In April of this year I attended a military blog conference in Washington, D.C. as I began America's 1st Sgt's blog. One thing I remember about the conference other than feeling surrounded by milblogosphere rockstars like Troy, and his counterpart, CJ, to be interviewed here next week; wass how engaged they were with all the milbloggers at the conference.
I sat directly behind these two and from that vantage point saw that there wasn't blogger there these men didn't treat as respected colleagues. They took the time to ask and answer questions when approached, offer encouragement and simply listen to other conference participants during each session. Their active engagement and enthusiasm within the milblog community represented there made a lasting impression on me. Meet Troy of Bouhammer's Afghan Blog , YouServed, Military Pundits and AfghanLessons.

How long have you been blogging? I started blogging in 2005 on my family website. I ran a blog about our family in general, travel tips (since I travel so much) and military topics i general. However in 2006 when I was mobilized for my deployment to Afghanistan I migrated my general military blog to be specifically about my deployment.

Why did you start? I started the family blog in order to get away from the end of the year family letter we always put in Christmas cards. I usually could not remember everything that happened over the last year so I figured I would write up blogs as things happened so family and friends who cared could come read it when they wanted to. As for the Afghanistan based military blog, I wanted to keep a better journal of my deployment than I did during the Gulf War. There was so much I had forgotten from that time that I did not want that to happen again. I figured the blog was the best way to capture all that happened during the deployment. Also, I did not want to mass-blast friends and family with emails so I figured this was a good way for them to come read when they wanted to.

Was it a easy decision to make? It was very easy decision as I wanted to capture this history as it was happening and I thought it might be therapeutic during the deployment. I work in IT in my civilian occupation and I can type easily enough so it was not a big deal for me to type out a blog every once in a while.

Are there aspects to your participation in the milblogging community for which you weren't prepared? Yes, I was never prepared for it to become as popular as it did. When I first started the blog it was meant for family and friends like I had stated. By half-way through my tour the number of people reading it that were complete strangers outnumbered family members and friends 10-1. I had more people that were getting ready for an Afghanistan deployment and people with family members in Afghanistan following my blog than anyone else. I was not prepared for Doonesbury creator, Garry Trudeau becoming a fan and later becoming a friend. I never thought I would be a regular contributor on BBC's "World Have your Say" Radio show or that I would do all the other interviews and things that I have been so lucky to be part of all because of my blog.

Can you tell me how your service impacts your world view and vice versa how your world view affects(ed) your service? I think I am much more worldly than most in this country because of the things I have seen and done in my service. I am an Army brat, having been born at Ft. Bragg and lived all over the world. I myself have lived in many places in and outside of this country. As with any time that I travel to another country, especially a 3rd world country, I am very appreciative of all that we have in the US and can easily see how gluttonous and spoiled we are in our country. I think that is a good and bad thing. I feel that I look at the world and what is going on in the geo-political climate with a whole different perspective than someone who has not served, and especially not served in combat.

As a follow up how has your world view changed, if it has.Yes it has, but i am not sure how exactly. I only have my experiences to base my views on and seeing that I lived in places like Panama as a kid, and then as an adult was stationed or deployed to many areas of the world, especially the far east I am not sure what my view was like before military service as I have always been around the military. Also, having first experienced combat 18 years ago, anything prior to that and my views on things have kind of faded from memory.

What's been the most rewarding aspect of blogging? Getting the comments, emails, phone calls that I get from people who up until that time were perfect strangers and then they tell me how much my blog helped them. How it made them feel closer to their loved one or friend who is deployed (particularly in Afghanistan). Just the other day someone forwarded an email to me from someone else (that had no idea this first person even knew me) stating how my blog kept her sane while her son was deployed. To read or hear something like that is truly a humbling experience and motivates me to keep spending the long and late hours in keeping up the blogs I run or write. So many times during and after my deployment I would get emails from family members telling me how appreciative they are of the blog and how it helped them through or is helping them through a deployment. Not that I need those accolades, but as a First Sergeant and a leader of soldiers for 20 of my last 22 years it it nice to know that I still am helping soldiers and their family members, even if I don't know them. Also, the communication I get from other service-members that are getting ready for deployment who reach out for information. Supporting soldiers to be successful is what I do, so when they tell me how much the info I share with them to get ready for their deployment helped, it is really nice. What is also nice is that my blog has been credited with others starting their blogs and that means my impact is on more than just my readers but all of those other readers too. Blogs like Afghanistan Without a Clue, Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure and Afghanistan Shrugged have all told me that they were reading my blog and it motivated them to start theirs. That is a huge compliment, because I was a fan of those blogs once they popped up and it wasn't until later after making contact with the authors that I found out they credited my blog. Last but not least are all the awesome friends I have made from blogging. Being an Army brat, in the Army myself and traveling the way I do with my civilian job I already know a lot of people and consider many dear friends. However the blogging world has opened me up to so many new friends that I am constant contact with. I know and am pretty close friends with the writers of all the major blogs in the milblogosphere. JP, CJ, Matt B, Jimbo, Morgan, John, Cory, Wendy, Eve, David, Greta, Blake, Marcus, Doug, and so, so many more. They are some of the best, unselfish, and most patriotic Americans you will ever meet.

