MetaFilter posts tagged with military and soldier

Their balmy slumbers waked with strife

Abiezer — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:41:37 -0800

The Soldier in later Medieval England is a historical research project that seeks to 'challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453'. They've compiled impressive databases of tens of thousands of service records. These are perhaps of interest only to specialists; but the general reader may enjoy the profiles of individual military men: these run the gamut from regional non-entities like John Fort esquire of Llanstephan ("in many ways a humdrum figure" though once accused of harbouring a hostile Spaniard!) to more familiar figures such as rebel Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr, who began his soldiering, as did many compatriots, in the service of the English king. Between such extremes of high and low we find, for example, Reginald Cobham, who made 6,500 florins ransoming a prisoner taken at Poitiers and rests eternal in a splendid tomb; and various men loyal and rebel who fought at the bloody Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

"And they're not supposed to kill you while you're having chai with them"

Burhanistan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:57:10 -0800

Afghan Lessons Learned for Soldiers - a collection of musings on life as a soldier in Afghanistan. It's on Blogspot but not much of a blog per se, more just a convenient place to post observations. There are currently two pages of posts. As a bonus for those interested in recent history in Afghanistan, be sure to bookmark/RSS Ghosts of Alexander.

Први светски рат

tellurian — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:06:22 -0800

Prvi svetski rat - Gritty and poignant Serbian postcards from the First World War. Just one of the seriously interesting (e.g. check out the collection of 78s) holdings at the Digital National Library of Serbia.

Legio Patria Nostra

Sticherbeast — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:16:55 -0800

Like most boys, I grew up dreaming of a life filled with action and adventure. Unlike most men, I was able to live out those boyhood dreams during my five years in the French Foreign Legion. Previously.

Rape within the US military.

Sticherbeast — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:31:01 -0800

The private war of women soldiers. "Last year, Col. Janis Karpinski caused a stir by publicly reporting that in 2003, three female soldiers had died of dehydration in Iraq, which can get up to 126 degrees in the summer, because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being raped by male soldiers if they walked to the latrines after dark."

Not just 'chicks with guns'

runkelfinker — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:27:27 -0800

Rachel Papo - photographer and soldier Some great pictures from Rachel Papo, a photographer and sometime (1988-90) soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces...

Marching orders

rob511 — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:33:07 -0800

He wasn't asked. He didn't tell. Now he's out — and discharged. Eye-opening tale of Jeff Howe, courtesy of Raw Story. After 9/11, feeling personally unfulfilled and wanting to serve his country, Howe enlisted at the age of 29. Knowing he was gay but realizing that Army guidelines forbade his kind, he re-entered the closet, underwent basic training, and was shipped to Iraq. After a two-year stint on the front lines, with five commendations, he returned stateside. Then he was stop-lossed, shipped back to Iraq, and started writing a blog. That began a chain of events that, through no apparent fault of his own — or loose lip-flapping — led to Jeff Howe and the Army parting company.

my internet access has become restricted

amberglow — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 15:29:16 -0800

Double Plus Ungood --so there's this soldier in Iraq with a blog, All The King's Horses. He usually complains a little, tells readers about what he does, talks about the stop-loss thing that's keeping him in Iraq, etc. So, the Operation Truth site posts something by him, and the next thing you know, the blog is dead, and an unwilling public apology and retraction and statement of support for Bush and his leadership is posted. ... it breaks my heart to say that this will be my last post on this blog. I wish I could just stop there, but I can not. The following also needs to be said: For the record, I am officially a supporter of the administration and of her policies. ...

Real or Memorex?

kablam — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 10:45:53 -0800

A soldier's letter home, or clever propaganda? This "letter" has been making the rounds as an email, supposedly from an officer, stationed in Iraq, named "Mark". He certainly seems to know a lot about what's going on. He loves his job, likes his generals, and admires the Iraqi people, who like him and other Americans; and he hates the press and the foreigners he says are fighting reconstruction. Sounds a little too good to be true.

Front-line troops disproportionately white

dagny — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 04:34:18 -0800

Front-line troops disproportionately white, not black. While blacks are 20% of the military -- compared with 12% of the U.S. population -- they make up a far smaller percentage of troops in combat jobs on the front line. In a host of high-risk slots -- from Army commandos to Navy and Air Force fighter pilots -- blacks constitute less than 5% of the force, statistics show. Blacks, especially in the enlisted ranks, tend to be disproportionately drawn to non-combat fields such as unit administration and communications. ''If anybody should be complaining about battlefield deaths, it is poor, rural whites,'' says Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois.