Currently I seem to be in the lead for the Navy Nominations
Check the charts to see the current standings:
View Branch Nomination Standings
View Country Nomination Standings
The Rules?
The Milbloggies Award recognizes military bloggers for their contribution to blogging, news and information, and to the military over the past year.
Overview
1. A military blog can be nominated ONLY once by the same registered user. However, a user can nominate as many military blogs as they wish. All nominations must be submitted online through Milblogging.com by 5:00 pm EST on February 21, 2007.
2. The top five nominees in each branch and country category will be announced on February 22nd and those nominees will move into the Voting Phase beginning February 22, 2007. The Voting Phase will close on February February 26, 2007. Instructions on voting will appear on the website on February 22, 2007.
3. Nominees may be military blogs that belong to the following branch categories and countries in the Milblogging.com database
4. To nominate a military blog, you must be signed in or a registered user (just like last year). Registration is quick and free and you will not receive any SPAM. This helps maintain the integrity of voting. To place you nomination, simply click on the listing in the Milblogging.com database, and click the Nominate button at the top of the blog profile. You can reivew the milblogs you nominated at any time, by signing in and clicking Manage Favorites. Click the link that says View Milblogs Nominated by You.
5. Winners will be presented awards at the 2007 Milblog Conference on May 5, 2007. Winners are not required to attend the conference in order to receive their awards.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to leave your comments below or send an email to milblogging@gmail.com You can also discuss and chat about this year's Milbloggies with other members in the Discussion Boards.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
PTSD Questions
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been receiving emails from people asking about PTSD and if I know any of my Marines who are willing to talk about it. First thing is, I’m not going to give out medical information on any of my patients. Not that most of the ones that I know mind talking about it, it’s a matter of me keeping my job and out of jail. I can let them know that someone is interested and pass on the information though and I don't mind you asking
Most of the PTSD cases that we run into in the airwing side are an entirely different ball game then the stories you would find if you were to ask the average ground pounder. Our usual supects for airwing mental issues come from separation anxiety, problems back home, adjustment disorders and issues that come from sending people to a war zone who should have never made it past MEPS.
My advise to all of these people is to go to the source, I have some fine fellow milbloggers in my sidebar who have been though the ringer and have blogged about it. Blown by IED’s? Check out Liz (as she put it "got my happy ass blown up" on Dec 4th 2004, scroll down), Rebel Coyote (one of the first milbloggers blown up), Chuck (who's has been getting chopped up on a weekly basis), Solder’s Life (was incountry for 3 months) and the latest one JR Salzman (who was just hit a couple of weeks ago). If their stories don't bring what we're doing home, then you're heart is made of stone. Want to see the baggage of PTSD can do? This is Your War put's that into prospective and Combat Doc has also blogged about it (H/T Madtom even though I read him enough to know). There are probably more people on my side bar who have blogged about it but if you haven't noticed by the size of my blog roll , it would be a full time job keeping daily tabs on everyone.
These guys are the experts and have been in the "shit", most of my time was spent putting band aids on boo boos, handing out meds and filing paperwork, plus keeping everyone around me happy. The only time I saw blood flying and people screaming around me was done flying CASEVAC or at the main hospital working on total strangers, I can honestly say, not a single one of my guys died under my watch. It makes a big difference on your mental out look if you know your patients or not.
Most of the PTSD cases that we run into in the airwing side are an entirely different ball game then the stories you would find if you were to ask the average ground pounder. Our usual supects for airwing mental issues come from separation anxiety, problems back home, adjustment disorders and issues that come from sending people to a war zone who should have never made it past MEPS.
My advise to all of these people is to go to the source, I have some fine fellow milbloggers in my sidebar who have been though the ringer and have blogged about it. Blown by IED’s? Check out Liz (as she put it "got my happy ass blown up" on Dec 4th 2004, scroll down), Rebel Coyote (one of the first milbloggers blown up), Chuck (who's has been getting chopped up on a weekly basis), Solder’s Life (was incountry for 3 months) and the latest one JR Salzman (who was just hit a couple of weeks ago). If their stories don't bring what we're doing home, then you're heart is made of stone. Want to see the baggage of PTSD can do? This is Your War put's that into prospective and Combat Doc has also blogged about it (H/T Madtom even though I read him enough to know). There are probably more people on my side bar who have blogged about it but if you haven't noticed by the size of my blog roll , it would be a full time job keeping daily tabs on everyone.