Any regrets so far about blogging? I wish I had more time for it, and it would be nice to do it full time as a day job. Oh, and more readers of course, because you can never have too many readers. Overall in hindsight I wish I would have written more about Afghan culture and the people, but at the time that was not my focus.

What are the pitfalls for you? Hmm, well it takes a lot of time. A lot of time trying to keep up on what is going on in country, to formulate my ideas and then to sit down and write them. Especially with four different blogs that I write on. The time has to come from somewhere and that is usually sleep or family time.

Talk a little about your radio show. I co-host the show with my good friend, fellow milblogger and fellow First Sergeant CJ Grisham. We also recently added Marine SGT. Marcus Penn as the Producer and additional host when needed. Currently the show is on every Thursday evening from 7-9PM EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/youserved. It is an online radio show that can be listened to over the internet or people can call in to the guest line and listen. Our listeners can either call in to ask questions of our guests or they can login to the chat room that we are logged into during the show and ask questions that way. The show is also archived on the website, or can be downloaded as a iTunes Podcast after the show. We average about 5,000 listeners a week with most of them listening to the archive version after the show has aired. CJ actually started this show out, working with the great people at VAMortgageCenter.com who are the YouServed.com blog and the Radio show sponsors. CJ was solo hosting the show for the first few months and since I was usually called in to listen and we would talk a lot on there, he asked me to guest host one week when he was traveling and couldn't. Since he and I both write on the You Served blog it made sense. It was such a success that after the guest-hosting I was asked by CJ and VAMC to come on full-time as a 2nd host. We then increased the show time to two hours as we had to in order to accommodate the guests and our show talk in general. The You Served radio show has been a lot of fun. Talk about meeting great new people. Of course we are usually meeting them over the phone, but still. Some of the guests we have had have been Geoff Tate from Queensryche, Tom Neely from the band Bridge of Sighs, many Medal of Honor recipients, several Generals to include Marine MG Haynes who was on Iwo Jima and most recently the Army Vice Chief of Staff, GEN Chiarelli. We talk to a lot of musicians, authors, etc. but more importantly we talk to every day plain old Americans who are or have been in the service or are using their skills, talents, gifts to someone support our military. They are the true stars of the show. They are people who could go on with their lives and be content, but instead they feel led to something more, to giving back in appreciation of the freedoms we have in this country.

What prompted this platform for you? It is what was selected when the show first started and I think one of the few that is out there which is conducive to how we run the show. We have been courted by 4 other media outlets to move our show over to their platforms/stations and we are currently in talks with two of them. The first two didn't work unfortunately.

Do you prefer producing or being behind the mike in an interviewer's role?I like doing both, but it is extremely stressful. This is why we added Marcus, because there was too much to do. CJ and I usually trade off on who leads the interview, and via a chat window where he, I and Marcus are talking we are able to pass off to each other relatively easy. But during a show we are running the show chat room, paying attention to the guest, formulating our next questions, and we are also running a live blog via twitter which feeds the You Served blog. All of that plus spinning up soundbites or music to play can be a bit much. Marcus is new to the mix, but he has helped a lot already. Since it is all on our computers, there is only so much screen space and we can miss things, so being able to back each other up is great.

What would you say have been the pivotal moments where this podcast is concerned as platform for impact in the military and veteran community at large? I think last week, having GEN Chiarelli on talking about how the Army is trying to educate and fight the suicide problem has to be one of the most impacting. Also, our Veteran's day special show where we teamed up with a terrestrial radio station on the west coast. They broadcast in 11 states and have over 15 million listeners. We did what we think is the first ever terrestrial and online show featuring a veteran from every war since WWII, to include two Medal of Honor winners, talking about what Veteran's Day means to them.

I notice your twitter as well? What do you get from that vehicle which your website doesn't offer? Free Marketing that is viral and has a reach like no other. There is a huge population of Twitter users out there and it is growing every day. I use it not only for my main blog at www.bouhammer.com, but also for www.militarypundits.com and of course for the www.youserved.com blog and Radio show.

Talk some about your newest blog and how it came to be.Well the newest one is A.L.L. which stands for Afghan Lessons Learned. It is located at afghanlessons.blogspot.com. It came about through several conversations between myself and Old Blue from Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure Blog. I have been getting hit up for information about Afghanistan, what to bring, what to expect, what life is like, etc. since I was there in 2006. Old Blue found himself getting hit up for info recently from units that are surging into Afghanistan this summer. So we talked through it for a little bit and decided to bring in the authors of War on Terror News and Afghanistan Shrugged since they were both Afghanistan vets themselves. Between the four of us we felt we had enough knowledge and experience to create this site to be a central knowledge-base of information about all things Afghanistan. So that is what it is about and how it came to be. Army leaders wanting to pass on our lessons learned and not make others re-invent the wheel.

