Re-run: 25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas

Blog editor's note: This post originally appeared on the Red Bull Rising blog Dec. 25, 2014.

Earlier this month, I started a daily exercise using the following phrase as a writing prompt: "Day X of 25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas." My intent was to generate (mostly) new material, inspired by actual holiday happenings around the Sherpa family FOBstead. It was like writing tactical fortune cookies while channeling my inner Martha Stewart.

Listed below are collected all of the "25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas." (Thanks to the Facebook friends of Charlie Sherpa, who inadvertently served as a daily writers' workshop!) For fun, I've hyperlinked to some definitions and explanations. Best wishes to all for a safe and rewarding holiday!

1. "This is our Christmas tree. There are many like it, but this one is ours."

2. Poncho liner makes surprisingly effective field-expedient tree skirt.

3. Three cups of Peppermint chai before one talks of holiday business.

4. First test of homemade MICLIC rocket for deploying holiday lights across perimeter of FOB Sherpa. Essayons!

5. Tinsel works as a festive and fabulous ghillie suit. Chaffs a bit, though.

6. Lutefisk is the MRE omelet of the holiday-food world.

7. Ask your chaplain if she'll accommodate Saturnalia services on the 17th. 'Tis the season!

8. Lesson-learned: Infrared twinkle lights require night-vision egg-noggles.

9. "Over the river and through the woods" should not require a formal convoy clearance. An extraction plan, however, is recommended.

10. In the mailbox today: "Season's greetings from the IO section."

11. Glitter is a persistent agent. Deploy it wisely.

12. Tactical Advent wreath? Use IR chemlights as candles.

13. Mistletoe can also be ordered in bulk as a Class IV barrier material.

14. "We're dreaming of a Red Bull Christmas."

15. Sherpa kids initially not interested in crafting pine-cone birdfeeders using peanut butter and suet this past weekend. Told them we were making festive sticky bombs instead.

16. You know something? Engineer tape makes for some darned fancy ribbon!

17. "Treat Christmas like a Key Leader Engagement."

18. Santa's challenge coin is the one that rules them all.

19. Psyop section always has the best holiday music playlist. And they'll DJ.

20. Just like ACU trousers, Christmas stockings can be used as floatation devices in the unlikely event of a water landing. "Knowing is half the battle."

21. Notes and maps left for Santa should be red-light readable. Santa is tactical. And an aviator.

22. Roasting chestnuts by an open MRE heater is ... not recommended.

23. Trail camera mounted on Christmas tree. RC drones on stand-by. Sherpa kids have put Santa on the HVT list this year. Then again, like they say, "the jolly old elf also gets a vote."

24. Airborne Santa says: "Geroni-mo-ho-ho!"

25. Message of the day: "Peace on earth! Goodwill toward all personnel!"

Funny Veterans Video Launches: 'Soldiers Period'

A short Internet video featuring the opinions and experiences of women U.S. military veterans pulls no punches—period—particularly when it comes to a May 2015 RAND Corp. report, titled "Considerations for Integrating Women into Closed Occupations in the U.S. Special Operations."

The Not Suitable For Work (Unless You Work with Veterans) result is a hilarious mash-up of soldierly sensibilities—sort of like a Ranger Up! movie meets "The Vagina Monologues."

The video opens with an animated proposal to weaponize Premenstrual Syndrome (P.M.S.) by deploying platoons of hormonally synchronized soldiers. "Once synchronization has occurred, at the peak of PMS," the narration states, "these women warriors will be deployed as the fiercest fighting force in military history."

Later, four women veterans give voice to a collection of social media comments, delivering a blistering barrage of sarcasm and spit-takes. One of my favorites? The eminently quotable, "Watch out ISIS, here comes my vagina!"

The video released earlier today, Wed., Sept. 7, 2016. You can watch it FREE on Vimeo here:
http://vimeo.com/180313801. More background on the project is here.

The veteran cast includes those from the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm, through to Operation Iraqi Freedom. A press release from the video's directors reads, in part:

From athletes at the Olympics to these women warriors, women are going public about menstruation. The rawness of the women's responses reveals the misogynist nonsense they confronted while serving. Their responses were not scripted.

The short was directed by Patricia Lee Stotter and Marcia Rock, the film-making team that delivered the 2011 full-length documentary "Service: When Women Come Marching Home." That work eventually aired on more than 87 percent of PBS stations nationwide, and via the World channel. A bipartisan group of four women senators even hosted a screening of "Service" on Capitol Hill!

I wonder if anyone will have the ovaries to do the same with "Soldiers Period"?

Holiday Traditions: The Annotated '25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas'

Blog editor's note: This post originally appeared on the Red Bull Rising blog Dec. 25, 2014.

Earlier this month, I started a daily exercise using the following phrase as a writing prompt: "Day X of 25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas." My intent was to generate (mostly) new material, inspired by actual holiday happenings around the Sherpa family FOBstead. It was like writing tactical fortune cookies while channeling my inner Martha Stewart.

Listed below are collected all of the "25 Days of Sherpa Family Christmas." (Thanks to the Facebook friends of Charlie Sherpa, who inadvertently served as a daily writers' workshop!) For fun, I've hyperlinked to some definitions and explanations. Best wishes to all for a safe and rewarding holiday!

1. "This is our Christmas tree. There are many like it, but this one is ours."