These guys are the experts and have been in the "shit", most of my time was spent putting band aids on boo boos, handing out meds and filing paperwork, plus keeping everyone around me happy. The only time I saw blood flying and people screaming around me was done flying CASEVAC or at the main hospital working on total strangers, I can honestly say, not a single one of my guys died under my watch. It makes a big difference on your mental out look if you know your patients or not.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Sorry to all my buddies in Snow Country
I should be studying or having car washes to support my trip to DC but instead we went to the beach with the Dog, pictures can be found here. The last few days have been bright and sunny, no great plans this weekend, just cleaning up the house (endless job) and studying, maybe doing some work on the beast. Great day, I'm bushed and have no thoughts on any news that's going on in the world. Just have a good weekend and enjoy the people who share your life.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
I've posted some very old pictures
over at my fotopage, me with long hair, glasses, jumping and climbing all over things, friends of mine doing the same sort of stuff. Oh to be young again!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Sorry about the patchy blogging
One of our squadrons just went through a Command Generals inspection, the only problem is, the corpsman assigned to that squadron transferred last month and his replacement had not arrived yet. So on Tuesday last week, we get a phone call saying that this command was going to be inspected on Monday. Oh no and we're all short handed right now.
What does the Navy stand for? Never again volunteer yourself, well I volunteered myself and spent the next few days working till 8 or 9 every night, going through records, calling people to come in and fill out forms, turn in records, giving shots, chewing people out who’ve had their records sitting in their car for months and getting all sorts of things spilled on the them. One record even had mold growing on the cover and smelled like someone had soaked it in a bottle of cologne (this Marine was there for two hours filling out forms that I wanted to recreate due to the unsavory nature and the numerous shots he was "missing" due to the ink being bleached out and him not turning his record in for almost 2 years) . Sheesh, a month of not having a corpsman and the records fall apart, when I started there were 46 records were checked out or just not there and by the time of the inspection, that number was down to 6 (I’m going to get those last 6!)
My brain is still fried, Monday came along and the inspector came and he found a surprisingly few discrepancies, almost all of them were of the minor sort that could be fixed with a few strokes of a pen. One guy had two different blood types in his record but that was the only “hard” hit and we just had him get his blood type redone.
Considering that we had 6 days of notice, we passed with flying colors, a bunch of new record jackets, the readiness was up, new coversheets printed out and filled in. This is normally a job that takes a month of combing though records making sure all of the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed and involves lots of stress, for some reason, I wasn’t stressed out at all, perhaps because it wasn’t my squadron and it was time for a good challange. A good squadron corpsman who keeps up on his records and keeps a tab on all of his special programs usually doesn’t have a problem. But let your hand off of the reins for a while and everything goes to hell. I didn’t do all of the work but a rather large chunk of it, thanks Ryan, HM1 and Chris for the help. Whew, I’m glad it’s over so I can get back to my own records which have suffered for most of this week.
My first class test is going on in two weeks and I plan on studying rather heavily except for when I take breaks to blog or hide away from studying. Thanks everyone who has donated money, expect post cards from DC and regular blogging updates throughout the trip:)
PS Happy Valentines Day!
What does the Navy stand for? Never again volunteer yourself, well I volunteered myself and spent the next few days working till 8 or 9 every night, going through records, calling people to come in and fill out forms, turn in records, giving shots, chewing people out who’ve had their records sitting in their car for months and getting all sorts of things spilled on the them. One record even had mold growing on the cover and smelled like someone had soaked it in a bottle of cologne (this Marine was there for two hours filling out forms that I wanted to recreate due to the unsavory nature and the numerous shots he was "missing" due to the ink being bleached out and him not turning his record in for almost 2 years) . Sheesh, a month of not having a corpsman and the records fall apart, when I started there were 46 records were checked out or just not there and by the time of the inspection, that number was down to 6 (I’m going to get those last 6!)
My brain is still fried, Monday came along and the inspector came and he found a surprisingly few discrepancies, almost all of them were of the minor sort that could be fixed with a few strokes of a pen. One guy had two different blood types in his record but that was the only “hard” hit and we just had him get his blood type redone.
