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I will be offline from Saturday, August 28 until Monday, September 6 and will not be updating the blog during that time. I'll try to do a recap of the stories missed when I return.
This entry is post-dated, so check below for a few new items that I will try and post before tomorrow.
Thanks,
Todd
Restrepo is a new documentary about U.S. forces in Afghanistan that will be showing at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. Kanani Fong of The Kitchen Dispatch website has a limited number of tickets available for screenings on May 28th & 29th. If you are interested please contact her via email directly at kananifong@gmail.com.
From Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm" and Tim Hetherington comes this searing portrait of the present-day combat experience. Between 2007 and 2008, the directors made ten trips to Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, a six-mile region near the Pakistan border, at that time the focal point of the fighting between U.S. forces and the Taliban. There they dug in with the soldiers of the Second Platoon over the course of their 15-month deployment at an outpost named in honor of a fallen comrade, PFC Juan Restrepo. With unprecedented access, they chronicled the camaraderie, the tedium, and the deadly firefights that are the stuff of daily life; the result is this profoundly experiential film. After-the-fact interviews with the soldiers provide context and insight into what can be a disorienting experience for the viewer, as well as for the soldiers themselves. A nonfiction companion piece to Academy Award®-winning film The Hurt Locker.
A long time reader asked us to post this rather cryptic message in the hopes that this person will call them back again. They have reason to believe he/she reads this site and will catch this message.
"Important message to 'Concerned Friend.' Please call again"
I've always had a love/hate relationship with comments on this site. I love getting the feedback from readers, but hate the hassle of moderating comments. Spam attacks have made it virtually impossible to have an unregulated system. The result has been a constantly changing system of moderation, permissions and at one time a required registration with a third-party service, which essentially made it so cumbersome to comment that nobody bothered.
As an experiment to see if we can improve the conversation here I decided to implement a commenting system called Disqus. From an admin point of view it will make handling spam and moderating comments much easier. From a commenter's perspective there are many benefits, including:
Many of the advanced features (editing etc.) require you to log in, but you can still leave a comment without registering or logging in. Try it out and let us know if you like it.
Thanks,
Todd, Site Admin
I've been an avid user of both Facebook and Twitter for personal networking purposes, but to date have not established a presence on either site for Stryker Brigade News and its community. That changes today. You can now follow us on Twitter (@strykernews) and become a fan on Facebook.
I don't expect our presence and participation on these sites to detract from the flow of information here. I anticipate our Twitter feed will publish bits of info that don't warrant a full blog entry, and our Facebook page will simply be another way for our followers to connect to each other.
Best,
Todd
A few users have still been experiencing issues with the forum even after our recent upgrade. Tonight while trying to make a few adjustments I made things worse. As a result I am going to bring the forum down until I can reinstall the software. I'll let you know when things are back up and running.
My apologies - this has been as frustrating for us as it has been for those users affected.
SBN Team
Update: We got everything installed again and working. Please let us know if you are still having issues.
Update II 12/21/08: The upgrade was successful, so please let us know in the comments if this clears up any issues you were having.
Update 12/21/08: We are going to upgrade the forum software this afternoon (Sunday). We will be disabling the forum while we make the transition. We'll post another update once we're done.
*****
A number of people have emailed us recently having experienced problems accessing the forum area of our website. It seems when they try to access the main forum page they are redirected to what appears to be a spam website. A quick security scan didn't turn up any obvious problems, so we will likely try and upgrade the forum software sometime this week and that will hopefully fix the issue.
Apologies for the inconvenience. We appreciate your patience while we resolve this.
Thanks,
SBN Team
Apparently there was a bug in the software we use to track statistics that prevented anyone using Internet Explorer from accessing our site earlier today. Thousands of sites were affected from what I hear. I think everything has been repaired, but feel free to leave a comment if you are still having issues.
