My father is a U.S. Air Force veteran. When he ended his military career, he was a civil engineer. Before becoming a civil engineer, he was a load specialist for large aircraft, and before that was part of special ops. When my mother told me my father had been part of the military Special Forces, the first thing I thought was 'cool'. Obviously my dad can't really share his experiences with me, but he's done some amazing things. My mother provided a more somber recollection of my father's special ops. Career. He would be gone, sometimes for more than a year, and she would have no information about where he was, what he was doing, and if he was okay. She would occasionally receive a letter and still has some that he sent. It's obvious the letters were censored. Some of them have black lines covering the letters.
I feel if blogs were around when my father was part of military operations, my mother and father could have had the opportunity to contact each other more. And my mother would not have had to worry so much about him. That's why I find the milblog trend to be fascinating. To be able to contact loved ones in dangerous places has to give family members a tremendous peace of mind. I know my mother, for one, would have appreciated knowing he was alive and well on a more regular basis.
While understanding the benefits to milblogs, I also understand the reason the government might be concerned about the trend. It’s not okay to censor the blogs for opinion purposes, but if any of the information on the blog might be detrimental to a mission or could put peoples lives in danger, posting it should not be allowed. I assume most of the milbloggers understand the importance of not giving away vital information, but mistakes happen and sometimes what’s appropriate and not appropriate to display is difficult to discern.