Considering that we had 6 days of notice, we passed with flying colors, a bunch of new record jackets, the readiness was up, new coversheets printed out and filled in. This is normally a job that takes a month of combing though records making sure all of the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed and involves lots of stress, for some reason, I wasn’t stressed out at all, perhaps because it wasn’t my squadron and it was time for a good challange. A good squadron corpsman who keeps up on his records and keeps a tab on all of his special programs usually doesn’t have a problem. But let your hand off of the reins for a while and everything goes to hell. I didn’t do all of the work but a rather large chunk of it, thanks Ryan, HM1 and Chris for the help. Whew, I’m glad it’s over so I can get back to my own records which have suffered for most of this week.
My first class test is going on in two weeks and I plan on studying rather heavily except for when I take breaks to blog or hide away from studying. Thanks everyone who has donated money, expect post cards from DC and regular blogging updates throughout the trip:)
PS Happy Valentines Day!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Milblog Convention Fund Drive
My good blogging buddy Bane has started a fund drive to help me gather money for our trip to the 2007 Milblog Convention in Arlington VA. Thank you very much, you have made my week!
Normally, I don’t believe in believe in donations for my writing but this has been a fairly tight year and the 1000 or so dollars that the trip is going to cost will definitely put our budget into the red.
In the 96 hours after putting up the donation button, I have received 300 dollars, thanks Gina from MN, Jean from Fl, LL from IL, Richard from TX, Jennifer from LA and some unnamed folk. You Guys are Great! Thank you!!
Normally, I don’t believe in believe in donations for my writing but this has been a fairly tight year and the 1000 or so dollars that the trip is going to cost will definitely put our budget into the red.
In the 96 hours after putting up the donation button, I have received 300 dollars, thanks Gina from MN, Jean from Fl, LL from IL, Richard from TX, Jennifer from LA and some unnamed folk. You Guys are Great! Thank you!!
R.I.P. FHM
Tonight I was tasked by my lovely wife to stop by the store and buy her some “products”. When I shop, I tend to shop in a holistic manner, meaning I wander around and looking at everything and saying to my self "oh, I need that".
Today, I just happened to meander by the magazine rack and saw that FHM was publishing their last issue. Woah, considering it was one of the top read magazines in Iraq, they probably have millions of military dollars, for them to shut down is quite an event. Of course I had to have a look and when I opened it up, the first page I looked at had this guy's picture in the “Who The Hell Are You” section
Today, I just happened to meander by the magazine rack and saw that FHM was publishing their last issue. Woah, considering it was one of the top read magazines in Iraq, they probably have millions of military dollars, for them to shut down is quite an event. Of course I had to have a look and when I opened it up, the first page I looked at had this guy's picture in the “Who The Hell Are You” section
I know this guy, he had a talent for timing his movements perfect to the second when the photographer was pressing the button, this guy was quick and smooth and his funny looking mug adorned many a photo of mine.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
2007 Milblog Conference
Will be taking place in Arlington VA on the 4th and 5th of May.
There will be 4 panels,
From the Front, milbloggers who blogged from Iraq and Afghanistan.
All in the family, will be those left behind, the spouses and significant others
Potluck, will be a mix of milbloggers
And finally Wounded Warriors, Healers and Angels section of which I’m a panelist.
My wife and I both plan on attending, that is if we can gather up the funds. I'm still a very lowly enlisted man but don't worry, I'm going to do everything in my power to make it. (if you're interested in helping fund this trip, there's a donation button on the side bar!) This is an event that I wouldn't miss for the world, I’m really looking forward to this, people whose lives I’ve followed and have admired from afar. Finally, a chance to meet some of these folk face to face.
More info can be found here, if you’re a reader of mine, a milblogger or a reader of milblogs, it would be great to see you.
There will be 4 panels,
From the Front, milbloggers who blogged from Iraq and Afghanistan.
All in the family, will be those left behind, the spouses and significant others
Potluck, will be a mix of milbloggers
And finally Wounded Warriors, Healers and Angels section of which I’m a panelist.
My wife and I both plan on attending, that is if we can gather up the funds. I'm still a very lowly enlisted man but don't worry, I'm going to do everything in my power to make it. (if you're interested in helping fund this trip, there's a donation button on the side bar!) This is an event that I wouldn't miss for the world, I’m really looking forward to this, people whose lives I’ve followed and have admired from afar. Finally, a chance to meet some of these folk face to face.
More info can be found here, if you’re a reader of mine, a milblogger or a reader of milblogs, it would be great to see you.
I’ve found religion
What happens after you die? Why do disasters happen? What happens when someone steals God’s lunch?
