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I love my country dearly and I care deeply for the friends that served with me in Desert Storm. I think about the soldiers that are in the Middle East now and wonder how they're doing. I hope they have everything they need to keep them safe and I wish they would come home soon. Almost every night when I lay my head down on my pillow and get snug under the covers, I think of all the soldiers who are over there on guard in the early morning hours while I am warm and restful in my bed. And then, I thank them!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Colby Buzzell

I should be cleaning, finishing a painting I started, or doing something else productive, but instead, I wanted to share my thoughts on a book that I just finished reading. Colby Buzzell is a Veteran of Iraqi Freedom and published a book called, _My War: Killing Time in Iraq_. It is probably the first book that I read that is so blatantly honest and real, infact, it's the first book that I've read that uses the word "fuck" on almost every page. Some of his readers found it offensive but I didn't. I thought the language was pretty funny and expressed what everyone in the military wants to say. I give the publishing company credit for publishing it.

The book was inspired after Colby wrote a series of blogs from Iraq. He explains in his book that news got out to his Commander and the Battalion Commander that he was writing the blog. After reading his stories his chain of command thought that he was exposing too many critical details of his company's missions that could potentially put his unit in danger. He was ordered to stop writing for a period of time but then once he did start writing again it seemed that he just gave up fighting the system.

In his book, he criticizes his chain of command saying that they had no reason to stop him from writing, and that he said nothing in his blogs that would have compromised the security of his unit. However, if you read his blogs, then you'll know that he Did give out critical information that could have given the "enemy" some very useful details of his units exact location (near the water tower), the roads they traveled every day, the weapons they were using, the time of day they typically completed missions, and the names of the local interpreters that were working with his unit.

Now, I've been working on a book about my time in Desert Storm for about 8 years now. I put it away and stopped writing for all these years for a few reasons, one of them being that I was weary that the "enemy" could use the information to their advantage. So, now that I'm back to writing again I censor each sentence. While Colby's book was interesting to read, I do think he exposed too many details in his blogs. But on the other hand, I think our media also exposes too many details. Sigh!

1 comment:

  1. I'm reading his book right now "My War". I started it last night and haven't been able to put it down. I'm half way through it and I keep looking at the stack of remaining pages concerned about them ending . This is a great piece of literature because it is so truthfully expressed . I am a Vietnam Vet and maybe Tim Obrien's book "The Things They Carried"reminds me a little of this . Colby has this nailed because even though I'm generations older I can relate to his Army experience as a comabat infantryman. This book should have won the Pullitzer , yet I don't know if it hasn't. Thanks Colby. Vietvet

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