Apologies,
SBN Team
For the past few days we've been experimenting with a new comment moderation feature on our website that allows people to leave feedback on our site without registering first with Typekey. In the past we've had serious problems with spam comments, to the point that we felt we had to require people to authenticate their identity. However, this tends to limit the conversation because few people are willing to take that extra step just to leave a comment.
So far the new feature has only allowed a few bad comments through, which is an acceptable ratio in my mind if it means more people can participate in the conversation here. So, unless the volume of spam becomes unbearable again we'll allow visitors to leave comments without registering with Typekey. You'll still have to provide a valid email address, but it will never be displayed on the site or used to contact you.
Comment away!
Thanks,
SBN Team
UPDATE: Deadline has passed. We have a winner.
This is just a reminder that the deadline to enter our DVD giveaway is 3 PM PST today (Friday). If you missed the original announcement you can review all of the details in this entry. Bottom line - we are giving away a copy of the new DVD Rescue Dawn.
UPDATE 12/07: My wife picked a name from the hat, and Richard Zahn was the winner. Let us know if you like it.
We recently received a brand-new copy of the film Rescue Dawn, which was just released on DVD last week. If you're not familiar with the story here is the basic plot, followed by the trailer:
This film tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Dengler organized a death-defying escape for a small band of POWs, including Duane Martin.
We would like to give our visitors a chance to win this DVD by answering a simple trivia question regarding the film. If you send us the correct answer your name will be automatically entered in the drawing. Keep reading for the details.
The majority of our news contributors will be on vacation for the next week, so new entries will be sparse during that time. In our absence we invite you to stop by our forum to connect with others, or visit the following sites to keep up on the latest Stryker news. Have a great week.
SBN Crew
Recent feedback from visitors has made it clear that we haven't done a good job of explaining how our commenting system works. In order to prevent spammers from submitting bogus comments advertising their websites we require people to register with an independent, third-party authentication service called TypeKey.
It's free, and once you have registered all you need to do is enter your username in order to comment on any entry here. If you have cookies enabled on your browser the system will remember you, and you likely will only need to log in the first time you leave a comment.
Additionally, this authentication system is completely separate from our forum registration system, which also requires registration/username/password. If you are a registered forum member you still need to sign up with TypeKey to comment on the homepage, and vice versa.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Todd, Site Admin
todd (at) strykernews (dot) com
If you recently registered for our forum, but have yet to receive the activation email, please try logging in now with the username/password you selected. We require an administrator to approve all registrations (to prevent spammers), but for some reason all of the recent notifications we get were sent to my spam folder and some were permanently lost. I manually activated all recent user accounts, but I'm not sure if the system sent out the "You have been approved" emails to people.
Additionally, some of you may have been experiencing extremely slow load times for our site recently. We discovered a bug in some code that was causing the problem and have removed it. Things seem quicker now. My apologies on both counts.
Todd
Site Admin
Voting has ended in the Military Blog Contest sponsored by the folks at the VA Mortgage Center. I was not able to view the tally before the contest closed, but early this morning we were solidly in 2nd place, and I suspect that is where we will stay when the final results are announced. (Update: Final results have us finishing 2nd.) A strong surge yesterday brought us to within single digits of 1st place, but A Soldier's Perspective responded to the challenge. Congrats to them! They have promised to donate the prize to the Camp Lejeune Ballerina's. Maybe we can be gracious 2nd-placers and visit their site to wish them well.
Now, our biggest thanks are reserved for our loyal visitors. We may not be the biggest group, but this contest confirmed my belief that we have the most loyal community out there. Thanks to everyone for your efforts to spread the word. As a result we will still be able to make a substantial contribution to Operation Second Chance.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Sincerely,
SBN Crew
Update 1/22/07: I was content to let this one slide down the page, but we've closed the gap and are now only 14 (14!) votes behind 1st place. $250 would be great to donate to Operation Second Chance, but we have the ability to get $3,000 for them if we finish 1st. Rock the vote if you haven't already. Thanks!
