New Mil-blogs for Your Consideration

Thanks, everyone, for your words and votes of support for the Red Bull Rising blog last week. The blog was named as a finalist in the "Reporter" category of the 2012 Milbloggies. Voting is now closed, and the ballot box is sealed until the 2012 Milblog Conference in Arlington, Va, May 11-12.

While it's a lot of fun rustling and wrangling for votes, the real value of the annual "People's Choice"-style contest is the opportunity it provides to discover (and re-discover) different voices and blogs.

Tracer-fire always points both ways, of course, and the nomination of Red Bull Rising blog generated a few queries from new friends. A couple have even asked for Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (T.T.P.) on how to get started blogging themselves. I'll look forward to using that as a writing prompt for a post later this week.

In the meantime, here are a few blogs I've recently discovered through the Milbloggies and other venues:

• "The Horseshoe Formation." Written by a deployed and anonymous "U.S. Army Captain without a Formation."

• "Fear and Loathing in the Infantry." Written by another anonymous junior Army officer (?) downrange.

• "With a Bible in My Ruck." New York National Guard soldier Jonathan Raab's blog has been relatively quiet since his arrival in Kuwait. This may be due to difficulties in coming to an agreement with his command regarding his writing. Or it may have to do with his contracting mononucleosis, as indicated at his girlfriend's new blog. Either way, check out his April 22, 2012 "Daily Beast" essay regarding how soldiers downrange perceive service in Kuwait vs. service in Afghanistan.

• "The Duffel Blog." A satirical faux-news blog similar in tone to the The Onion, this tongue-in-cheeky site has quickly proven to be a free-fire zone of above-average barracks humor. They leave no boundary unbreeched, no button unpushed. In an April 23, 2012 item titled "National Guard unit takes wrong turn ...", for example, the site even reported that 1st Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (1-34th BCT) recently re-invaded Iraq!