Soldiers on-line connections

[reed11b]

1) You may (and must) blog/post organizationally

Sorry Sir, could you dumb that down to grunt paratrooper level? I am not quite sure what you are saying.
Reed

[Ken White]

LTG Caldwell at CAC has been clear for us:

1) You may (and must) blog/post organizationally

2) You are responsible for what you post

3) I will underwrite honest mistakes

Good for him!

[Cavguy]

Sorry Sir, could you dumb that down to grunt paratrooper level? I am not quite sure what you are saying.
Reed

LTC Caldwell, the CAC Commander, has been pushing for MORE soldiers to blog/interact in online communities. I summarized his longer rules for it - but they are sensible.

His bottom line is that he wants soldiers communicating their stories through every medium possible - but doing so responsibly and with an eye to OPSEC and appropriateness.

Kind of the reverse of the current DoD directives, which he in effect has modified/set aside for organizations under his command.

As a result, every organization on Fort Leavenworth has a blog, and every CGSC student is required to do a blog post and media interview on a public site during their tenure here.

Some radical stuff. For more, read here.

[Entropy]

LTG Caldwell at CAC has been clear for us:

1) You may (and must) blog/post organizationally

That confuses me a bit - does that mean blogging in official capacity?

[reed11b]

Fantastic, glad to hear it. Any chance he is going to be allowed to have input on the new "blogging" regs being created?
Reed

[Culpeper]

Is that what you do (did)? I was in AF ROTC in 2000 to become a combat controler. Moved to Portland after first semester and just went Army NG instead. How is the work? I always thought I would prefer para-rescue, but at that time those slots were enlisted only.
Reed

Some information on the ROMADS:

I did back when they were officially referred to as ROMADS. The TACP field has been restructured. In my days the guy in the passenger seat was an ALO. Today, with enough time in and experience an enlisted Airman may replace the ALO in the field (known as an ETAC). Also, what has changed the most is that you can't go directly into the field. For some reason you have to enlist first and then apply for acceptance. Though I started out as a ROMAD there were plenty that were passed down from Combat Control Team and PJs. Though the top 2% have an opportunity to be accepted into SF or Ranger the field still is just shy of Special Operations in general. It's still a dangerous job. Along with the Rangers on Robert's Ridge were two PJs, a ROMAD, and a CCT. Just one example of joint readiness that started back when our squadron and our sister squadron were placed on Reagan's Rapid Deployment Force. My squadron was a mixed bag of Legs and Airborne, which I belonged to the latter. Our sister squadron were all Airborne and stationed at Pope AFB. We were at Shaw AFB. The other side of our squadron were the O-2 pilots whereas our sister squadron had no FACs. Also, those were the days of no lasers and such. A map, radio, and stop watch was what we were basically given for CAS. Currently, ROMADS serve with all SF and Ranger battalions as well as the rest of the Army combat maneuver units around the world. I don't know about now but during the late 70s and early 80s there were about 600 members at various stages of the enlistment. I don't know about these days. Most only served one enlistment. That was enough. Its a cliquish field with some degree of ego since the Black Beret was granted to be worn at a time when only SO types wore what is today's standard camouflaged uniform. Nevertheless, my squadron was considered second string as replacements for our sister squadron. I don't want to give anyone the impression that myself our most of my buddies were some type of bad asses at that time. But it was a time when expecting an A-10 you got one painted polka dots. Otherwise, our main practice aircraft was the Cessna A-37.

[Abu Shaker]

Together We Served sites (togetherweserved.com) are really good for keeping in touch or reconnecting.

The have specific sites for each branch and are in the process of creating one for the Coast Guard.

togetherweserved.com will bring you to the home splash page. From there just click on your branch, sign up and you're golden. What's nice about TWS over facebook, et al, is that it's only military so your profile is geared towards things military guys like to display (ribbons, badges, non-official awards, etc.) and finding people who were in the same units/schools/etc is very easy (as long as they have a profile).