Poetry Book Review: 'Uniform' by Lisa Stice

Book Review: 'Uniform' by Lisa Stice

Lisa Stice is my favorite kind of war poet: One who interrogates differences among civilian, service member, and spouse. One who offers explanations, as well as explorations. One who constructs bridges with curiosity and compassion, but who remains clear-eyed and short-form in her engineering.

Stice is a U.S. Marine spouse. An equal partner in patriotism. A practical shield-maiden. In a poem titled "On Duty," she writes …

walk on your Marine's left side

the protected place
opposite the theoretical sword

you may hold his left hand
if he's not in uniform […]

be his shining medal
always faithful

to love all things holy
in this sacred institution

be respectful and kind
in your wooden fearlessness.

Reading her words, she's definitely someone want you'd want to have fighting on your side—if not in same foxhole, then at the same table at one of those insufferable military formal dinners. She's got a keen eye for observed detail and custom, a bayonet-sharp sense of snark, and a field-stripped ability with the written word and line break. I want to sit with her, near the punch bowl, and lob thought grenades into the night.

"I am married to the Marine Corps," Stice briefs in a one-page introduction to her poetry collection "Uniform," published earlier this year by Aldrich Press. "It's quite a different sort of marriage than the one with my husband, who was already a Marine when we married […]" She continues:

The Corps culture promotes silence and leaves little to no room for compromise. I understand that some silences are justified within the Corps, like not disclosing where and when my husband will deploy […] Other silences I do not understand. For Marines and their families, speaking up about frustrations is viewed as unsupportive and, sometimes, as unpatriotic. My husband can even face consequences for my speaking up.

I would like to begin the long-needed conversation …

Stice often experiments with something akin to erasure poetry, stringing together phrases not entirely unravelled from their original contexts. In a timely poem titled "Concerning Politics," for example, she collects threads of officious advice regarding acceptable Corps behaviors. Note how the breaks create poetry out of the prosaic, and how the last line lands with a boom:

[…] no campaigning for partisan candidates
no fundraising activities or canvasing
no service in clubs or speeches at gatherings
no uniforms when acting as spectator

partisan posters and signs should not
be visible to the public at your residence
take care not to post or link material
with opinions about public officials

but you may vote for whomever you choose.

In approximately 50 poems, three sections, and little more than 80 pages, Stice distills life on the home front of a military marriage before, during, and after deployment. Stice plays deftly with language and layered-meaning, and just as proficiently with sparse jargon and vocabulary. Her work is accessible and her impacts immediate. Her rounds are on target. These are poems that help illuminate what military life is like—without glorification, and with plenty of humor. Any one of her poems would be the start to a beautiful and useful conversation.

I leave you with a personal favorite, titled "Hush-a-Bye." Again, watch how she rocks the breaks. Again, listen for the (distant) boom:

26 miles away
Marines play drums:
missiles and mortars.
My heart,
my daughter's breath
our rocking
fall in with the
cadence—
at ease.

Re-run: 'Dude Ranch' or 'Forward Operating Base'?

The writer of the Red Bull Rising blog is still on family vacation maneuvers at an undisclosed training area, somewhere in the Middle West. This re-post from June 2014 seemed applicable:

Back in 2012, I wrote a post comparing and contrasting "Summer Camp"—what old citizen-soldiers in the National Guard still jokingly call annual military training—with "summer camping."

Recently, the Sherpa clan rounded up the extended family for a week's vacation in southeastern Arizona. Soon after getting boots on ground—faster than you can say "Huachuca"—I began to notice potential comparisons between daily life on a Dude Ranch, and that of living on a Forward Operating Base ("FOB") downrange.

In other words, I felt right at home.

Here are a few of my notes:

*****

LOCAL EATERIES

• If you are eating regularly in a "chow hall," you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are eating regularly in a "dining facility," you are on a FOB.

*****

INDIGINOUS FAUNA

• If you are on constant lookout for rattlesnakes, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are on constant lookout for camel spiders, you are on a FOB.

*****

REQUIRED HEAD GEAR

• If you observe people who are playing cowboy wearing white Stetsons, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you observe people who are playing cowboy wearing black Stetsons, you are on a FOB.

*****

LITTLE PINK HOUSES

• If you are living in a pink building and shooting at tin cans, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are working in a pink building and living in a tin can while other people shoot at you, you are on a FOB.

*****

BARREL ROLES

• If "clearing barrel" means executing a successful maneuver on horseback, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If "clearing barrel" means a safety device into which you pull a trigger, you are on a FOB.

• Bonus tip: If "Trigger" is your horse, you are on a Dude Range.

*****

WATER POINTS

• If drinking water is plentifully supplied in plastic bottles, you could be on either a Dude Ranch or a FOB ...