Update 1/21/07: We're now in 2nd place (barely!), but still have a long way to go to catch the site in 1st. The contest ends at 12 PM CST on Tuesday the 23rd, so spread the word.
Update 1/18/07: We've moved into 3rd place, but still need a significant boost to move higher. Thanks to those of you who already voted. If you still need to cast your vote you can do so at the VA Mortgage Center website.
Update 1/16/07: We are currently in 5th place with 145 votes. The leader right now has 283 votes, so we have a lot of ground to make up. You can only vote once, but feel free to forward this entry to personal contacts so they can vote as well. The contest ends on 1/23/07, so we have a week to close the gap. Thanks.
The VA Mortgage Center just created a new blog, and in an effort to publicize it they are running a content to select the most popular military blogs. Here's the kicker:
We are awarding $250 to the top 10 military related blogs, according to votes from our users. And the top military blog will receive a total of $3,000.
Now, we have never participated in a contest like this, but we thought this would be a perfect way to raise money for one of our favorite organizations - Operation Second Chance. Please go vote for Stryker Brigade News, and any money we receive will be donated to this wonderful organization run by our friend Cindy McGrew.
Vote now at the VA Mortgage Center blog
Thanks,
SBC Crew
Officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are seeking donations for wounded troops who are forced to leave behind personal belongings when medically evacuated from war zones.
Many of the troops “arrive with nothing,” said officials from the hospital’s Family Assistance Center. Because of the speed with which the most serious wounded are evacuated from Iraq or Afghanistan, their belongings are often left behind and don’t catch up.
Well, it appears that the current layout breaks down when you view the site with a screen resolution < 800 pixels. Since that represents 20% of our users we'll have to come up with an alternative. It will take a few days to identify/implement a solution. In the meantime, for those of you experiencing problems, try reducing the text size of your browser, and be sure your window is maximized.
Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your feedback.
REQUEST: If you are having display problems can you please visit this test page and see how it looks? Better? Comments to todd (at) strykernews.com.
FINAL UPDATE?: We've implemented a layout that seems to work well for everyone. Unless I hear of additional problems I'll stop posting these updates. Thanks again for your patience.
As part of our redesign we are consolidating our XML/RSS files into a new single feed. While the old ones will still be available for a short while, we urge you to update your feed address to http://feeds.feedburner.com/strykernews.
If the whole idea of RSS and feeds is new to you, Feedburner offers a very good tutorial. Try it out - it might change the way you keep track of content on your favorite sites. If you decide to try a feedreader let me know. I would be more than happy to share a file that includes all of the feeds I track to find Stryker-related news.
Yes, this is still Stryker Brigade News! We are in the process of rolling out a redesigned site. Some areas still have the old look and feel, but we will work on converting them as time allows.
You'll notice some features that used to be on the homepage are no longer available. We really wanted to reduce the amount of info to the bare essentials. If there is something missing you thought was critical please feel free to send me an email (todd at strykernews dot com). I welcome other feedback as well - migrations never go 100% according to plan.
Thanks,
Todd
(This entry will remain on top for a few days. Please scroll down for recent news.)
Since our site was founded in January 2004 we have maintained an explicit Comment Policy and clear Operations Security (OPSEC) Guidelines. If you only read three items on this site, please make them the following:
The decision authorizing a deployment extension for the 172nd SBCT has produced an incredible amount of feedback via comments and our bulletin board. I would like to remind visitors that we maintain a Comment Policy, and also ask commenters to observe the Army's own OPSEC Guidelines. Please read them if you haven't before. For an explanation of why it is so important to follow these guidelines, please read our OPSEC Parable.
We've had to edit many messages recently that have violated these policies - particluarly due to our long standing position as a non-political forum. If comments become too time-consuming to edit we will be forced to turn them off for the time being. We appreciate your understanding.