Any advice for those thinking about supporting military? Do it, do something. People were quick to mount an American flag on their car or put a magnet on their bumper after 9/11, but such a small percentage of them have actually done something real and tangible. They don't necessarily have to support the military, but do something to give back to your country. Do something to repay the debt that I feel each of us is born with by being born in this great country. However, if supporting our military is the way someone wants to repay, then tap into whatever it is you have. For some that is a wallet, for others it is their talents, skills, gifts, etc. that they have. I am amazed every week when we talk to people on You Served Radio about how they just step up and do whatever they can. It is not always giving money, sometimes it is just giving time.

What advice would you give milbloggers who have slowed down their writing since they have been back? Whatever you do, don't remove your blog. Old Blue and I have talked about this several time. We call it the bogger's post-deployment voice. Many lose it, heck I almost did. When you blog while deployed you write about what happens everyday. Whether it is mundane like "I went to the gym today, and hung out watching TV" or exciting talking about firefights or getting blown up by an IED. However when most bloggers come back they (and I think all) find themselves thinking "what do I blog about now?" I almost stopped by blog after coming back, but the thing that kept me going was seeing the amount of website traffic on my blog and the continued emails and comments I would get from people. I knew when I came back I would run it for a few more months to at least blog about the reunification, but then the number of visitors to the site stayed up and I found my post-deployment voice. In reflection I can see my blog went through several phases. First it was for family and friends, then it was for family members of deployed members and those getting ready to deploy who were thirsty for information. I then found it being for everyday Americans who may or may not had a family member in country, but felt that the MSM was ignoring Afghanistan and wanted to know what was really going on. The final phase is a morphing of all of them that want to know how I am doing, that look for info to help their family members and good old plain, red-blooded Americans who care about our military and care about what is happening in the place that started all of this off.

What advice would you give those who are thinking about blogging? Get on good platform. Wordpress is my favorite and I think is hands-down the best. You never know where your blogging will lead, so plan for the long-haul. You can ask any of the bloggers that started in country and they will all tell you that they never thought it would last past deployment or turned into what it has. So come up with a good and easy name, buy some cheap hosting space (My favorite is go-daddy.com) and then start getting it setup. Also, think about your audience, which by the way will be the world. Always pay attention to OPSEC, and follow the rules. But know the rules too. Some commanders may try to tell a soldier what they can and can't do with blogging, but there is a Army regulation, AR 530-1 that governs it. Be smart in your blog an be mature. Don't use it to just take cheap shots at leaders as you will find much un-wanted attention really fast. I was always very public in my identity, etc and have had no issues with it. Others prefer to keep their identity secret and that is fine for them. To each their own. We are all different.

What message do you have for civilians who read and frequent military forums, blogs, websites etc? Read more! Read Often, and tell your friends. If sometime sounds fishy or not right, try to validate. Just because someone is or claims to be in the military does not mean they are or they have the best intentions. History has shown we have had plenty of dirt-bags, sickos, and idiots in the military. Raising their hand to defend this country does not mean they are upstanding citizens. Oh, and be sure to check out www.bouhammer.com, www.militarypundits.com, www.youserved.com and afghanlessons.blogspot.com. I mean if you are new to blogs, they will give ya a good start. ;-)

Do you have any advice for non military folk who are trying to wrap their heads around our place as a nation in the bigger world? determining our role as American citizens? Wow, that is a zinger. I guess if there are non-military people out there who are competent adults and they don't know what their role is as an American citizen or our nation's role in the world, they may want to start reading some books, a newspaper, some blogs and maybe even watch some nightly news programs. If someone is walking this country of sane mind and they don't have an opinion on this, then they are definitely in debt to this country and need to start paying back quickly.
Having been on both ends of the mil support pipeline, what do you think or how do you think support from home affects troops on the front line the most? Any tips for civilians in being better at reaching out to our men and women overseas? Are there common mistakes well meaning folks do when supporting which troops understand, but perhaps wish they didn't face because it wasn't as helpful?
Support from the States is a great morale boost for the troops. Even though some stuff is not always needed or wanted, it still means a lot to the troops. Many if not all know how the Vietnam vets were treated and are very appreciated on how well they are treated. Having positive morale all the time while in combat and away from family and friends is
hard to maintain. Mail call is and always has been a huge morale boost for troops. The top 3 motivators are hot chow, time off and mail call. Getting a box of goodies makes every day one of those come in like Christmas. If anyone wants to support troops all they need to do is search the web or better yet pay attention to You Served Radio. We always have people or groups on that are doing great things to support troops. There are lot of really good organizations out there, but I am sure there are some bogus ones so research and validation is crucial.

Many people clean our their old magazines, old books, old games, and almost old or expired food products. I know times are tight and they can't afford to buy all brand new stuff, but I think troops would rather get nothing then a 3 year old copy of Sports Illustrated or food that expired by the time they got it. They should try to strike up a dialog with the troops and find out what they really need or want, and not what the supporter thinks they want. There are good sites out there that list some of the more popular and commonly needed items. One of those sites is my main blog and more specifically the posting here of a comprehensive list.

fyi from HR
Check out their podcast Thursday night from 7 to 9 EST, or download it for later listening. Check out the You Served archives as well. Link to You Served Blogtalk Radio in center column. --->