• If the plastic bottles are re-supplied daily by Housekeeping to your room's refrigerator, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If the plastic bottles are stored in bulk and located under a plywood lean-to near a corner of your building's exterior, you are on a FOB.

• Bonus tip: If there is an ice machine where those bulk plastic water bottles would be located on a FOB, you are on a Dude Ranch.

*****

FRIENDLY SKIES

• If there are A-10s flying overhead, you could be on either a Dude Ranch or a FOB ...

• If the A-10s sound friendly and outgoing, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If the A-10s sound angry, you are on a FOB.

Sherpa's Rules of Engagement for Veterans Day

Meme courtesy of the Internet

Call it a safety briefing, or some half-baked Sherpatudes, or just some friendly advice ... Here are few truths and truisms to keep in mind this November 11th. Take what you can use, leave the rest:

1. Crossing the civil-military divide means meeting people halfway. Free appetizers and utterances of "thank you for your service" represent, in most cases, sincere and heartfelt attempts by civilians to bridge that gap. Don't make them work too hard. Don't put obstacles in their way. At least they're trying.
   
   
2. You're a veteran now. Be civil.
   
   
3. Remember how we were once supposed to win "hearts and minds" in someone else's country? Veterans day is about the hearts and minds of your fellow citizens. Don't screw it up.
   
   
4. Have a response plan. What are you going to say when someone says, "Thank you for your service"? Be gracious. Be polite. Be concise. One of my go-to phrases? "It was an honor to serve."
   
   
5. If someone calls you a "hero," let it go unremarked. Yes, you may not feel like a hero. You may, like other veterans, reserve that particular term for those who have been formally recognized for valor, or for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Being someone's hero isn't about you, however. It's about the other person. Everyone has their own war; everyone chooses their own heroes.
   
   
6. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If someone—an individual or a business—picks up your tab, make sure you still tip your waiter or waitress. Thank them for their service.
   
   
7. "All you can eat" doesn't mean you should.
   
   
8. Don't be pedantic. Yes, Veterans Day is technically for celebrating those who have served in the U.S. military. Memorial Day is about remembering those who have died in military service to their country. And Armed Forces Day is about celebrating those who currently serve. You don't have to put your inner drill sergeant on display, however, every time someone doesn't say something in exactly the right way.
   
   
9. "Pedantic" means "precise, exact, perfectionist, punctilious, meticulous, fussy, fastidious, finicky, dogmatic, purist, literalist, literalistic, formalist, casuistic, sophistic, captious, hair-splitting, quibbling, nitpicking, persnickety." Don't be that guy.
   
   
10. You know who's "pedantic," by the way? The freaking Taliban.
    
    
11. There is no apostrophe in "Veterans Day," but you don't need to get all grammar Nazi about punctuation. If you fought to protect the First Amendment, you also fought for someone's right to express themselves' incorrectly.
    
    
12. Know that there are different definitions of "veteran," by state law, federal agency, and organizational custom. In active-duty military culture, a "veteran" is often thought of as someone who is no longer in uniformed service. I've heard current service members argue up and down that they are not "veterans." In the National Guard and Reserve, however, a "veteran" may be legally defined as someone who has deployed overseas for a period longer than 6 months. Yes, they get a DD-214. (Former guard and reserve members who have retired from the military, usually after 20 or more years of service, are also labeled veterans, regardless of overseas deployment.)
    
    
13. Don't ask to see someone's DD-214.
    
    
14. Don't ask to see someone's military ID.
    
    
15. Basically, don't be a dick.
    
    
16. Veteran Outrage Syndrome is real. Know the signs, in yourself and in others.
    
    
17. Don't be anti-social on social media.
    
    
18. If you suspect that someone is wearing a uniform in public inappropriately, perhaps to collect on the offer of a free hero sandwich or falafel, take a knee and a deep breath and a big swig of water. Count to ten. If you still feel the need to make a citizen's correction, do so discretely and without making a scene. Don't threaten to call the police. Don't make physical contact. Don't engage in verbal abuse, public shaming, or witch-burning. You're better than that. We're all better than that. If we're not, the terrorists win.
    
    
19. Most important: Perform your buddy checks and maintenance before, during, and after Veterans Day operations. Not all who wander are lost. Not all who served are broken. But it never hurts to ask if someone is doing OK.
    

Update: New Deadline for 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Book

This Red Bull Rising blog-post originally appeared on Feb. 3, 2014. The new deadline for submitting to this anthology project is Oct. 1, 2015.

PHOTO: Vicki Hudson

The phrase "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was used to describe the 1993 U.S. Department of Defense policy that discouraged gay Americans in uniform from openly acknowledging their sexualities. The policy remained in place until Sept. 20, 2011.

In a new anthology, editor, poet, photographer, and 33-year U.S. Army veteran Vicki Hudson has taken on the mission to collect stories of the aftermath of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The book is tentatively titled "Repeal Day—September 20, 2011, When DADT Became History."

"The Repeal Day collection is meant to tell the story of what was that first year was like, from the moment the repeal was finally 'live' and all through that first year," Hudson says via e-mail interview.

"I want to acknowledge the courage for those in the military that first year that went ahead and came out," she says. "The repeal did not change culture in an instant, and those that were out in the beginning were breaking down huge barriers. Their families, their comrades in units, their commanders all have some part to tell."

To further inspire writers, the Submittable page for the project is peppered with potential prompts:

• Did you take part in a celebration, make a point of coming out to those you work with, do a small yet significant or symbolic action (like try and update your DD 93 with a change of ‘friend’ to ‘spouse’) that marked the requirement from forced in the closet to finally able to be yourself and true about those who are your family?

• What is your story of how you experienced Repeal Day? What was the significance of the day for you and your family? How does the repeal affect you?

• In the months following September 20th, what was life like for you in the service? What was your experience in that first year? What are your thoughts, opinions, emotions, and observations for you and your family during this historic first year when LGBT service members were finally visible?

• Are you an ally? What was your experience of your compatriots no longer having to hide? Were you a leader? How did this impact your unit or leader responsibilities?

Deadline for submitting to the anthology is [NEW DEADLINE: Oct. 1, 2015]. Hudson seeks essays from 700 to 7,500 words in length. As an editor, she is willing to work not only with experienced writes, but also those who are still developing their own voices.

"As an editor, you aren't just asking for stories and then you print whatever shows up in the mail box," Hudson says of creating, collecting, and publishing anthologies. "Often, what I have received are short snippets of an experience well written in military writing style. [...] Part of my role as the editor is help that story be fleshed out a bit, and bring the person who had the experience more present in the story. This helps make the recounting of a memory turn into a compelling narrative which reflects and resonates for the reader."

The project will acquire first-time world anthology rights in English and translation, as well as audio and e-book anthology rights. Beyond that, writers retain copyright to their works, although mentions in any future publication of a given work would be appreciated.

For a full set of guidelines, click here. Submissions may be made electronically here, or via postal mail:

MRD c/o Hudson
P.O. Box 387
Hayward, Calif. 94543

Hudson has a history of encouraging writers to creatively and honestly take on tough topics, and resourcing her fellow editors to do likewise.

Hudson is also author of 2012's "No Red Pen: Writers, Writing Groups & Critique,"
a cargo-pocket-sized manual that's packed with tactics, tools, and techniques for optimizing workshop processes.

In 2016, Hudson plans to collect an anthology of poetry and prose focused on a theme of military clothing and gear.

'War Stories' Comic Now Tracks '73 Israeli Tank Crew

"War Stories" No. 4 from Avatar Press, wrap-around cover variant

In addition to more fantastic stories featuring such characters as Nick Furyand The Punisher, comic-book writer Garth Ennis has a long personal history of telling gritty, realistic, and fact-filled tales of war.

There are, for example, two four-issue mini-series with the title "War Stories," published by Vertigo in 2001 and 2003. And there are more than eight collected volumes of his "Battlefields" series, published by Dynamite Entertainment starting in 2008—each comprising quirky, fact-filled stories about lesser-known aspects of history, driven by memorable characters.

In three of those "Battlefields" volumes, for example, appeared stories of British tank crews, each headed by a veteran sergeant whose Tyneside dialect was thicker than the armor that protected them.

Seriously, Sgt. Stiles's dialogue is harder to interpret than reading Shakespeare. But much more fun.

The crew appears in three series or volumes, each written by Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra:

• "The Tankies" (Battlefields, Vol. 1): Cpl. Stiles and his crew man a British Churchill tank during the battle for Normandy.

• "The Firefly and His Majesty" (Battlefields, Vol. 5): Sgt. Stiles and a new crew man a new Sherman Firefly—no longer always outgunned, but still not a match for the German King Tiger that lies in wait for the Allied advance.

• "The Green Fields Beyond" (Battlefields, Vol. 10): World War II veteran Stiles continues fights on in the Korean War, as part of a Centurion tank crew assigned to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

The armored pedigree is important, insofar that it demonstrates not only that Ennis knows his way around a story, but that he knows his way around a tank as well. This is fiction, but fiction with a point—and the point is to illuminate history. Ennis aims toward realism, not sensationalism. These are not books for children.

