As Stryker is caught up with “Digital Warfighter”, and the USMC is keeping Cpl. Blondie rather busier than usual, the regular posting of good bloggy tidbits on SSDB has increasingly fallen to Kevin Connors and myself of late. Indeed, Stryker wants to devote his full attention to “Digital Warfighter” and so has generously given the keys to this blog to us. Kevin and I plan to maintain this as a group blog focusing on aspects of the military life and experience, and an infusion of fresh contributors is necessary to maintain the high standard to which we have all become accustomed.

The writer Arthur Hadley, in his analysis of the military “The Straw Giant” felt very deeply about the consequences of what he called ‘the great divorce’, that distance between an insular, self-selected military and the elites— especially the intellectual, political and business varieties, who generally thought of the military as “unwanted step-children at best, and at worse, inclined to be vicious”. It has been thirty years since some experience of military service was a common coin amongst Americans. Many Americans only see military service through the blurred lens of television and the movies, and many who have served tend to take their own experience as typical of all, even though the difference between the experiences of , say, a Vietnam-era Army Ranger and an Air Force P-MEL tech in the 1990ies would be substantial.

We would like to continue “informing and entertaining” per the motto and mission of AFRTS (only without the cheesy ads!) and so extend an invitation for active duty, retirees and veterans of any military service— American, Canadian, British and Australian— to audition for a place in the Stryker collective. (I will consider DOD civilians also, especially if accompanied by literary brilliance!)

We ask only that you share a passion for explaining and enlarging upon the military experience, be able to communicate that in writing— and that you not be a raging conspiracy freak (the X-files is soooo 1990ies!). Comment below or e-mail me privately, if you are interested in being part of the collective blog experience.

Thank you
Sgt Mom

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