2. Poncho liner makes surprisingly effective field-expedient tree skirt.

3. Three cups of Peppermint chai before one talks of holiday business.

4. First test of homemade MICLIC rocket for deploying holiday lights across perimeter of FOB Sherpa. Essayons!

5. Tinsel works as a festive and fabulous ghillie suit. Chaffs a bit, though.

6. Lutefisk is the MRE omelet of the holiday-food world.

7. Ask your chaplain if she'll accommodate Saturnalia services on the 17th. 'Tis the season!

8. Lesson-learned: Infrared twinkle lights require night-vision egg-noggles.

9. "Over the river and through the woods" should not require a formal convoy clearance. An extraction plan, however, is recommended.

10. In the mailbox today: "Season's greetings from the IO section."

11. Glitter is a persistent agent. Deploy it wisely.

12. Tactical Advent wreath? Use IR chemlights as candles.

13. Mistletoe can also be ordered in bulk as a Class IV barrier material.

14. "We're dreaming of a Red Bull Christmas."

15. Sherpa kids initially not interested in crafting pine-cone birdfeeders using peanut butter and suet this past weekend. Told them we were making festive sticky bombs instead.

16. You know something? Engineer tape makes for some darned fancy ribbon!

17. "Treat Christmas like a Key Leader Engagement."

18. Santa's challenge coin is the one that rules them all.

19. Psyop section always has the best holiday music playlist. And they'll DJ.

20. Just like ACU trousers, Christmas stockings can be used as floatation devices in the unlikely event of a water landing. "Knowing is half the battle."

21. Notes and maps left for Santa should be red-light readable. Santa is tactical. And an aviator.

22. Roasting chestnuts by an open MRE heater is ... not recommended.

23. Trail camera mounted on Christmas tree. RC drones on stand-by. Sherpa kids have put Santa on the HVT list this year. Then again, like they say, "the jolly old elf also gets a vote."

24. Airborne Santa says: "Geroni-mo-ho-ho!"

25. Message of the day: "Peace on earth! Goodwill toward all personnel!"

Another 100K Views, and a Sitrep on Mil-blogging Ops

The Red Bull Rising blogodometer recently turned over another 100,000 views, and, while I don't normally celebrate such arbitrary milestones, it seems like a good opportunity to take a breather—and to reflect on the current state of the greater mil-blogosphere.

Here's the quick historical context: Early in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "war-blogs" (later "mil-blogs") started as an exercise in citizen journalism for people in uniform, enabled by the popular technology of the time. Mil-blogs offered readers first-person perspectives on life in the military, whether on the front lines or the home front. As the trend matured, many blogs were collected into anthologies or reworked into books. After troops returned or retired from service, many blogs evolved into commentary on current events.

Many have argued that the popularity of blogging—and mil-blogging in particular—has declined in recent years. There is, admittedly, some evidence supporting such conclusions. For example, the last official Milblogging.com conference of bloggers was conducted in 2012, although some early practitioners still gather for informal reunions. Milblogging.com is owned by Military.com, which itself is part of Monster.com. Another Military.com holding, SpouseBUZZ, appears to be thriving in its service to military families.

More recently, the Milblogging.com index of military blogs has gone silent, and the founder's Twitter feed is similarly quiet.

Finally, as noted earlier this month, Doonesbury's "The Sandbox" mil-blog digest has gone into "archive" status, and is no longer updating with new content. Perhaps the reports of mil-blogging's demise are not unexaggerated?

In a blog-post titled "A Good Blog is Hard to Find: War Lit on the Web," Army officer and educator Peter Molin offers some great suggestions regarding mil-blogs focused on writing and creating art about war. Here's his Situation paragraph:

[I]n the years since [Colby] Buzzell’s My War and [Matt] Gallagher’s Kaboom galvanized Internet reading audiences the blog format’s luster has fizzled a bit and the Internet has changed structurally. In the face of competition from faster-moving, quicker-hitting social media forms such as Twitter and Facebook, it’s hard not for blogs to smell a little musty. As big money has upped the standards for web-based mass media and created plenty of outlets for the most distinctive voices, personal websites can seem quaint or a little bland. Still, they persist, reflecting and shaping popular opinion in a quieter, but still insistent vein.

Regarding war-lit, then, it may be a case of "the blog is dead, long live the blog!" Make sure to check out Molin's recommendations. (Disclosures: Molin explicitly mentions the Red Bull Rising blog in this post; and Molin's "Time Now" blog has long been featured in my own blog-roll, at right.)

As chronicled elsewhere, I started writing blog when I was preparing myself and my family for a deployment to Afghanistan. Part of my job in uniform involved fluency in blogging, social media, and other technological tools, and I decided to learn by doing. I started writing the Red Bull Rising blog in December 2009, but under a pseudonym, in order to avoid confusing my day job and my personal time.

In other words, I only started mil-blogging long after mil-blogging was cool. It was already past its peak. But it's not dead yet.

At writing and technology conferences, I've argued that "blogging" isn't necessarily a form of writing, any more than "newspapering." Rather, publishing a regular, first-person dispatch—call it an "online journal" if you will—continues to be a vital form of journalism, whether communicated via newsprint, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest. With other practitioners, I've taken to referring to the enterprise as "on-line journaling," with some success.

On-line journaling isn't dead.

Last year, Time magazine discontinued Mark Thompson's "Battleland," but the Washington Post recently launched "The Checkpoint." And the New York Times' "At War" blog continues to publish, despite the fact that Deputy National Editor James Dau has moved on to additional duties.

There's also been a recent boomlet of blogs focusing on military culture, policy, and analysis, often featuring a set of contributors. At Foreign Policy magazine, Tom Ricks' long-established "The Best Defense" blog is one of the more inclusive in terms of guest-editorial content, although the magazine's addition of a paywall seems to have decreased some of the utility of the free-wheeling comments section.