"War Stories" No. 4, standard cover

Now arrives from Ennis a newly launched "War Stories" series, this time published by Avatar Press. In issue No. 4, on stands Jan. 7, starts "Children of Israel," a 3-part story of an Israeli tank crew on the Golan Heights in early October, 1973. The artist is Tomas Aira, who delivers serviceably expressive characters, along with technically appropriate military equipment. Nothing kills a war comic like in inaccurately rendered weapons.

The tank is again a Centurion, but its commander is a yet-unnamed sergeant who was a boy during World War II. The character remembers seeing the inside of a German tank—most likely a Panzer III—while living the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as being liberated by Soviet T-34s in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The first issue is heavy with exposition, but Ennis makes it all clank together nicely. The sergeant talks with his captain about the current strategic and political terrain. The latter has helpfully drawn a map in the sand for some visiting journalists. "You shouldn't talk to reporters, Captain," the sergeant advises. "It only encourages them."

The sergeant also talks about his crew, made up of reservists with no previous experience of war. In NCO staccato, he observes:

Chaim's the driver, a little bullet of a man from Nazareth. Not much seems to shake him [...] Gunner Daniel is a lethal shot, but lacks imagination. Independent action is beyond him. He'll never be promoted, never wonder why. The loader, Shlomo, is a nervous wreck.

Given the approachable ways that Ennis communicates military history, one hopes that he continues his armored march toward present day.

The "War Stories" series is currently only available in monthly issues. Check your local comic store, or on-line retailers. or digitally via Comixology. Note that there are multiple variant covers.

A FOB-themed Eatery? 'Welcome to T.G.I. FUBAR's™!'

No joke. Chris and Daisy Oswalt plan to open a FOB-themed restaurant near 

Camp Pendelton, Calif.

In a news report recently highlighted by author David Abrams' ("Fobbit") official Facebook page, former Lousiana National Guard soldier Daisy Oswalt and her husband Chris discussed their plans to open a military-themed restaurant near Camp Pendleton, Calif. The "FOB Bunker Bar and Grill" will serve items such as burgers, fried fish, and (wait for it) "M-WRAP" sandwiches, "Napalm nachos," and homemade Meals, Ready to Eat (M.R.E.).

The acronym "FOB" stands for "Forward Operating Base."

"We’re about the survivors, the guys who went through hell," Chris Oswalt told the Marine Corps Times. "For this generation of desert warrior, they’re going to see a lot of the things from the FOB to make it like home as much as possible."

Sounds great, except for the fact that you don't want a FOB-themed restaurant to seem like home. If anything, you want it to feel like a FOB! That, and that a FOB isn't so much of a hell, as much as it is a pergatory.

Here are some of our suggestions to help take this casual-dining-under-fire concept to the next level:

• Staff will make announcements of birthdays and incoming mortar rounds over a Big Voice loudspeaker, which long-time patrons will come to ignore.

• Retired sergeants major will serve as maitres d'. No one will spell the plural of either term correctly.

• "No blouse? No boots? No prior service."

• Drive-through lane will randomly close for 1 to 3 hours each day, while customers await arrival of Explosive Ordinance Disposal (E.O.D.) to declare the route safe.

• "Try our Boomin' Onion(tm)!"

• Complimentary service of "disinfected / non-potable" water; ration of 2 lbs. of ice per customer per day.

• Complimentary MRE crackers at table. Under no circumstances should these be taken internally.

• "We proudly serve Green Beans coffee!"

• Take-out containers will be Styrofoam clamshells. Non-uniformed personnel will not be authorized take-out.

• Catering by Mermite available upon request, not less than 72 hours in advance.

• "Do you want live-fires with that?"

• Dining room patrons will be required to open-carry an unloaded and cleared weapon at all times.

• Reflective Safety Belts will also be required. Especially in front of the salad bar.

• Big-screen televisions will display patrons' favorite sports events via Armed Forces Network. All air-times will be offset 13.5 hours.

• Restrooms will consist of portable chemical latrines and hand-washing stations.

• Kitchen personnel will wear hair nets and "beard arresters."

• "Warning: Pork chops contain pork."

• Battle captains and NCOs will be entitled to "buy-one, get-one" special on so-called "TOC-O Tuesdays."

• "Join us for salsa dancing Saturday!"

What should we to call our new restaurant enterprise? Here are a few ideas we're knocking around:

• "T.G.I. FUBAR's"

• "Kentucky FOB Chicken"

• "Iraqibee's"

• "Hard TOC Café"

• "Groundhog Dave's"

• "Red Lobster Rising"

• "There-and-backagain's"

And, finally, our current favorite:

• "Hooah-ters"

Mil-Poetry Review: 'Bangalore' by Kerry James Evans

'Bangalore' by Kerry James Evans

In addition to writing some military-themed poetry of my own (here and there), I've recently begun buying and borrowing whole collections of the stuff. The practice is similar, I suppose, to my purchase of comic books. Comics are short, fun to read, but often wrestle provocatively with matters of mythologies, both personal and political.