Thanks,
Todd - Site Admin
I don't know about you, but I've received a fair amount of email spam recently from senders using our domain name (styrkernews.com). I've seen various addresses used, including info, administrator, webmaster, service, support, and mail @strykernews.com. If you receive an email with an attachment from one of these addresses it is NOT from us. DO NOT open the attachment - simply delete the email. The only time we send out emails is through the forum when people register, or if they have automatic notifications turned on in their profile. Those emails all come from admin (at) strykernews (dot) com, but NEVER contain attachments.
Thanks,
Todd
I'm hoping this note will clear up some of the confusion regarding the usernames and password required to access certain areas of this site. When this site was originally created, the only operational part was the page you're reading now, the news section. Over time we've added the Forum and the Photo Gallery. However, each area is run by a separate piece of software, all of which require a unique username/password combination. Provided below is a quick summary of the different areas of the site, and what you'll need to access each.
Even in the midst of the continuing losses in Iraq we thought it was necessary to pause and acknowledge the tremendous devastation on the Gulf Coast here at home. The scenes on television are reminiscent of the tsunami last December, and it sounds like it will get worse before it gets better. Our thoughts and prayers are with those directly and indirectly affected by this incredible storm. For those interested, here is a link to the Red Cross fund set up to provide assistance.
Comment spam continues to be a time consuming administrative problem for our site. We've installed specialized software and taken other defensive measures, but almost daily we still experience spam attacks. Consequently, we've decided to take the next step, which is to implement a commenter registration system.
From now on you will be required to register with TypeKey before leaving a comment. This is a quick, one-time registration. Once you are registered and approved you will be able to leave comments on this and many other TypeKey enabled websites. Please feel free to visit the TypeKey website to learn more about this service.
We understand that this adds an extra burden on our visitors, but we feel this is a better solution than disabling the comment system altogether. Thanks for your understanding.
SBN Team
As most of you know Stryker Brigade News (SBN) is maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers, but the cost of hosting and managing the site, in terms of time and money, can be significant for our contributors. Consequently, since many people have asked what they can do to support the effort we thought it would be helpful to put together the following list.
We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the London bombings today. To the hundreds injured we will pray for your speedy and complete recoveries. It's hard to find sufficient words, but the world certainly seems like a much smaller place during times like this.
On June 17th Operation Homefront Washington and Sprint will be in front of the PX at Ft.Lewis from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. to offer to families and or spouses (in time for Father's Day) the opportunity to send a FREE 15-20 second video by email deployed hero overseas. There will be paper and crayons in case the kids would like to draw a Father's Day card to video or mail. There will also be candy and bottled water AND Seattle Mariners Ryan Franklin will be there in the morning. It will be fun and a great chance to boost the morale of your hero!
We wanted to make people aware of a few email scams that are targeting the military community. Included below is a link to a press release by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement ("ICE") with the details. Additionally, I'm including the full text of another scam email I received. ICE advises that you simply ignore and delete these emails if you receive them - do NOT respond.
Sgt. Sherman's military burial will be held on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. at Arlington National Cemetary.
This Saturday, January 22nd, our web host will be physically moving the server our site is hosted on, which requires some downtime. The move could happen anytime between 6 AM and 8 PM EST tomorrow. If you try and access the site and get an error message, that's why. It's unclear how long the process will take, but a minimum guess would be 1/2 hour, perhaps longer if things don't go smoothly.
Some of you may have noticed that the Photo Gallery is open again. Feel free to view albums and add photos. If you recently requested to start an album of your own I will be sending out instructions in the next couple days.
Please be aware that we've made a few changes. In the past, when photos were added, thumbnail, medium and large size versions of each picture were created. That wasn't a problem when the gallery was small, but it has become an issue given its current size. Going forward, when NEW photos are added, only the thumbnail and medium size versions will be created. Additionally, next weekend we will be deleting the large version of OLD photos. If you want to save a large version of an existing photo, be sure to do it this week.
Sorry if some of you got a bandwidth error message recently. I was adjusting our account settings and entered the wrong number (oops!). That's what happens when you put me in control. Might as well mention here that we fixed the gallery, but I still need to reconfigure a few things before we open it up again. I'll be offline tomorrow night until Sunday, so we'll get things squared away when I return.
I apologize for doing this again, but I had to disable the photo gallery until further notice. While I don't want to bore you with details, some explanation is needed. The primary issue is that even with the switch to a much more powerful server, we are still experiencing bandwidth issues. Secondly, that part of the site experienced problems during the transfer, which has made it impossible at the moment for contributors to log in. We'll keep troubleshooting as time permits.
Transfer complete (whew!). All areas of the site are now available again - comments enabled, forum and gallery open. Please let us know if you run into any serious problems as you navigate the site. We may still need to make some adjustments, so your continued patience is appreciated.
UPDATE: Hopefully all of you are able to navigate the site just fine, but I'm still having a few issues with the software we use to post entries. Until that's fixed posting will be light.
We have decided to take advantage of the news break to transfer our site to a new server, which is something we desperately need to do. We've ourgrown our current home and need more room to breath. At our new residence we can also open the gallery back up.
To make the switch we need to take a "snapshot" of the site, transfer that image to the new server, and test things to make sure everything works alright. During that process we cannot add new content to the site, which means we have to disable comments on the main page, and "lock" the bulletin board beginning at 6 PM PST, December 25th. You won't have access to the bulletin board, but you can still browse the main page and archives.
Overall, the transfer could take us 24 hours to complete, hopefully less. We will let you know when we're all done.
Thank you for your continued patience.
What to say? Perhaps someone else could describe in words the mix of emotions we all feel, but I'm at a loss. It seems appropriate at this time to take a break from the news cycle and reflect on what we have, and who we've lost. Regular updates will resume sometime later this weekend.
In the meantime, please feel free to leave your comments below, and perhaps visit our Memorial Page or the Tributes archive.
Regards,
SBN Team
We've enabled the comments feature again with one change - comments are now "moderated". When you submit a comment it will not appear on the site until one of the administrators "approves" it. This process could take minutes or hours depending on our availability. Rest assured, it will appear on the site, so there is no need to submit your comment multiple times.
The photo gallery is still disabled, however. We are in the process of implementing a permanent solution, but with all of the activity this week our first priority is news content. Thanks for your patience.
CLARIFICATION: This change has nothing to do with the content of comments we've received. Moderating will temporarily allow us to reduce the load on our server, but still let you comment.
(This message will remain at the top of the page throughout the day. Scroll down for new entries.)
Traffic spikes are putting a big strain on our server right now. To manage the problem we've temporarily disabled comments and the photo gallery section of our site. We're working to address the issue, but I can't tell you for sure when everything will be working again. Thanks for your understanding.
UPDATE: We are currently exploring long-term solutions, but for now the gallery and the comments will remain disabled.
Comments are back on now. Sorry for the inconvenience. As I mentioned previously, I'm pretty sure it was one of the other sites hosted on our server that got hit by spammers, but comments for all sites were disabled until the problem was resolved.
Hello all. Well, it seems the spammers have been at it again on the server's side so our software has disabled the comments section. As always, this will be a temporary thing but a few changes need to be made to ensure we don't get hit again. Sorry for any inconvenience and hopefully we will be back up and running after making a few changes.
Take care.
UPDATE (Todd): The problem is not with our site - we have pretty good protection against spammers. Our site is co-hosted, so it's likely another site on our server that got hit.
I'll be offline until Monday morning, so if you'd like to sumbit an item to be posted, please contact one of the other contributors. Also, if you send a request to set up a photo album I won't be able to sign you up until I return, but I will get back to you then. Have a good one.
The upgrade went "ok", but we still need to add a utility that prevents spam in our comments section. Until we get that piece installed we have disabled the comments function. This is only temporary and we'll let you know when we're all set to go.
UPDATE: I think we're all set, so comments are enabled again.