By, through, and with the younger turks, however, are venues such as "War on the Rocks" and "War Council Blog." A couple of others, "The Bridge" and "Point of Decision," notably take advantage of the Medium.com platform and format. All are blogs of curated and contributed editorial content, what Wikipedia labels as "social journalism."

Whatever you call it, and whatever your interest—politics, policy, literature, or the latest news—it seems that the practice of on-line journaling about the military is alive and well.

The mil-blog is dead! Long live the mil-blog! And, most of all, keep reading!

8 Ways You Can Support the Work of Artist-Veterans

From the Military Experience and the Arts on-line art gallery.

In a recent post on the Red Bull Rising blog, I described my recent acquisition of some original work drawn by Aaron Provost, an artist who happens to be a veteran. He's a working freelance illustrator, and I particularly like his military-themed stuff.

The visual arts are another way that veterans can help share stories, and bridge the civil-military divide.

When I boasted on-line about my new pencil drawing of an MRAP truck, I also asked others for their ideas on how else to help artist-veterans pursue their professions and their passions. Here's a start of a growing list of techniques, complete with examples:

1. Take artist-veterans seriously as artists. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Writing can be therapeutic, but it sure as heck ain't therapy." I think the same applies to the visual and other expressive arts. Yes, there are people doing great and healing art-therapy work in hospitals. And you can (and should) help support these efforts with your time, talent, and money. Don't assume, however, that every artist who happens to be a military veteran is somehow in need of healing, or is "just a hobbyist," or is limited in artistic vision, scope, or interest to expressing the experiences of war. Veterans have something to say, and it doesn't have to just be about the military.

2. Engage artist-veterans as artists first, veterans second. Travis Martin, founder of the non-profit organization Military Experience and the Arts, offers this suggestion: "Write reviews or informal reaction statements to show the veteran that they've seriously / critically examined his or her work and that they are willing to start a dialogue."That's great advice, and I plan to follow it. One caveat from Sherpa, however: "If you're face-to-face at an art show, however, don't monopolize an artist's time if you're not able to buy something yourself. Art-show time is money."

3. Feature the works of artist-veterans work in publications or websites. Previously reviewed on Red Bull Rising, The Pass In Review is a recently launched quarterly print and on-line journal that presents visual art in full-color glory, as well as fiction and poetry. The sophomore issue will soon be available for sale on-line, and it's pretty awesome. (Full disclosure: I'm a contributor.) In another example, Martin recently posted a virtual gallery of all the artwork featured in his organization's four on-line journals since 2012. Another caveat to would-be promoters, however: Make sure you first acquire copyrights and permissions from artists. When you can, try to pay them, even if it's just a token fee or honorarium.

4. Even if you're not a practitioner or publisher yourself, network with artists as a patron. In addition to the Facebook page of Martin's Military Experience and the Arts, you can "meet" artist-veterans via the social media pages of Veterans Artist Program, the Arts and the Military, and others. Offer them advice, encouragement, feedback ... or to buy them a coffee sometime.

5. Attend gallery openings, traveling art shows, and museum exhibitions. Sometimes, all you have to do be a supporter is to see and be seen. Here's the type of event to seek out: On May 23rd, there will be a reception for artist-veteran Rob Bates of Bates Illustration. His work is being shown at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's student union art gallery, May 15 to June 5, 2014. For more information, click here.

6. Create and participate in your local artist-veteran scene. Make spaces in which artist-veterans can meet, practice, and present their works. If you're in the Milwaukee area, contact the "Artful Warriors" at the Dryhootch coffee shop. Buy supplies for artist-veterans such as Denver's Curtis Bean, who are teaching art as therapy. Provide encouragement to artist-veterans, and engage other people about what's happening in veteran-generated art. In other words: Tell your friends.

7. Buy or commission artwork (or related merchandise) as an individual patron. More and more artists—from fine-art print-makers to web cartoonists, from woodworkers to sculptors—offer work for sale via on-line venues. Painter and mil-blogger Skip Rodhe, for example, recently wrote about establishing a sales-beachhead on Etsy. A group of artist-veterans in Maine banded together to set up an on-line arts and crafts shop. Original art too expensive? Provost uses an on-line fulfillment platform called Society6 to sell original art, prints and posters, coffee mugs, throw pillows, and more. The creator of the DoctrineMan!! web comic sells book-length collections via Amazon.com and coffee mugs via Zazzle. Art is like Justice Potter Stewart's quote about obscenity—I know it when I see it. And I think DoctrineMan!! certainly qualifies. (As art, I mean—not obscenity.)

8. Buy, commission, or recognize artwork by working within an organization. If you can't afford to buy art as an individual, perhaps you can work with your local library or museum foundation, veterans service organization, or other group to create opportunities to recognize and feature the work of artist-veterans. The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, for example, recently recognized a charcoal self-portrait by Oklahoma native Sarah Rothschild with its Colonel John W. Thomason Jr. Award. The work is now housed at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia.

Semper art!

'Fobbit' Author to Give Away Trio of War Memoirs

David Abrams, the sharp-witted former Army Public Affairs NCO who wrote the satirical Iraq War novel "Fobbit," is offering a FREE set of recent war-themed memoirs to the winner of his "Quivering Pen" blog's regular "Friday Freebie" contest. Despite the name of the contest, readers have until 12 midnight, Thurs., May 1 to enter.

Here's what he's got locked-and-loaded for a lucky reader:

• Adrian Bonenberger's "Afghan Post", which was previously reviewed on the Red Bull Rising blog here. Through a series of letters, Bonenberger tells of his development and deployment as a young U.S. Army officer.

• Ron Capps' "Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years," which was previously reviewed on the Red Bull Rising blog here. In a gripping series of essays, Capps' tells of his experiences downrange as both a U.S. Army officer and civilian Foreign Service Officer.

