidebar, a poem from before he deployed.

All Give Some, Some Give All

Great wars will be waged,
Ruthless battles will be fought.
The good will fight evil,
The goal of peace will be sought,
Some good men will die,
On epic battlegrounds of blood.
As the enemy lies near,
Face down in the mud.
For a nation we will defend,
Until death do us part.
For this is what we know,
It's what we know in our heart.
Some will never understand,
Why we are willing to fall.
All of us give some,
Some of us give all.

*Dedicated to those who fought to their end, and those who carry on the fight in their name.

By: Mark D. Glesne

Author of Truth, Life, and Political Honesty

The Milblog Conference Streaming Video

or whatever it's called will be available here on the 22nd. The link is dead right now, but will be activated tomorrow morning. This should be really cool!

If Blogger is spazzing tomorrow and you still want to see what I'm live-blogging, you can check the Semper Gratus site. I'll start here and continue as long as Blogger holds out.

Check out the MilblogConference 'Blog' for all the most up-to-date announcements.

Oh yeah, we're still going to be outside Walter Reed tonight (4/21). Rain, snow, wind, whatever... just bring your umbrellas and/or rain slickers.

Pro-LEGAL Americans Rally April 23rd

Want to do more than phone and email your frustrations over our open-borders and lack of immigration enforcement? Are you angry enough at our noodle-spined elected leaders to spend an afternoon exercising your First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances? Well, here's your chance.

FReeper extraordinaire Kristinn Taylor will be on the Mall in D.C. on Sunday, April 23 with his American flag and his love for this country. It would be really great if he weren't alone.

The pro-illegal alien forces are counting on you to be intimidated by their large numbers and perception of power. I am not intimidated. I will be planting my American flag and making my stand for secure borders, no amnesty and enforcement of our immigration and employment laws next Sunday, April 23rd, at 2 p.m. on the National Mall at 7th Street in Washington, D.C. (near the Smithsonian museums.)

Unlike the pro-illegals rallies, this one will be conducted by and for legal citizens and legal immigrants who don't want 10s of millions of lawless insurgents to be granted amnesty. From the site Secure Our Borders:

I've spoken at pro-American rallies before, both small and large. But this time, it'll be just me and my flag. But that flag represents millions of patriotic Americans -- heroes of the past who established this nation, heroes of today who defend it with everything they've got, and everyday heroes who have LEGALLY immigrated to this great nation to live the "American dream."

...I figure there won't be hundreds of thousands of people standing with me on the National Mall. Most Americans are busy just trying to live their lives -- go to their jobs, come home to their families, go to church or synagogue on the weekend, maybe have some fun with sports or hobbies... most of us really don't have time to "march in the streets" at the drop of a hat. But I have seen for myself that one man or woman can make a difference.

So it may just be me standing there with my American flag, demanding that Congress do their job and secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws FIRST, instead of granting AMNESTY to millions of illegal aliens. I might be all alone. But I figure, it's worth it. This is America... and I think it's time to take a stand for the greatest country in the world.

Maybe you'd like to join me that day. Just show up; bring your American flag; maybe bring a sign for those legislators to see, respectfully letting them know how you feel about this issue...

... And bring your love for our country.

God bless America.

D.C. has always been a liberal's Mecca so we aren't expecting your typical anti-fill-in-the-blank sized crowd, but sometimes a few people can make a lot of noise. Now is the time to make your views known in person.

See you Sunday!
UPDATE: ATTENTION, PLEASE READ: 9/11 Families for a Secure America is holding a similar rally at Lafayette Park on Monday, April 24 at 10 a.m. We spoke today [Kristinn did, not me] and decided to fold our rallies into one on Monday at Lafayette Park.

Too bad... I gotta work.

A Really "Good Friday" at Walter Reed

It's been awhile since I reported on the FReeps at WRAMC. Despite it being a quiet night this Friday, there's a lot going on elsewhere that ties in to our weekly support demonstrations.

Friday night before the Milblog Conference will be a flurry of activity. There's a get together at the Key Bridge Marriott. All those planning to attend the conference can start the evening by bending an elbow at Pitchers, then come down to WR. The meet-up begins at 7pm.

The FReep at WR starts at 6:30 and goes on until 9:30ish. We gather at on the corners of Georgia Ave. and Elder Street which comprise the 4 corners at the front gate. There's plenty of parking on the street - you don't have to park inside the hospital lot.

There was an unusually high police presence tonight. The pic in the upper right shows an officer (white sweatshirt) warning the commies to behave themselves. Poor Bruce (hiding behind propaganda sign) complained about us taking pics, and the nice cop reminded him that he's out in public. They also whined that they were being harassed by the pro-troop supporters who came waaaaaay down the block and said mean things to them. They didn't dare tell the truth - that the wounded heroes living inside the gates have often made their views of the Pinkos unmistakably clear to the commie 'tards!

You can just make out the pitiful band of traitors down the block to the left of JackDeth.

I said goodbye tonight to a rather unique warrior. Senior Lt. Misha Kutateladze and his wife Tea are finally on their way home to Georgia (the country). After almost 13 months of surgeries and therapy, Misha has made a remarkable recovery from terrible injuries he suffered from an IED explosion in Iraq. He has a new prosthetic for his lower left arm and an amazingly realistic prosthetic left eye.

Last month he told me that a high-ranking officer from the Georgian Army asked him what he wanted to do when he came home. Lt. K responded that he really wanted to stay in the Army. His superior thought that was a great idea and that Misha's military career was far from over. Hooray!!!

I'll miss these two very much.

We had a light turnout this week but still covered all the corners. My brother (Hi BO!) an old jarhead himself, was up in the area and joined us.

To top off the night and make it a really "Good Friday", an Army Chaplain who had just finished his duties inside, stopped his vehicle in front of the MOAB (Mother Of All Banners) and blessed us all!


The really bad news this week is the eviction of Fran O'Brien's from the Capital Hilton. Traditionally, we end the evening when the bus full of wounded warriors returning from a night out at Fran's enters the gates with all of us cheering and waiving flags. That end to our night's celebration will cease this month if the Hilton follows through on its decision to not renew the lease. Andi has been in touch with the top brass at Hilton and will send questions that her readers leave in the comments. The deadline for submitting questions is midnight tonight (Sunday) so there's not much time. Read the comments to Andi's post - a lot of really good questions have been submitted already!


We want to keep seeing this bus! It means so much to our heroes to have friends like Hal and Marty who will never give up their support and thanks to our troops.

Sgt Allen of Contact Right...Taking Fire! (one of the wounded warriors of WR!) has some alternate contacts for Hilton Corp. He's also got a great blog - check him out!

Hilton Hotels Evict Wounded Warrior Supporters

I just learned about this last night. Our favorite place to plug for their unending support of the wounded warriors at Walter Reed is being evicted from it's leased space in a downtown Hilton. Fran O'Brien's has been hosting a busload (or two) of vets and their families every Friday night for the past two years. These dinners are funded by the restaurant's owners and donations from supporters, but they will come to an end this month as the Hilton Corp. has decided that the possibility of injury and lawsuits resulting from someone being hurt by a flying wheelchair is just too great.

Learn more about this devastating loss from Capt. Z, who knows better than anyone else how much this steak house has boosted the morale of many of our beloved Vets.

The story was first reported by the Greyhawks over at Mudville Gazette who were alerted by Buzz Patterson and has all the info about the history and happenings.

Its really going to SUCK if Fran's closes. I'll never stay at a Hilton.

Milblog Conference only 10 Days Away!

Wouldn't cha know, I finally decide to write a post and Blogger is acting funky again. Anyhoo, here's a post at the other site.