Saturday morning we will be upgrading the software we use for the site, a long overdue task. Ultimately the changes will be invisible to visitors, but there's always a chance things might look a bit out of whack while we upgrade.
I've had a few emails today saying the site has been acting strangely since yesterday - pop-up windows, missing photos etc. I haven't noticed anything strange when I visit the site, but could you leave me a comment describing the problem if you have? If I get a better sense for what the problem is I can contact our web host.
UPDATE: I think I figured out why the images weren't appearing, but I have no idea why pop-up windows would appear. Since someone suggested it could be an adware/spyware problem, I recommend trying Spybot - it's free.
FYI - I'm out of town for work and probably won't be able to post regular news updates until Wednesday morning. I might be able to post a few items later tonight.
UPDATE: We're bring this old entry back to the top because we have confirmed that the date for the Homecoming Ceremony has changed to 11/22. We wanted to pass this along in case you are making travel plans.
We've posted the following information on our bulletin board, but I think it's become necessary to post it here as well.
Specific return dates for units of the 3-2 SBCT are not public knowledge and should not be disclosed here. One date that has been approved for distribution is November 22nd, when an official homecoming ceremony for the entire brigade will be held. You can assume that individual units will be returning in a staggered fashion until that time.
The past few days we've had to edit a number of comments discussing return dates. If you have any questions regarding why this issue is important, please feel free to read our OPSEC Guidelines and this OPSEC Parable.
I wanted to let everyone know that we have been adding new articles to SSG Burbank's entry, and will continue to do so. We've learned from past experience that is best to collect all related information in one spot for future reference.
FYI - I guess there was some sort of hacker attack on part of the network (i.e. - the internet) that our server is connected to, which slowed down our site and perhaps made some pages unavailable. I think they've got a handle on the situation now.
We got word that Mosul (and the rest of Iraq I'm assuming) turned back the clock on October 1st, so we've adjusted the time on the sidebar. The time difference is now +10 hours between Ft. Lewis and Iraq.
We've put together the following list of information regarding our site for those of you that may be visiting here for the fist time. We will likely add to the list over time, so we will display a link prominently on the main page for future reference. Thanks for joining us and we hope the service we provide is good enough to make you a return visitor.
Last Updated: 06/15/07
Because this site provides news and information regarding military units currently deployed, we must always be concerned with Operations Security, or "OPSEC". Websites are available to anyone with access to a computer (bad guys too!), so we must always be mindful of the information we publish here.
We have an official Comment/OPSEC Policy that is based on guidelines provided by the Army. Please be sure to read that. Additionally, Ranger Joe has written the following OPSEC Parable, which illustrates why it is so important to maintain OPSEC here.
Throughout the weekend I'm going to try and post a number of (hopefully) useful messages regarding features on this site and information about the Stryker Brigades in general. I'm guessing that as the two brigades transition we will have a number of new visitors who might find this helpful.
You may have noticed that there is always a long delay when you post comments here on our site. Explanation: Spam has become a problem not only with email, but on sites such as ours as well. Spammers have discovered that they can boost their search engine ranking by leaving bogus comments on blogs that include their site's web address. To combat this, we have been using software that compares all text in every comment against a list of known spammer websites. The comparison takes a while (it's a long list!), which is what causes the delay after you click "Post".
James, who maintains the StrykerRecon.com website, was gracious enough to create a new site banner for us while he was home on leave. I'm not going to have time to incorporate the banner throughout the site before I leave on vacation, but you can take a sneak peek here. Pretty nice huh?
I wanted to say thanks before he heads back to Iraq. Be sure to check out his site as well - it looks like he's been making some serious design and content upgrades lately.
Our web host was upgrading our server this morning, which is why the site was down for a while. I didn't get word until this morning so I couldn't let you know beforehand. We should be good to go now.
We've added a row of navigation links at the top of the main page. Hopefully this makes it a bit easier to jump to other parts of the site without scrolling down the page and looking for them on the sidebar. We'll be adding these to the rest of the site soon.