• Nathan Deuel's "Friday Was the Bomb: Five Years in the Middle East." In 2008, Deuel and his radio correspondent wife moved to Saudi Arabia to see what the Middle East was all about. While there, they had a daughter. Writes the publisher: "At once a meditation on fatherhood, an unusual memoir of a war correspondent's spouse, and a first-hand account from the front lines of the most historic events of recent days—the Arab Spring, the end of the Iraq war, and the unrest in Syria—Friday Was The Bomb is a searing collection of timely and absorbing essays."

Here are the rules for Abrams' contest, posted at his blog:

If you'd like a chance at winning a copy of Afghan Post, Friday Was the Bomb, and Seriously Not All Right, simply email your name and mailing address to:

thequiveringpen AT gmail.com

Put FRIDAY FREEBIE in the e-mail subject line. One entry per person, please. Despite its name, the Friday Freebie runs all week long and remains open to entries until midnight on May 1, at which time I’ll draw the winning name. I'll announce the lucky reader on May 2. If you’d like to join the mailing list for the once-a-week newsletter, simply add the words "Sign me up for the newsletter" in the body of your email. Your e-mail address and other personal information will never be sold or given to a third party (except in those instances where the publisher requires a mailing address for sending Friday Freebie winners copies of the book). 

Want to double your odds of winning? Get an extra entry in the contest by posting a link to this webpage on your blog, your Facebook wall or by tweeting it on Twitter. Once you’ve done any of those things, send me an additional e-mail saying "I’ve shared" and I'll put your name in the hat twice.

For the record, Abrams' "Fobbit" continues to be a must-read for soldiers who have been there, and for civilians who think we must be kidding.

The book was previously reviewed on the Red Bull Rising blog here.

Notes from the 2014 Great Plains Writers' Conference

The 2014 Great Plains Writers' Conference featured a discussion among

civil-military stakeholders on the campus of South Dakota State University. Photo: GPWC.

For three days, last week's 38th Annual Great Plains Writers' Conference in Brookings, S.D. delivered inspiring conversations around the theme of "Coming Home: War, Healing, and American Culture." The event took place on the campus of South Dakota State University.

The event was scheduled from Sunday evening, March 23 to Tuesday evening, March 25. Daytime sessions allowed students and faculty to take full advantage of visiting regional and national experts, and to present their own research and writing to the public. Session formats included panel discussions, authorial readings and how-tos, historical overviews, and more. Evenings featured longer-form readings by visiting authors. Via a blog, Facebook and Twitter, organizers posted insights and updates on-line.

My own notebook is full of takeaway tips and memorable moments:

Francis Whitebird, a Vietnam Veteran and 

son of Code Talker Noah Whitebird,

shows off pins that represent the wars

in which his family has fought. The top one

represents the Indian Wars, the last 

one Afghanistan and Iraq. Caption and photo 

by U.S. House of Representatives.

Vietnam War veteran Francis Whitebird and his sons Colin and Brandon, both veterans of the Iraq War, talked about the warrior tradition in their immediate family, and in the Rosebud Sioux tribe. The elder Whitebird talked of how his community would gather and celebrate departing soldiers. "They would sing them off, and then, they would feed everybody," he said. (The practice reminded me of National Guard send-off and homecoming ceremonies.)

Upon their return from war, veterans would be honored by seating them in groups, according to the conflicts in which they served. "In Lakota Country, we have songs about every war, and we had war songs about individuals. My aunt had one of them made up for me." Returning warriors could also take part in "centering" ceremonies, which would bring peace to themselves.

His sons now participate in tribal events as warriors themselves, connecting them to a larger history and culture. Said Connor, "Dad used to wake us up by singing Army Infantry cadences. How you grow up makes a difference. We had chores before school. We made our beds with hospital corners."

"After I got shot in the chest, I decided to go back [to Iraq.]," he continued. "It was a little bit of pride, but I was also thinking about the people who went before me."

*****

It was through a reading by Katey Schultz, author of "Flashes of War," that I came to understand the potential poetic connections of flash fiction and prose-poetry. Flash fiction is described as single-perspective stories that range in approximate length from 250 to 750 words. In her short fiction, Schultz, who has no direct connection to military service, has distilled words and observations into rounds that ring true and on target. The result is part poetry, part story-telling.

Schultz, by the way, also described her technique of generating story prompts from photos and other media. Check out a YouTube video here, which features some of the images she used as cues for short fiction.

*****

GPWC Twitter feed during Charlie Sherpa's presentation on
"Finding and Creating Opportunities in Writing about Military Life."

Founder of the non-profit Veterans Writing Project, Washington, D.C., Ron Capps noted that his organization welcomes participation by military family members, as well as current and past military service members. "Working with Special Forces, we had a saying: 'One is none,'" he said. "There always has to be a back-up. There always has to be a wingman. When you get out, particularly if you're in the National Guard or reserves, your family becomes your wingman."

*****

Rosalie Owens, an on-line course designer and creative-writing instructor for American Military University, noted that her class participants—many of whom currently serve in uniform overseas—recently asked that military ranks be dropped from class discussions. The implied hierarchies were getting in the way of good discussions and communications.

*****

One particularly notable panel brought together campus veterans coordinators, university officials and faculty, and military-science instructors. In that session, presenters considered questions such as:

• How could faculty incorporate military professional development reading lists (here's an example) into their curricula?

• How could military cadet and/or student-veterans use their skills and experiences to document South Dakota veterans' experiences, through writing or other media?

• Could departments or campus groups help establish reading circles or writing workshops to help breach the civil-military divide?