Consuming poetry is similarly easy and quick, but it sticks to your ribs.

Poetry is also forgiving. I'm not an expert reader, and you don't have to be, either. To borrow part of a quote from Justice Learned Hand, poetry is kind of like obscenity—I know it when I see it. I like poetry that is accessible, insightful, sometimes humorous in tone. I like to learn something from a poem: new ways of looking at things or nature or people, and new words and images to describe them all.

I discovered Kerry James Evans' 2013 collection of poetry, "Bangalore," via David Abrams' blog "The Quivering Pen." Abrams is an Army veteran himself, and author of the 2012 satirical novel "Fobbit."

Evans' writing is full of junkyards, abusive parents, and poverty. In addition to his academic credentials, Evans was a National Guard soldier for six years, during which he trained as a combat engineer and deployed stateside during Operation Noble Eagle. That he was a citizen-soldier who did not "go to war" overseas, while friends and family did, makes for a rich and rocky emotional landscape for Evans to explore. It also gives him a boot in both camps, as both citizen and soldier.

A bangalore torpedo—from which the collection takes its title—is an explosive device designed to quickly clear a footpath through barbed wire, land mines, and other battlefield obstacles. Notably, it is in a poem titled "Operation Noble Eagle" in which Evans mentions such a weapon. In it, he nods toward war stories of a different sort:

[...] Do not think I have not buried my fair share
of Hummers up to the doors in mud.

I bulldozed mountains to mounds
stuffed C-4 in a picket, secured

makeshift bangalore with duct tape;
do not think that in training I did not blow

a Missouri forest to an Afghanistan cave.
More often than not, I miss basic training,

a private with Tourette's blaspheming
drill sergeants [...]

I recognize myself in that passage, and many of my buddies as well.

Of the 30-something poems here, more than a third seem to involve or evoke military terms or experiences. Sometimes, that's evident in the title of a work: The poem "Blanket Party" is one such example, a slang term involving violent acts of peer pressure conducted in military barracks. "Volcano" is another—a name for a type of artillery-delivered munition. In the latter poem, Evans probes his own experiences to interrogate the realities of a war on television:

[...] I've seem the different phases of training—crawl,
walk, run—and I've see the failure of battalions

at each phase. I've cleared a path, myself,
and marked, with flags, the safe zone;

and I've walked through such a minefield.
I've witnessed the Volcano, a machine, scatter

960 antitank mines
over one kilometer of sand, but never have I

seen the battle, or the desert, or those mines, or TOC
calling a precision-bombing air strike across the line.

I've dismantled many mines, winnowed Russian mines
from French mines, but I've never seen the mines

on television; I've known soldiers who have seen
those mines; soldiers caught under fire, blasting cap

clenched in the mouth, jaw gone missing;
and that must be what it means to see the desert; [...]

It is the poem "For the Popped Collar" that I found most resonant, however. In it, Evans connects the cavalry sport of polo to preppy fashion, while probing the minefields of class war and authenticity as a veteran:

[...] I'm wearing at this VFW hall on a Friday
night, a polo with a popped color, stiff
with starch, a tuxedo-folded tip, with me
failing to mention the use of a popping a collar.

It keeps the sun off my neck, I tell my beer.
But now I'm explaining fashion/style?
to the bartender, who is the son of a veteran.
We explore the structures of class [...]

The poem ends as Evans' conversation with the bartender is interrupted, or, at least, put on pause. Evans' deployed father is attempting to connect a phone call from an overseas hilltop:

[...] Then I see
my father, camouflaged collar weighed down
by a maple leaf. He's trying to call from Kosovo.
He's found the highest mountain. He's looking

down at the village. He sounds out the words
for village—Ovo sehlo—but this is a language
he keeps failing to pronounce. My cell phone
is ringing in his ear, and he's standing

in the Balkans, waiting for me to pick up.
He's leaving my name to the wind.

There are, obviously, a lot of moving parts to such a poem. To Evans' credit, he successfully wires everything together just right, before he lights the fuze. Just like the Army taught him.

For a Q&A style interview with Kerry James Evans, check out this New York Times arts blog post.

More of his poetry can be read at Narrative magazine here (free log-in may be required).

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!

Is this a Dude Ranch, or a Forward Operating Base?

Back in 2012, I wrote a post comparing and contrasting "Summer Camp"—what old citizen-soldiers in the National Guard still jokingly call annual military training—with "summer camping."

