I’m happy to feature my friend and fellow Army Wife – LAW-  today! I wasn’t able to attend the MilBlog Conference this year due to other commitments. I will be there next year – I guarantee it!!!

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I’ve been to two milblog conferences now, and this one was great!  Meeting some of my “imaginary” friends is always a thrill.  Connecting with those I met last year again – a bonus!

Bouhammer was his usual self,  a gracious and great guy, and introduced me to a woman I admire very much, his lovely wife – who works so very hard for the troops! We are hoping to work together on some projects for Parents of Serving Military over at ParentsZone.   Matt/Blackfive was happy to hear from my husband in the Sand about his site and the fact that his hootch is decorated with a lot of the clip art from Matt’s site.

The special guest, MG Oates live from Iraq, is a blogger, who takes it seriously and uses it to keep in touch with his troops. His advice – candour!  Be upfront and honest with your readers and in his case, his troops.

Most of the panelists were intelligent, knowledgeable about their subject, and a couple of them were fascinating, and new to me, anyway.

Let’s start with Lily Burana. For those of you who haven’t read her book yet I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles-  go get it.  What are you waiting for?

Lily married a career Army officer who was teaching at West Point.  Lily had written a couple of books – a continuation of a varied career including punker, model and stripper. She continued being a writer, and a brutally honest one too. Reading her book gave me a great many “ah HA” moments,  “oh, yeah, been there!” , a lot of laughter and tears. As a panelist, her wit, ability to get to the point, and no fear, were refreshing.  She and AirForceWife were a terrific comedy duo!  After the panel, Lily was very gracious and signed books, and   I was very honoured to share a cocktail, and some good pizza afterwards with her and some new friends.

On the veterans panel, Genevieve Chase of American Women Veterans  (she is working to establish it as a non-profit) – after a fun surprise beginning (where she announced that we might not know it, but we were naked!) more than held her own when being confronted with someone who was rather reactionary and decided that the walls have to go up between Us (vets ) and Them (the public).   This panelist decided that the veterans community needs to pull in, not let the media in (after all, ALL media can’t be trusted….) etc.  Genevieve delivered a great rebuttal – which did take the wind out of his sails a while – and did it with grace, and firmness.   Many of us watching – are convinced there’s a new star on the blog/veteran’s horizon.

The final panel just BLEW me away.  Three very knowledgeable men, talking about the GWOT, they write policy blogs and are so incredibly smart, never talked down to their audience, and there was no evidence of (to quote one of my new friends) the “testosterone gunslinger”.  If you want to read thoughtful analysis, facts without spin, THESE are the sites you need to head to.  Small Wars Journal, Long War Journal, and Abu Magawama .

Problems – the usual – no internet access had been prearranged, and there was a scramble for the very few available power outlets. There must be somewhere we could have these conferences, with enough power strips! The internet access did eventually appear – but there were so many of us blogging (wow – imagine that- blogging at a bloggers conference!), we seemed to have exceeded the permitted sign-ins, and there were those that could not get on.

The Restaurant and Bar – great food – the pizza’s are really good – the service SUCKED! 25 minutes to wait for a Sam Adams – which came without a glass!!  I’d say the hotel needs a shakeup in the waitstaff.
It was a great conference with good panel discussions.

Great job, Andi, JP, Jeanie, Vince and Ward!

Guest Blogger LAW