*****

In one evening's event, David Abrams ("Fobbit") and Patrick Hicks ("The Commandant of Lubizec") explored the surprisingly rich common ground between their respective works. Abrams' "Fobbit" (2012) is an Iraq War satire in the spirit and tone of Joseph Heller's novel "Catch 22" (1961).

Hicks' just-released historical novel is a dark and lyrical story of World War II extermination camps.

In short, one would have a hard time imagining two war-themed works more dissimilar than the Fobbit and the Commandant. The connection and comparison suggested by moderator Steven Wingate, however, was in each author's wrestling with the "euphemisms and engines of war." It was one of those magic moments that could only take place at a conference such as this, with creative and thoughtful people sitting face to face, exchanging ideas and insights.

*****

In the conference's culminating evening event, Ron Capps warmed up the crowd gathered for poet Brian Turner (2005's "Here, Bullet" and 2010's "Phantom Noise"). With self-deprecating humor, Capps said he felt his role was similar to that of George Thorogood, who opened for The Rolling Stones in the 1980s. Capps read selections from his upcoming memoir "Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years."

When Turner took the stage, he asked for the house lights to be brought up in the black-box space, creating an opportunity for more conversation. The poetry reading that followed was less rock concert, and more "MTV Unplugged"—alternating blasts of word-music with thought-provoking commentary. "How many have we lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," he asked during one interlude. "Now, what happens if I change the way I say that: How many have we lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?" The slight change in emphasis unlocked whole new layers of meaning.

*****

Disclosure: As a presenter myself at this year's event, my lodging and some land travel was underwritten by the 2014 Great Plains Writers' Conference. The next event is scheduled for March 22-24, 2015, and will explore literary themes and intersections with agriculture, ecology, environmental design, architecture, and more.

What Do You Call a Group of 'Blue Falcons'?

Doctrine Man!!

An off-handed remark last week on the Red Bull Rising blog generated some equally snarky results. In a status report on The Blue Falcon Review, an online journal of military fiction published by Military Experience & the Arts, we'd speculated about the apparent need for a creative collective term for more than one "Blue Falcon."

Given that the term is rather rude slang for a soldier who takes advantage of his or her buddies, calling such a group a "flock" of Blue Falcons seems a little ... less than appropriately colorful.

There are in the English language, after all, special collective nouns for specific types of animals. A "murder" of crows is one example. A "gaggle" of geese is another. The tradition of "nouns of Venery," according to Wikipedia (which is about as deep as we intend to research this sort of thing), stems from English and French hunting customs in the late Middle Ages.

As G.I. Joe used to say: "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle."

Here's an abridged list of possible collective nouns for Blue Falcons, as suggested by some of our usual "chatter" of Facebook friends and blog colleagues. Keep in mind, these are only the (relatively) family-friendly ones.

• A "Sinclair" of Blue Falcons [added March 21!]

• A "cluster" of Blue Falcons [added March 19!]

• A "congress" of Blue Falcons [added March 19!]

• A "cast" of Blue Falcons

• A "coup" of Blue Falcons

• A "screw" of Blue Falcons

• A "line-up" of Blue Falcons

• A "cackle" of Blue Falcons

• A "frack" of Blue Falcons

• A "jerk" of Blue Falcons

• A "plug" of Blue Falcons

• A "murder" of Blue Falcons

• A "malice" of Blue Falcons

• An "avarice" of Blue Falcons

• A "sphincter" of Blue Falcons

• A "sh--bag" of Blue Falcons

• A "Santorum" of Blue Falcons

The Blue Falcon Review, by the way, continues to gather submissions for its second volume of fiction written by military veterans and service members here. They're good people, whatever what you call them. The next volume is slated to be published in November.

Also, you can purchase Doctrine Man!! cartoon-character "Blue Falcon" stickers and coffee mugs at his "Lair of Mystery" store. Be a buddy, and buy some!

Writers' Event to Focus on 'War, Healing, and Culture'

The schedule for the 2014 Great Plains Writers' Conference, March 23-25, Brookings, S.D., has been published. The theme of this year's event, conducted since 1976 on the campus of South Dakota State University, is "Coming Home: War, Healing and American Culture." All events are free and open to the public except as noted.

A downloadable PDF of the schedule is available here.

The website for the event is here.

A Facebook page for the event is here.

*****

SUNDAY, MARCH 23 at South Dakota Art Museum

6:00 p.m. Invitational reception for campus and community military personnel 

7:00 p.m. Opening remarks, Larry Zimmerman, South Dakota Secretary of Veterans Affairs 

7:30 p.m. Screening of documentary film, "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (2007)

*****

MONDAY, MARCH 24 at Campanile Room and Hobo Day Gallery, Student Union 169

9:00 a.m. "Reading & Writing the American Indian Military Experience," Francis, Colin, and Brendan Whitebird 

10:00 a.m. "Home Fronts Then and Now," South Dakota State University instructor Amber Jensen and student Haley Wilson 

11:00 a.m. "Beyond PTSD: Stories of Reintegration," Brian Turner and Ron Capps 

1:00 p.m. "Inside/Out and Outside/In: Distilling the Personal in the Military Experience," David Abrams 

2:00 p.m. "On the State of Teaching Military Writing Today," Ron Capps  

3:00 p.m. "A Long Shadow: The Great War at 100," Patrick Hicks 

4:00 p.m. Oakwood literary journal presents 2014 prize-winners: Marcus Bear Eagle, Great Plains Emerging Tribal Writer Award; and Christine Starr Davis, Great Plains Emerging Writer Prize

7:00 p.m. David Abrams and Patrick Hicks: A reading and conversation. Reception follows

