Read this blog quick!
Just Another Soldier, a blog by a member of the Army National Guard is being taken down by order of the guardsman's company commander.

This blog will be going offline. I have been informed that I have violated operational security and additionally that I am smearing my unit and the Army. I, of course, strenuously disagree.

I am taking the blog offline at the request of my Company Commander. I do so under protest and I do it as a favor to my Platoon Sergeant and First Sergeant.

If you want to read the archives, you have only a few hours to do it.

I haven't read enough of the blog to discern whether there is any merit, IMO, to the company commander's determination, but it doesn not matter. I think the order is lawful. As General Dwight D. Eisehower observed, "When you put on the uniform, there are certain inhibitions you have to accept."

But I did find his post about a battalion Dining In pretty amusing:

Basically it was a large kinda-formal dinner for the battalion with the battalion commander as the guest of honor. One can tell that the dining-in is an event with a lot of tradition behind it. There are a lot of rules, a lot of ceremony and a lot of toasts. There probably was a time, maybe fifty years ago or so, where this kind of thing was really cool. But with the Jackass generation, trying to get them to follow proper dining etiquette, especially after they've been drinking for five hours, is like trying to get a kindergarten class to sit still after they've gotten all jacked-up on red Kool-Aid.

My first Dining In was an officers-only affair in Korea, where I was assigned to 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery, then equipped with 105mm towed howitzers. The only enlisted representative was the battalion command sergeant-major, who was just as happy as a clam to be there (as if). I absolutely promise that sauced-up lieutenants are not more attractive than sauced-up junior noncommissioned officers, or privates, for that matter.

by Donald Sensing, 2/3/2004 04:56:40 PM. Permalink |