Soldiers on-line connections

[reed11b]

I have a request from up above to locate the on-line sources that soldiers are using to keep in contact post deployment. This RFI is aimed at current and recent OIF vets, What on-line forums, social networks, chat rooms, etc. did you and your soldiers use to stay in touch and that have a large percentage of current or recent GWOT vets?
Thanks for the help
Reed
RCS Vet Centers

[Stan]

Hey Reed !
An intriguing topic indeed.

I have buds from Bragg that no longer visit half the forums as their COs have passed on rather bad news regarding scrutiny over Soldiers involved with online journals. Even issues such as weapons failures were outright inappropriate they said. Yeah, I get the need for control or self-conscious postings if there's some classified involved, but posting anonymously to avoid trouble almost works out to be useless.

Gotta be a place for folks to vent.

What exactly is publicly available info (anymore) he asked me?

I still use AKO to the extent permitted (yet another sore subject). The remainder available are questionable unless a good friend tells me otherwise.

Regards, Stan

EDIT: Well, there's always the SWC as an excellent example of success !

Originally Posted by reed11b

I have a request from up above to locate the on-line sources that soldiers are using to keep in contact post deployment. This RFI is aimed at current and recent OIF vets, What on-line forums, social networks, chat rooms, etc. did you and your soldiers use to stay in touch and that have a large percentage of current or recent GWOT vets?
Thanks for the help
Reed
RCS Vet Centers

[Ken White]

Originally Posted by Stan

...I have buds from Bragg that no longer visit half the forums as their COs have passed on rather bad news regarding scrutiny over Soldiers involved with online journals. Even issues such as weapons failures were outright inappropriate they said. Yeah, I get the need for control or self-conscious postings if there's some classified involved, but posting anonymously to avoid trouble almost works out to be useless.

Not a good sign IMO. Like the man said, "we don' need no steenking big bro..." or words to that effect.

Gotta be a place for folks to vent.

True -- and to do that without "adult supervision"...

[Cavguy]

Originally Posted by Ken White

Not a good sign IMO. Like the man said, "we don' need no steenking big bro..." or words to that effect.True -- and to do that without "adult supervision"...

Good news is the company command forum is still a place for CO's to vent to each other - the admins only allow current, recent past, and soon to be CO's in, and there is a "keep it in the family" compact there.

[reed11b]

Originally Posted by Cavguy

Good news is the company command forum is still a place for CO's to vent to each other - the admins only allow current, recent past, and soon to be CO's in, and there is a "keep it in the family" compact there.

CO and squad leader seem to be the best jobs in the Army. If I had a giant redo button, I would have stuck around enlisted till E-6 and then switched to the dark-side (Officer not Air Force). If I did that now I would be a nearly 40 yo LT, (bad eneogh I will be a 35 yo LT) and 68x's do not have squads.
Reed
P.S. thanks for the input, it helps and please keep it coming.

[RTK]

Originally Posted by Cavguy

Good news is the company command forum is still a place for CO's to vent to each other - the admins only allow current, recent past, and soon to be CO's in, and there is a "keep it in the family" compact there.

Cavguy hit it before I did. The PL site as well.

AKO works great and is how I get in touch with a lot of my compadres.

And, oh yea. The telephone.

[Entropy]

Most people I know use myspace and facebook, especially those under 30. I keep in touch with some friends who have personal (or family) blogs, but by far the biggest is plain old email.

[reed11b]

some of the quick examples that I fired off was AKO of course, but also forums around non-military specific interests. examples would be ar-15.com, import car and motorcycle forums, video game forums, tattoo websites, local "chat" rooms etc etc. The feedback I have recieved from the young servicemen and women (PC, you like that?) that speak to me is that many of them remain in contact off duty via online communication, and of course, texting.
Reed

[Cavguy]

Originally Posted by Entropy

Most people I know use myspace and facebook, especially those under 30. I keep in touch with some friends who have personal (or family) blogs, but by far the biggest is plain old email.

I resisted "social media" but got on facebook and reconnected with well over 100 old friends and acquaintences I had lost contact with over the years. I'm sold.

[Entropy]

Reed,

Your latest comment reminds me of gaming - specificially MMORPG's. I used to play World of Warcraft, for example, and I know a lot of military people do as well. I even ran across a guy in the game who was deployed in Manas and played during his off time using his laptop and the WIFI connection at the green bean.

[120mm]

I have friends who frequent http://lightfighter.net/eve/forums

But I've fallen out of the habit of checking that, for a variety of reasons.

I've off and on maintained contact through a series of outdoors/gun/hunting forums, but the problem is, those forums tend to have a limited lifespan, and eventually go away due to moderation issues.

[reed11b]

I think that on-line games like mmorpgs and on-line FPS's w/ voice programs may be the key that we are missing. Good call Entropy. Any pre-generated lists of soldier hobby friendly sites out there?
Reed

[Entropy]

Reed,

No pre-generated lists that I know of, but a couple of google searches netted this for starters:

Sparklebunnies of Doom is a guild run by military members and has decided to actively recruit any and all military members. As the leader of SoD I have been in many different raiding guild on a few different servers. Most of the good guilds that I was part of I had to leave due to deployments and being gone for so long. Also now being in Japan its hard to find a guild suited for the situation. So I created SoD for everyone that has had the same problems and would like a place to call home and just hang out.

Here's another:

I've been playing since about a year prior to the release of BC and been through many guilds which time and time again failed to meet my expectations of what a raiding guild should be, mostly centered around the lack of motivation. I'm in the military and 6 months ago was put on deployment so I've been "WoWless" for the last 6 months or so. While out here I made friends with some fellow players and after a few conversations I asked if anyone was interested in starting a guild. They liked the idea but no one wanted to spearhead it, well this sounded like opportunity knocking.

It doesn't appear like this is an area that's received much study or attention. Every guild I was in when I played WoW had military members (several of which I knew personally). That's only one game, albeit the biggest and most popular.

[Culpeper]

www.romad.com for ETACS. But good luck getting into the contact portions. You have to be or have been a ROMAD.

[reed11b]

Originally Posted by Culpeper

www.romad.com for ETACS. But good luck getting into the contact portions. You have to be or have been a ROMAD.

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

[Steve Blair]

Originally Posted by reed11b

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

We have a kid who left the program and went para-rescue. He was passing through this week and said that the majority of the officer slots in that AFSC that he's seen are mainly desk jobs. Combat Control has more field officer slots according to him, and that's why he's thinking about transitioning back to ROTC through one of the enlisted commissioning options.

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Steve Blair

We have a kid who left the program and went para-rescue. He was passing through this week and said that the majority of the officer slots in that AFSC that he's seen are mainly desk jobs. Combat Control has more field officer slots according to him, and that's why he's thinking about transitioning back to ROTC through one of the enlisted commissioning options.

That's partially true. I was in CSAR when the Combat Rescue Officer program was created and first implemented. CRO's receive most of the training PJ's get, minus some of the medical portion and they do go out in the field, but that is more likely in some billets than others. In a pure CSAR unit, probably not so much - in an special tactics unit there's more opportunity. Still, there's no denying a primary motivator for creating the CRO was to have an advocate for decisions made at the field grade and above levels.

[reed11b]

as much as I like to talk about PJ's, that may be a topic for a sepperate thread. I found an article in stars and strips on new "blogging regs".
LINK>>>
The part thats scares me is

"What the new public affairs guidance … will provide is further clarification of what is acceptable in online postings or digital communication," she said.

The new guidelines do not cancel existing regulations but instead supplement them, she said.

any time I see "supplement existing regulations", that screams micro-managment and unnecessary rules to me. I hope the Army does not take away soldier's ability to communicate with non-soldiers in the name of "OP-SEC".
Reed

[Steve Blair]

Originally Posted by reed11b

I hope the Army does not take away soldier's ability to communicate with non-soldiers in the name of "OP-SEC".
Reed

One would certainly hope that they would not be so foolish. Those are the ONLY real communications that can bridge the gap between the military and civilian world. Managed PA spots certainly don't do it. And I should add that the gap goes both ways. But now I'll stop derailing....

[Cavguy]

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

Has worked so far @ CAC!