*****

TUESDAY, MARCH 25 at Campanile Room and Hobo Day Gallery, Student Union 169

9:00 a.m. "Film and Literature of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars," Jason McEntee and South Dakota State University graduate students 

10:00 a.m. "A Field Report: Teaching Creative Writing Online to Military Personnel," Rosalie Owens, American Military University 

11:00 a.m. "Finding and Creating Opportunities in Writing about Military Life," Randy Brown, military journalist 

1:00 p.m. "A Reading and Conversation on 'Flashes of War,'" Katey Schultz 

2:00 p.m. Planning Session and Discussion: "Creating a Military Writing Presence at South Dakota State University," Brig. Gen. Keith Corbett, Dean, College of General Studies; Col. Clarke Pleasants, Air Force ROTC; Lt. Col. Aaron Schultz, Army ROTC; South Dakota State University Coordinator of Veterans Affairs Brian Mahaffy; English faculty 

3:00 p.m. Celebration reading for the Jerome R. Norgren Poetry Contest and Paul Witherington Creative Writing Contest for South Dakota youth, reception follows

TUESDAY, MARCH 25 at Pioneer Room, Student Union 265

3:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. "Writing the Military Experience: A Hands-on Writing Session," conference guests and faculty

TUESDAY, MARCH 25 at Fishback Studio Theater, Performing Arts Center

7:30 p.m. Brian Turner: A reading and conversation. Reception follows

Did File Photo Reinforce the 'Unstable Vet' Meme?

Blog-editor's update: We just spoke via e-mail to Des Moines Register reporter Clark Kauffman, who is mentioned below. It turns out that, while not attributed to Robert McKevitt in the story as printed, the mention of his past (?) military service was apparently at McKevitt's own insistence. Given that information, the inclusion of the file photo makes sense. In other words—our words—the subject "played the veteran card" himself.

The potential lesson-learned for journalists (and mil-bloggers)? "Not all veterans are broken, but not all veterans are necessarily heroes, either."

That said, writers of all kinds should remain vigilant against both the positive and negative stereotypes of veterans returned from war.

*****

When the Des Moines (Iowa) Register ran a "man bites dog" weird-news story on the front page of its Thurs., Feb. 20 print edition, it also managed to reinforce the negative "hot-tempered, hair-triggered" stereotype of military veterans returned from war.

The story involved Robert McKevitt, 27, of Spirit Lake, who recently lost his unemployment benefits in a December 2013 administrative hearing. (Note: Not exactly breaking news.) In an incident that occurred on an unspecified date at his former employer's Milford, Iowa warehouse, McKevitt reportedly used an 8,000-pound forklift to shake loose a stuck vending-machine candy bar for which he had paid.

The news article, written by investigative reporter Clark Kauffman, is 9 column inches of empty journalistic calories: "It's a familiar tableau: an overpriced vending-machine candy bar dangles on a spiral hook [...]" the article starts. "For most of us, that mini-drama usually ends in defeat. But not for Robert McKevitt of Spirit Lake, whose victory over an uncooperative vending machine ultimately cost him his job."

The print edition went with the straight-laced headline: "Iowan loses cool, job over vending machine."

The on-line edition played it with more snark: "The Twix bar, the forklift, and the fired Iowan." (See also partial screen capture, above.)

The story goes on, but the details are unimportant for the purposes of this discussion. The employer says McKevitt shook the machine and then dropped it with the fork lift. McKevitt says he carefully put the vending machine back against the wall. Either way, he was fired. Fork lifts are dangerous, and vending machines are dangerous, and employers can't afford employees who willfully create dangerous situations. The Red Bull Rising blog does not endorse the misuse of large power equipment. Even if it sounds funny in the papers.

The trouble is, the Des Moines Register also went out of its way to point out that McKevitt is a military veteran.

It did so because editors had a file photo of McKevitt, taken during his 2010-2011 deployment to Afghanistan along with 3,000 other citizen-soldiers of the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division. So they ran the photo of him, in patrol cap and combat uniform, talking with an civilian at an unspecified Forward Operating Base ("FOB").

The grip of McKevitt's pistol is cropped out in the print edition, but remains in the on-line version. The photo is two-thirds the size of the article's total text.

Kauffman's article also mentions McKevitt's service, probably to make the connection to the adjacent file photo. The article does not confirm whether McKevitt is still a member of the Iowa National Guard, however. It also does not seek to investigate or explain his unusual behavior in any way.

Instead, in words and pictures, the reader is left with the impression that McKevitt's past military service is somehow relevant to the behavior that resulted in his termination. Negative stereotype of veterans as "ticking time bombs"? Confirmed.

Because words matter. And pictures matter even more.

Don't think that veterans are negatively stereotyped? More on that in a minute.

Here's the dilemma presented by this article:

• If McKevitt's status as a veteran is relevant to the story, why make no attempt to constructively address the potential mental-health or cultural implications of veterans returned from deployment?

• If McKevitt's status as a veteran is NOT relevant to the story, then why was the misleading and provocative photo even included? Remember that at least one editor must have waved a yellow flag of caution prior to publication—the weapon in the photo, after all, was cropped out. The photo could have been cropped to just his face. Or, better yet—not used at all.

Kauffman, by the way, is a 2005 Pulitzer finalist, and a past health care reporter for the newspaper. His health-care expertise no doubt got over-ridden at the editorial level. Certainly, his copy in this instance—even given its light-hearted, light-on-news flaws—deserved better treatment than the way it was presented on page.

So did the past work of his Register colleagues, Tony Leys and Rodney White, who embedded with Iowa's 2-34th BCT multiple times during more than a year of coverage, including a few weeks in Afghanistan.