You can find the answer at God, Inc.
You can find the answer at God, Inc.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The Crash in Iraq
Earlier today I heard on the news that a CH-46 went down in Iraq and everything stopped as I searched the news for details. My first trip out to Iraq, I flew in 46’s flying CASEVAC and it’s a small community, if you do it long enough, you get know everybody. With 7 deaths in the crash, it wasn’t likely a troop transport run which means it’s was probably a CASEVAC mission.
Word’s not out yet with names or the unit the aircraft belongs to and that won’t happen till the families notified. I’m selfish, hoping that I don’t know any of the dead, saying goodbye is one of the hardest things to do. This one hits way too close to home, it could have me a dozen times over. Six crashes in 18 days, it's troubling news to myself and other corpsman who I work with. We're all part of the Marine aviation community and chances are, we will be heading back out there again before too long.
Word’s not out yet with names or the unit the aircraft belongs to and that won’t happen till the families notified. I’m selfish, hoping that I don’t know any of the dead, saying goodbye is one of the hardest things to do. This one hits way too close to home, it could have me a dozen times over. Six crashes in 18 days, it's troubling news to myself and other corpsman who I work with. We're all part of the Marine aviation community and chances are, we will be heading back out there again before too long.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Coronado's Dog Beach
We checked out the Dog Beach next to the navy base in Coronado. It was balmy 72 degrees out and the water was great, not that Gatsby noticed, he was just happy to be at the beach. The beach is right down the way from Hotel Del Coronado as the pictures here show. The directions are, drive to the Hotel Del Coronado, turn right towards the beach, follow the road till you get to the gate to the Navy base and park there.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
6 weird things
Sigh, I’ve been tagged by Desert Phoenix
With this
Can I even tag 6 people who do these things? Hmm. Well here goes…
1. I can’t start a book without finishing it, no matter how crappy it is and am have the talent to read in any situation. Have read for hours flying around at night by chem-light, boredom isn’t something I suffer from.
2. I have 2000 plus books on shelves all in alphabetical order, I’ve spent too much time in libraries and I can’t stand books thrown around.
3. I’ve grown an attachment to my technological devices, I feel naked without my computer or cell phone around, one of these days, I’m afraid I’ll volunteer for a direct line into my brain.
4. I have horrible stage fright but after I get over the first few seconds I do alright.
5. There’s a devil that lives inside of me that makes me pull pranks on others, I have little control of him and we don’t converse much.
6. I’m lazy but I like doing crazy hard impossible jobs, my family always calls me up for any sort of unsavory slave labor job.
Sorry guys, I’m just following the rules so…
My Wife
Army Wife Toddler Mom
Gamer
wintermelonsoup
Crazy Lawsuit Game
and last but not least
Beth
I tagged the folk who I think will have the greatest chance of actually filling this out.
With this
Here are the "Official Rules""Each player of this game starts with 6 weird
things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6
weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose
6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that
says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog."
Can I even tag 6 people who do these things? Hmm. Well here goes…
1. I can’t start a book without finishing it, no matter how crappy it is and am have the talent to read in any situation. Have read for hours flying around at night by chem-light, boredom isn’t something I suffer from.
2. I have 2000 plus books on shelves all in alphabetical order, I’ve spent too much time in libraries and I can’t stand books thrown around.
3. I’ve grown an attachment to my technological devices, I feel naked without my computer or cell phone around, one of these days, I’m afraid I’ll volunteer for a direct line into my brain.
4. I have horrible stage fright but after I get over the first few seconds I do alright.
5. There’s a devil that lives inside of me that makes me pull pranks on others, I have little control of him and we don’t converse much.
6. I’m lazy but I like doing crazy hard impossible jobs, my family always calls me up for any sort of unsavory slave labor job.
Sorry guys, I’m just following the rules so…
My Wife
Army Wife Toddler Mom
Gamer
wintermelonsoup
Crazy Lawsuit Game
and last but not least
Beth
I tagged the folk who I think will have the greatest chance of actually filling this out.
Layout changes
3 years of the same old boring Sean and it was time for somewhat of a change. So I’ve spent the greater part of an evening transferring links one at a time to the new blogger template then realized there was a place where I could copy and paste my old HTML and get my clock too. Probably still a few style bugs around but I’ll just have to fix that later. My bed and wife are calling me so I’d best be off. Have a good weekend everyone.
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