Recently, the Sherpa clan rounded up the extended family for a week's vacation in southeastern Arizona. Soon after getting boots on ground—faster than you can say "Huachuca"—I began to notice potential comparisons between daily life on a Dude Ranch, and that of living on a Forward Operating Base ("FOB") downrange.

In other words, I felt right at home.

Here are a few of my notes:

*****

LOCAL EATERIES

• If you are eating regularly in a "chow hall," you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are eating regularly in a "dining facility," you are on a FOB.

*****

INDIGINOUS FAUNA

• If you are on constant lookout for rattlesnakes, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are on constant lookout for camel spiders, you are on a FOB.

*****

REQUIRED HEAD GEAR

• If you observe people who are playing cowboy wearing white Stetsons, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you observe people who are playing cowboy wearing black Stetsons, you are on a FOB.

*****

LITTLE PINK HOUSES

• If you are living in a pink building and shooting at tin cans, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If you are working in a pink building and living in a tin can while other people shoot at you, you are on a FOB.

*****

BARREL ROLES

• If "clearing barrel" means executing a successful maneuver on horseback, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If "clearing barrel" means a safety device into which you pull a trigger, you are on a FOB.

• Bonus tip: If "Trigger" is your horse, you are on a Dude Range.

*****

WATER POINTS

• If drinking water is plentifully supplied in plastic bottles, you could be on either a Dude Ranch or a FOB ...

• If the plastic bottles are re-supplied daily by Housekeeping to your room's refrigerator, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If the plastic bottles are stored in bulk and located under a plywood lean-to near a corner of your building's exterior, you are on a FOB.

• Bonus tip: If there is an ice machine where those bulk plastic water bottles would be located on a FOB, you are on a Dude Ranch.

*****

FRIENDLY SKIES

• If there are A-10s flying overhead, you could be on either a Dude Ranch or a FOB ...

• If the A-10s sound friendly and outgoing, you are on a Dude Ranch.

• If the A-10s sound angry, you are on a FOB.

Veterans-Lit Publisher Declares a Tactical Pause

Leaders at the non-profit Military Experience and the Arts (M.E.A.), Richmond, Ky., announced this week that they would temporarily suspend submissions to each of four military-themed arts journals, in order to establish a new on-line submissions platform and process.

Writers that have previously submitted to the 2014 issues are asked to resubmit once the platform is in place. A revised call for submissions will appear on the organization's website later this year.

"The growing popularity of our four publications has resulted in a ton of queries and submissions and it has been hard to keep up," writes founder and editor Travis Martin. "If you’ve been waiting anxiously, I am sorry for that and hope that you will consider waiting a little while longer for a chance to publish with us. [...]"

In military parlance, the organization is conducting a tactical pause—also sometimes called "taking a knee"—in order perform needed checks, rest, and resupply before continuing on with a mission.

Martin continues: "MEA is not closing up shop or giving up on its mission, but I, along with many of our staff members, a collection of educators, freelance writers, and veterans’ advocates, need a chance to recuperate from a crazily successful 2012 and 2013 so that we can finish out 2014 strong."

Publications affected by the temporary pause in submissions include:

• The Blue Falcon Review: A Journal of Military Fiction

• The Blue Streak: A Journal of Military Poetry

• Blue Nostalgia: A Journal of Post-Traumatic Growth

• The Journal of Military Experience

The MEA organization often provides military veterans, service members, and families with supportive environments in which to develop and share their talents in writing and visual arts. As such, the group has frequently been featured on the Red Bull Rising blog, including at least two previous mentions this calendar year, here and here.

New 'Nouns of Assembly' for Soldiers, by Type

PHOTO: Wisconsin Dept. of Military Affairs

Last week, the Red Bull Rising blog reported on a list of suggested collective nouns for "Blue Falcons," a rude slang term for soldiers who take advantage of others. You can see that list here.

While we were at it, we thought we'd also offer a similar list below. This one regards particular groups of Army soldiers by type.

Other than the creative-writing flavor of the exercise, this idea shouldn't seem too foreign to veterans and service members. Particularly those who have served in "troops" of cavalry, or "batteries" of field artillery, rather than "companies"—which is what the rest of the Army calls units of that size.

Many of the following suggestions, of course, were borrowed from collective nouns used in describing the animal kingdom.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• A "muttering" of staff

• A "cluster" of cadets

• A "mash" of Army doctors

• A "mischief" of Army specialists

• A "scrum" of sergeants

• A "brace" of drill sergeants

• A "hoard" (note the spelling) of supply sergeants

• A "bellowing" of first sergeants

• A "mess" or "mermite" of Army cooks

• A "yawn" of PowerPoint briefers

• A "6-pack" of commanders

• A "behoovement" of sergeants major

• A "ream" of admin soldiers

• A "snoop" of intel analysts

• A "coven" of intel officers

• A "concern" of HUMINTers

• A "binder" of training officers

• A "gross" or a "pallet" of logisticians

• A "wheel" or a "drove" of Army truckers

• A "bolt" of Army mechanics

• A "push" of Radio Telephone Operators (R.T.O.)