And so, ultimately, did the Register's readers. And the readers of its sister publications. Notably, the latter includes those that specifically serve military audiences.

It turns out that, because of the photograph, another Gannett-owned newspaper picked up the story. The Army Times ran it with the headline, "Guard member fired after using forklift to retrieve Twix from vending machine." (See partial screen capture, left.)

Still think the choice of photo was irrelevant, and not a slur against citizen-soldiers? The Army Times wouldn't have run the article without a military "connection." Its readers, however, were smarter than that. Here's what a couple of Army Times readers wrote in comments:

"This story has nothing to do with the National Guard. Attaching this story to the fact that he is in the National Guard is pointless." 

"The fact that this employee happened to be in the Guard has no relevance to his civilian employment and thus this story. Stop the Guard bashing."

Back at the Register's on-line story, an Iowa reader wrote: "If a story involves a U.S. veteran, his/her status as a U.S. veteran is relevant in any story regarding employment; in this 'improving' economy, veterans are having an extremely difficult time finding jobs."

Yep. And depicting them as potentially crazy, aggressive, or dangerous doesn't exactly help in the hiring progress, does it?

Of course, some editors might argue that, in the present age of "Support Your Troops" and "Thank You for Your Service," a negative stereotype of veterans can't possibly exist. A file photo of a soldier can't be any different than that of a coach or a teacher, right? This veteran disagrees. So do a couple of Army Times readers.

Others might argue that it was obviously a slow news day, and that the candy-bar article was meant to be read with a snicker, and that veterans should lighten up. After all, didn't readers also see that story Altoona reporter Timothy Meinch, the one that ran on page 4A of the same issue yesterday? "Veterans center celebrates move with ribbon-cutting." See? The Register loves and understands veterans!

Except that the "veteran loses cool, uses forklift to get candy bar" story was front-page news, not page 4A. Editors made that decision, too. Important stuff goes to the front.

Still, the candy bar story reached No. 2 "most popular" on the newspaper's website Thursday. Editors must have known what they were doing.

Final questions:

Would the Register's editors have so blithely mentioned out-of-context an unusually behaving individual's past military service, if the 8,000-pound forklift been a weapon of some sort?

Suppose there's a hypothetical incident of domestic or workplace violence sometime in the future, and someone involved just happens to be a veteran. Are the Register's editors canny enough to use that as teachable moment? To educate readers on issues like mental health, workplace violence, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)? Or are they just going to jump to conclusions—or worse, cheap laughs?

Here's the short answer: Wait and see. Just don't be the veteran who loses his cool.

TV Review: Fox's 'Enlisted' Sitcom Debuts Fri., Jan. 10

Back before the wars—it was the 1990s—I was part of a great team of Army communications soldiers working in an Iowa National Guard engineer unit. We had a crusty section sergeant who had come up through the field artillery, who made us watch "MASH" (1970) as an annual training film. The team also liked to listen to NASCAR races on the radio, and to call up absent team members to play "what's that smell?" A good sense of humor will get you through a lot; a shared appreciation of absurdity will get you through even more.

So I was surprised when I asked Sgt. Mike his opinion of "Three Kings" (1999), a favorite movie of mine. Set during the Gulf War, it's an eclectic mix between a war and bank heist movie—sort of an updated "Kelly's Heroes" (1970). Mike had been in Iraq, after he'd enlisted into the active-duty Army. I figured "Three Kings" was right up his A-frame. I was wrong.

"Stupid movie," he said. "It made us all look like a bunch of fools."

Last summer, I had a similar experience when I posted via social media the official teaser to the TV series "Enlisted." I'd been hungry for a new ration of military comedy, and I thought it looked promising. Many of my Army buddies and Facebook friends, however, took it personally. They hated it with a passion like Thermite.

That's when I realized that, when less than 1 percent of a society's population serves in the military, the whole thing regarding the difference between "laughing with" and "laughing at" takes on orders of magnitude.

Enter the Sgt. Mike Test: "If you're not laughing with us, you're laughing against us."

The Fox TV Network sitcom "Enlisted" debuts this Fri, Jan. 10, at 9:30 p.m. EST/8:30 p.m. CST. If things like lack of proper haircuts, headgear, uniform, and military bearing drive you the bad kind of crazy, you probably won't get past the pilot. And that's too bad, because some of its producers are pursuing surprisingly noble purposes, as well as few laughs.

In press materials, show creator Kevin Biegel writes:

I don't believe you can do a show about the military in 2014 and not deal with things like PTSD or losing a loved one. We have to write about those things, they have to be part of this world. Both because it's the right thing to do, and because its my duty to be respectful to the men and women who do this job. I'm embarrassed we got some technical stuff wrong in the pilot, but I think you'll see we course-corrected and got squared away very quickly.

The official website for the "Enlisted" TV show is here. A Facebook page for the TV show is here. The original teaser trailer is posted below, and at this YouTube link.

The story follows three biological brothers assigned to the same rear-detachment unit, the fictional 18th Infantry Division at the equally fictional Fort McGee (aka "Fort McGeezer"), Fla. Infantry soldier Pete Hill (Geoff Stults) got kicked to the rear after punching a TOC-roach field-grade in the face while downrange in Afghanistan. Snarky middle-brother Derrick Hill (Chris Lowell) joined the Army just to look out for the youngest of the three, the energetic but often wildly inaccurate and inappropriate Randy Hill (Parker Young).

The plot of the pilot feels similar to those of "Stripes" (1981) or "Major Payne" (1995): A ragtag group of nerds, ne'er-do-wells, and screw-ups decides to play by its own rules to disrupt an antagonist's prized war games.

