The Washington Post has an interesting story about a young army officer whose blog has been shut down by the Military. The body of the blog was saved on an archive and can be found here: http://kaboomwarjournalarchive.blogspot.com/. I'm not so sure what was so offensive, but it is illuminating of a mindset where often superior officers act like petty potentates. Living in this heavily military area and knowing countless guys and women in the military, one hears frequent stories of jackass superior officers (my mother ran a lab in the huge local Naval Hospital for decades and had many an unflattering story to tell as well). Unfortunately, moving up the ranks often involves ass-kissing and playing politics rather than true competence as a warrior and commander. Here are a few story highlights:*
An indictment of the war it was not. Lt. G's dispatches -- at turns hilarious, maddening and terrifying -- provided raw and insightful snapshots of a conflict many Americans have lost interest in. Word got around, and more and more readers closely followed the postings of 25-year-old Lt. Matthew Gallagher, with the site drawing tens of thousands of page views. By the time Kaboom went kaput last month -- Lt. G was ordered to take down his blog -- it had a following that would be the envy of many a small-town paper.
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The blog's downfall was a May 28 posting that, in violation of military blogging rules, Gallagher failed to have vetted by a supervisor. (That the posting depicted an officer in the unit unflatteringly might have played a role. Gallagher declined a request to comment.) The blogosphere, as it's wont to do, went berserk.
The blog's downfall was a May 28 posting that, in violation of military blogging rules, Gallagher failed to have vetted by a supervisor. (That the posting depicted an officer in the unit unflatteringly might have played a role. Gallagher declined a request to comment.) The blogosphere, as it's wont to do, went berserk.
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Sometimes overtly, sometimes not, Lt. G wrote about what he saw as a widening disconnect between America and its warriors. His dispatches often read like a desperate call from a largely forgotten war. The Gravediggers received odd letters and care packages from strangers. Some were from older women probably looking for love. One was from someone in corporate America who somehow figured golf shirts would come in handy in a war zone. Then there were the letters from children, which spoke volumes about how many Americans have come to feel about this war.
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Gallagher, who is now a captain, was ordered to delete his blog. He did. The content remains on an archive blog one of his friends created: http://kaboomwarjournalarchive.blogspot.com. The old blog site is now controlled by City Girl, Gallagher's fiancee, who occasionally pens updates on the Gravediggers. Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman, said in an e-mail that Kaboom was "deemed by the commander to be counter to good order and discipline of his unit."
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