• A "scurry" of TOC-roaches

• A "mop" of chemical officers

• A "breach" or a "seige" of Army engineers

• A "turn" or a "hover" of aviators

• A "stockade" of military police

• A "brief" of Army attorneys

• A "chorus," a "dazzle," or a "mute" of Public Affairs Officers/NCOs

• A "charm" or a "congregation" of chaplains

• A "dole" of military contractors

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!

Book Review: 'Afghan Post'

Review: 'Afghan Post' by Adrian Bonenberger

Distilling e-mails, journal entries, and letters he wrote home into new content, former U.S. Army Infantry officer Adrian Bonenberger has crafted a memoir of his journey from unfocused East Coast adolescent, to American warrior in the Middle East, to veteran returning home. The 414-page book is presented as a series of letters—the technical term is an "epistolary"—through which Bonenberger addresses with family and friends his evolving experiences and opinions about military service.

The result should be required reading for any future U.S. Army leader—junior officers and senior enlisted soldiers—as well as Army family members. In addition to illuminating the challenges of maintaining long-distance relationships, Bonenberger's meandering map of Army life illustrates the vagaries of military training, careers, and missions.

As such, it deserves a place alongside other titles often recommended to junior leaders, such as James R. McDonough's Vietnam-era combat memoir, "Platoon Leader." (Coincidentally, McDonough and Bonenberger each served in the 173rd Airborne Brigade. This is also the unit whose Afghan experiences were partially documented in 2010's "Restrepo.")

After graduating prep school in 1996, Bonenberger attended Yale University as an English major. He graduated college in 2002, then spent a short stint as an instructor of conversational English in Japan. He joined the U.S. Army in late 2004, and gained his commission through Officer Candidate School (O.C.S.). After branching Infantry, he graduated in succession the Army's Basic Airborne Course, the grueling 61-day Ranger school, and the 5-week Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course (R.S.L.C.).

In 2007 and 2008, Bonenberger deployed to Eastern Afghanistan's Paktika Province with 1st Battalion, 503rd Inf. Reg., 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He was a platoon leader and a company executive officer. In 2010 and 2011, he deployed to Northern Afghanistan with 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. There, he was a company executive officer and later, a company commander. (Readers of the Red Bull Rising blog may remember that 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division deployed to Eastern Afghanistan in 2010-2011—the times in-country overlap slightly.)

The letter-writing leitmotif is useful to non-military readers, in that the form requires Bonenberger to tailor both his language and his logic to specific audiences, one at a time. In a letter to a girlfriend or Army buddy, for example, he opens up emotionally. With his grandfather, he begins to compare military experiences. To his parents, he presents an indefatigable optimism.

Helpfully, throughout his prose, Bonenberger also air-drops thoughtful moments of plainspoken paragraphs. He consistently avoids sounding preachy or one-sided. Consider, for example, his clear-eyed take on how Army leaders have to toe the line in expressing their personal opinions:

You can't talk about how nobody knows why we're still in Afghanistan or if things continue on the way they are now well will certainly lose and the Taliban will win or Pakistan is Afghanistan's enemy. This is all heresy. So instead, now that we lack an official department of the censor, I consign it to personal correspondence. It's what everyone's going to be asking me when I get home for leave, right? [...] And I'll have to trot out the same tired smile, talk about the rights of women, educating little girls, blue jeans, bubble gun, and how most Muslims are just good ordinary everyday people, just like you and me. [p. 234; italics in original.]

Or, regarding service in an all-volunteer military:

In Vietnam you tried to avoid volunteering for anything; it was probably going to get you killed. We've kept the Vietnam idea—I suppose our fathers handed it down to us—so that volunteering for a task is a bad thing, even within the military, common sense says don't volunteer—but there's the fact that volunteering is what got you here, and is wrapped up in our idea of what it means to be a motivated or good soldier. [p. 140]

The letter-form and plain-prose aside, however, one other writing tactic proves less than successful for Bonenberger. Before each of the "Afghan Post's" four major narrative sections—those covering the author's civilian experiences in Japan, joining the Army, and his first and second deployments—Bonenberger presents a non-alphabetized "glossary" of acronyms, concepts, and jargon. The tone is conversational and informal. ("I don't know the difference between MEDEVAC and CASEVAC, but ..." is how one entry starts.) Many entries seem extraneous to their corresponding sections. Worse still, the information provided is often downright wrong.