There's a shaggy-dog-story twist, but it's probably still not enough to make up for the behavioral problems, technical errors, and uniform infractions breezily depicted in the pilot. Seriously, we're not talking about missing Reflective Safety Belts. We're talking about soldiers walking around in public with blouses unzipped and no headgear in sight. While waiting to greet their soldier brother, back from Afghanistan. They look like fools, and not in a funny way.

The pilot decidedly does NOT pass the Sgt. Mike Test.

After the pilot, however, the producers apparently brought in some consultants. Episodes 2 and 3 show improvements, although it's still not quite "squared away." Better to say that it's moved slightly beyond the "crawl" stage of the familiar "crawl, walk, and run." By Episode 4, it might have begun limping its way to greatness.

Every storytelling exercise is a negotiation, between what works to entertain and inform, and what just gets in the way. Packing a narrative into a TV show or movie (I'm looking at you, "Lone Survivor") is like packing a rucksack: Some things are going to be left behind.

Bottom line: Soldiers and veterans are more likely to enjoy early episodes of "Enlisted," but only if they squint past some of the storytelling. For example, Episode 2 ("Randy Get Your Gun," airing Jan. 17) tells a funny story about how middle-sibling Derrick must convince his younger brother not to imagine those paper targets as real people, in order that Randy might pass his annual rifle qualification. To get to the punchline, however, viewers will have to get past seeing a zero range that's run more like a carnival game: Unlimited ammunition! No safeties!

Veterans will also likely recognize the barracks hijinks of their youths in Episode 3 ("Prank War," airing Jan. 24). To do so, however, they'll have to mentally replace the idea of a unit guidon—a foreign concept to TV-watching civilians—with a particularly embarrassing "platoon flag" designed by Randy Hill.

These MIGHT pass the Sgt. Mike Test—IF he was to be convinced that the shows' intended comedic target was "Stupid Stuff that Soldiers Do," rather than "Stupid, Stupid Soldiers."

Episode 4 ("Pete's Airstream," February date TBD) finally takes a shot at the higher stakes mentioned in Biegel's press release. Oldest brother Pete Hill suddenly seeks solitude by living in a trailer off-post. While the urge doesn't feel completely earned—there is a suggestion-without-explanation that he is suffering from PTSD—the platoon's eventual response is sweet, appropriate, and right on target.

The danger, of course, is that dealing so lightly with heavy topics might con the public into thinking that problems like PTSD can go away after 22 minutes of laughs. You know, like some sort of military "Facts of Life" (1979).

If "Enlisted" is really in it for the long haul and the good fight, however—and if it's given a chance by veterans, viewers, and network viziers—it could do some real good in the world. It could help fill in some of that civil-military divide. It could help prove, once again, that "humor is a combat multiplier" (No. 26).

And THAT would make Sgt. Mike very happy.

*****

Disclaimer: A preview DVD of four "Enlisted" episodes was provided to the Red Bull Rising blog for review purposes. The original trailer is posted below.

Your Pre-Veterans Day Weekend Safety Brief

Listen up, veterans! You don't like listening to them, and I don't like giving them. But we've got a long weekend coming up, and you know the drill. Besides, it's not like it's supposed to a big party like St. Patrick's Day or Carnival, for criminey's sake! It's Veterans Day: Keep your pants on and your $#@! together!

Here's a packing-list of some suggested tips, tools, and techniques. As always, take what you need, leave the rest:

1. Don't be an "angry vet." If someone randomly thanks you for your service, or welcomes you home, say "thank you"—even if you don't feel like it, even if you're "not a hero," even if you were just doing your job and happy to take the paycheck. If nothing else, say "thank you" on behalf of your buddies—particularly the ones who aren't there to take the praise themselves. You know who they are. You know where they are. Be humbled that someone in this allegedly grateful nation still gives a @#$!.

2. Avoid initiating unnecessary friendly-fire missions. If you see some rag-bag who's wearing a uniform that looks like soup—so that he can get a free sandwich or cookie, no doubt—use good judgment before you engage him. In fact, maybe you don't need to confront him at all. He might just be legit. He might be homeless. He might be mentally ill. Everybody has their own war. Don't make others' any worse.

3. Don't assume that women aren't veterans, too. You know better.

4. Dine responsibly. You don't have to take every deal and discount. Think hard about accepting gratitude, particularly when it comes from faceless corporations. Don't reward people who pencil-whip their patriotism. Freedom isn't free, and neither is lunch. Bonus tip: Remember to tip your waitstaff, regardless of how much money you didn't pay for a meal. After all, they're working on your holiday. Thank them for their service.

5. Don't get into any bad-humored urination competitions. That includes jags and jihads such as "pogues vs grunts," "geeks vs. jocks," and "whose deployment sucked more." You know better.

6. Look for teachable targets of opportunity. If someone asks you about your service, have a short and courteous answer prepared. If a child asks you why you're wearing a poppy, stop and talk with them. If someone doesn't know the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day, don't make them feel bad when they ask for clarification. Tolerate unnecessary apostrophes. Be polite, be professional: You still represent the tribe, even if you no longer wear the uniform.

7. Check in with a buddy. Back in my day, we didn't have "battle buddies." We had "bunk buddies," until people figured out how stupid that sounded. Having a "battle" or "Boot Camp Friends Forever" or whatever doesn't sound much better. Now, I don't care what you call them, but it's time we start a new tradition: That guy or gal with whom you spent the worst and best days of your life downrange? Call them this weekend. Do a radio-check. See how they're doing. Compare notes. Count your mutual blessings, wounds, or remaining ammunition. Ask if they need anything, and if you can help. Most of all, however, tell them thanks. Because, coming from you, that still means something.