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We Have Seen The Enemy And He Is Us

US Naval Institute Blog espies the Jolly Roger.* Officers seen muttering amongst themselves on the quarter deck, petty officers shouting, swabs scurrying about, gunports opening:

… a flag officer’s comments are getting some play around the blogosphere. Kudos to the man for engaging; stand by for return fire, I guess. New media is sometimes more like the JOPA sitting around with a beer than Dust Covered Minutiae Quarterly, but you can’t miss those golden nuggets you pick up with the JOPA. If we on active duty don’t get engaged effectively with new media, and I don’t mean by “information prevention” methods, then we cede any relevant arguments to whoever actually shows up and is effective. Worse, we could shut down the “forceful backup” we should be getting and wind up with silly decisions that cost a lot or drive the sailors crazy.

…

However, an officer interacts at career peril even in public affairs issues, making it terribly difficult to warm to thinking about media.

USNI charts the hazards … here be dragons … but in finest naval tradition damns the torpedoes. And roundups up the blogosphere reax. By the way, Vice Adm. Harvey, his previously disparaged disparagement of the scurvy rabble aside, does deserve credit for bravely venturing into these treacherous waters. More flag, general officers like this, please.

* Jan. 26 post, Responsible, Professional, Fact-Based, Emotion-Free Blogging

Advocated by Navy big who, like me, appreciates Small Wars Journal, where you’ll find him holding forth on blogspecs and the correct attitude and approach to blogification. A career spent in nuclear propulsion and personnel may have left Vice Adm. John C. Harvey underequipped to fully appreciate the ethereal technicolor beauty of the collective societal hurl that is the blogosphere, however:   (more…)

Topics: blogs, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:25 pm Comments (1) on Wednesday, January 28, 2009

One Response to “We Have Seen The Enemy And He Is Us”

1. Chap Says:
   January 29th, 2009 at 7:07 am

   Thanks, Jules! My first submarine’s commanding officer strongly counseled me not to write for Proceedings because he saw some horror stories careerwise. I’m glad I took a different path…

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