The overall effect diminishes the author's implied expertise. Readers with military experiences of their own may find themselves cringing at factual errors. "Dust-off," for example, is not what soldiers call "brown-out" conditions of zero-visibility during helicopter landings. It's not the "101st Air Assault," it's the "101st Airborne Division." It's not "Bagram Air Force Base," it's "Bagram Airfield." That's why it's called "BAF."

The resulting impression is that Bonenberger's wonderfully personable, plainspoken correspondent may not only be an "unreliable narrator" (that, after all, is to be expected, given the epistolary form), but an inaccurate one, to boot.

Bottom line: Despite its technical shortcomings, Army leaders, families, and future recruits would be well-served by reading this book. In broad brushstrokes, it paints a picture of what a young active-duty officer's career and social life could look like. Civilians without military connections will likewise be rewarded with nicely framed and articulated insights into military life, and, specifically, observations of the United States' involvement in Afghanistan. A persistent lack of attention to military details, however, unnecessarily diminishes what could have been a definitive work.

In trade paperback, "Afghan Post" can be purchased via local booksellers near you, via Amazon, or directly from community-supported Philadelphia publisher The Heart & the Hand here.

Editor's note: A copy of this book was provided to Red Bull Rising for purposes of review.

Tom Ricks Calls for Readers' Essays on Future Wars

In parallel to a similar brainstorming effort by his employers at the New America Foundation, blogger-journalist-author Tom Ricks has solicited essays from readers of his blog, "The Best Defense," found at the Foreign Policy magazine website. The theme or topic? "What we should be thinking about the war after next."

Writes Ricks:

I am going to run some solicited essays on the subject. But I also want to open the blog up to others, so I am now announcing the Best Defense future of war blog post contest. This is open to all readers. 

Please keep your submissions relatively short—I want posts, not War College essays. It might be best to write about a topic with which you are personally familiar, or have studied. But if you want, you can write under this title: "What we should be thinking about the war after next."

Ricks is part of a mental task force that also includes the foundation's Peter Bergen, Rosa Brooks, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Sascha Meinrath. Bergen, the organization's director of national security studies, established in an earlier Foreign Policy blog post the intellectual engine that is driving its exercise in military futurism:

"Some argue that when U.S. combat troops finally withdraw from Afghanistan in December 2014, the nation will no longer be at war, and the 2001 AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force] should be repealed—or be deemed to have effectively expired." Bergen wrote. "Others argue that the end of the conflict in Afghanistan will not mark the end of U.S. efforts to use military force against terrorists in other parts of the globe, and that we need some sort of new AUMF to structure (and constrain) such future uses of force."

Click here for Ricks' original call for submissions. A No. 1 winner will be the guest of New America Foundation during an upcoming confab among experts. Runners-up will receive an autographed copy of a book by Ricks or Bergen.

Send submissions to: ricksblogcomment AT gmail.com

Is 'Cavalry Bull' Morale Patch 'More Hat, Less Cattle'?

While waxing historical earlier this week regarding the 113th Cavalry Regiment, I came across this photo of a decidedly unauthorized variant of the distinctive 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division patch. I am sworn to secrecy as to which trooper first flashed me this design, and to whether that encounter occurred in Iowa or Afghanistan.

With its horns hidden behind a U.S. Army cavalry Stetson, you might say that this "Cav Bull" version is "more hat, less cattle."

The Iowa Army National Guard's 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment (1-113th Cav.) is headquartered in Souix City, Iowa, and maintains the historical lineage of the whole regiment. The 1-113th Cav. is now part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT).

I worked up a PowerPoint-style slide using the "morale" patch, the term for any unauthorized patch that is manufactured for humorous purposes. In some U.S. Air Force units, morale patches are worn openly on designated days.

In my experience with Iowa's "Red Bull" units, funny patches are more likely worn concealed on the interior of a pocket flap. Other patches I've seen include:

• "Infidel"
• "Secret Squirrel"
• "My fun meter is pegged"

Want to see more morale patches? Mil-spec Monkey offers selection for sale here. Tactical Tailor offers a selection for sale here.

When I used "Red Horse Cav" as the caption on this slide, people thought it was a horse. The 113th Cav. callsign is traditionally "Red Horse," but I opted to caption the slide with "Red Bull Cav." There are other cavalry units in the greater 34th Inf. Div., after all—perhaps they, too, can put it to use.

The phrase "If you ain't Cav ... you ain't s---" is often heard throughout the U.S. Army. Sometimes, particularly in tavern settings, it's even heard as a call and response.

But almost never in polite company.