Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sat on the stage in the ballroom of the Westin Hotel in Arlington, Va., and addressed the crowd with a chuckle: “I appreciate what you do, but I’m not sure I understand all of it.”
The 2011 Milblog Conference celebrated the rapid growth of the military blogging world, particularly its connections with social media. The crowd featured veteran bloggers, and others trying to break in.
“More than anything it just shows me that there’s a great way to tell our story in a more personal format than just 140 characters or less,” said Angie McCrary, whose organization, Semper Fi Fund, is looking to make a social media push.
Speakers emphasized the interconnectedness of blogs and the advantages of social networking. Writers are working together, not competing, to share the experiences of military life.
“The biggest thing is to have that dialogue going and to really establish that community, where people can come to our blog and share resources with each other,” said Brian Jodice of Military Families United.
Rumsfeld greeted bloggers and signed his memoir, Known and Unknown. He also weighed in on military issues during a question-and-answer session.
“He’s a big player in the development of national strategy,” said Maj. Ben Grimes, an Army veteran and blogger for armystrongstories.com. “So, it’s not common that someone like me would get a chance to interact with him.”
Rumsfeld said it was surprising that the U.S. would alter leadership so much. “We’ve had five, six, or seven CIA directors in the last 10 years,” he said. “You can’t play musical chairs with positions like that. If you do that, you’ll come in with a starved intelligence community and you’ll pay a penalty for it.”
Spouse blogging gained momentum in 2010. Rebekah Sanderlin returned to the conference this year and said the attendee makeup changed drastically since her first visit two years ago. “The vibe there (in 2009) was much more masculine. The guys who were writing masculine boots on the ground experiences or policy debate, so I didn’t really know of anyone else writing with a woman, spouse perspective.”
Many spouses were hesitant to enter the blogging fray, but their shared experiences have made writing easier. They feel writing helps them connect with other families.
“The branch of service doesn’t really matter that much, because so much of the experiences are universal, from a spouse perspective,” Sanderlin said. “From a spouse’s perspective, gone is gone, so it’s the same.”
Sanderlin held several journalistic positions, prior to being assigned a blog by her newspaper. Blogs seemed so amateurish to her, at first. “I was embarrassed, by the thought of it because it seemed so narcissistic, like, okay I’m going to write about my breakfast,” she said.
“With blogging you’ve got that constant contact with people that you may not know in real life, but they’re constant and it’s something that’s not going to change every six months,” said Stephanie Himel-Nelson, a blogger for Blue Star Families.
On Friday night, the conference honored several bloggers, with their Milbloggie awards. Ben and Katie Rye from Olympia, Wash., won the U.S. Military Spouse category, which traces the couple’s recovery from a severe traffic accident in August 2009. Other categories included best blogs for each branch of the military, military supporters, parents, and reporting.
One woman, who writes under the pseudonym Roller Coaster, was excited just to receive a nomination.
“It’s such an honor to be nominated, but the military spouse category is pretty big,” she said. “It’s just nice to feel recognized by something as big as milblogging.com.”
As a new blogger in 2010, she offered tips for those trying to get some momentum for a blog. “For me, I didn’t get a lot of followers at the beginning and I didn’t know where my blog was going,” she said. “I had no intention of even writing about military blogging issues. Just keep going. See where the blog takes you.”
She recommends finding blogs that interest you, and open up lines of communication by commenting on those blogs and exchanging email.
Military films also were featured over the weekend. K. Lorrel Manning, a New York-based writer and director, promoted his film, Happy New Year. The piece began as a one act play, but gradually morphed into a feature film. The film, which Manning calls a drama with some comedic elements, examines the perils of post-traumatic stress for veterans returning home.