We ask that you observe the following guidelines when commenting on our site. Administrators reserve the right to edit or delete any comments that we feel violate these guidelines, without prior approval.
The Army's 1st Information Operations Command (Land), Vulnerability Assessment Division, OPSEC Section has provided a very useful presentation called, "OPSEC (Operations Security), A Guide For Family & Friends." Since the document we link to above is a PDF file and might take a while to download, I've copied the text and published it below. Please take a minute to read this, as it will serve as our official OPSEC policy.
Trying to understand what information is safe to reveal on a public website is difficult, but this document does a great job of explaining the restrictions. I've been looking for something like this for a while, so thank you to the reader who sent this.
I guess our site was unavailable for a while today - server overload apparently. Everything seems to be fine now.
UPDATE: Anyone else having problems accessing the bulletin board right now? I sent an email to our web host to find out what the problem is.
UPDATE II: Bulletin board works for me now. You?
In anticipation of increased news coverage of the upcoming deployment of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (1-25), we have added a new category called 1-25 Brigade News (how original!). Additionally, all of the stories regarding the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division can still be found in the 3-2 Brigade News category.
Finally, if the demand is there this site will support the 1-25 during its deployment.
We have been notified by our web host provider that there is a possibility that our site could be down for 6-12 hours this weekend as it moves our server to a new datacenter. If this happens the downtime will likely be on Saturday. Consequently, don't be alarmed if you try to access the site and find it unavailable.
This sounds like a good opportunity for all of us to step away from the computer for a bit. In the event that the downtime is longer than 12 hours, check in at my old site and I'll let you know what's going on.
My email account has been rejecting messages since last night because my inbox was too full (Doh!). The problem has been fixed, so please resend any messages if you tried to reach me recently.
I'll spare you the details, but we seem to be having a problem with the software that loads photos in the gallery. If you have tried to transfer pictures to your album during the past week and received an error message, this is likely the reason why. We'll be contacting our web host today to try and get the problem resolved.
UPDATE: I think we know what the problem is, but I won't have a chance to troubleshoot until this evening. I apologize to all of you that have tried to load pictures lately (especially new gallery contributors) - it's probably been frustrating to get the same error message again and again.
FIXED: Please try to load your photos again - I'm pretty sure we fixed the problem. Let me know if you receive any additional error messages.
We recently created a new page on the site, one that we were hoping would not be necessary. Please take a moment to visit the Memorial Page honoring those Stryker Brigade and Task Force Olympia soldiers that we've lost.
I want to personally thank Charlotte for gathering all of the content for the page. We will be adding a permanent link to the memorial on the sidebar shortly.
Based on a few inquiries today, I'm afraid some people have the impression that the contributors to this site have access to information that is not public knowledge. We don't. We search for news using a variety of public media sources, most of which are listed on our links page. Let us know if you find something we've missed.
I know I've said it before, but I continue to be amazed by the evolution of this site. Visitors, especially those that contribute regularly on our bulletin board, have created a very special support community. Other people have noticed. I feel very fortunate to be associated with all of you.
[Link to Full Article]
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
When Spc. Michael Merila was killed in Iraq in February, relatives and friends of Stryker brigade soldiers grieved online. One message in particular stood out.
"During the long few months he's been deployed, I've already experienced 2 near misses and it never gets any easier trying to relax," wrote a young woman who called herself JakesKatie.
It's nice to share good news whenever possible, in this case a birth announcement I received via email from Marie:
This is a picture of my newly born grandson, Anthony Jonathon Kirk Combs, born while his Dad, Sgt. Daniel Combs is on deployment with the Strykers, 1-23 Charlie company. He was born April 21, 2004 at 03:50 at Madigan Army hospital, weighing 8 lbs 7 oz, 21 inches long. Mom, Callie Combs, along with big sister Caitlin, and new baby brother Anthony are anxiously awaiting Dad's safe return.-Marie M.
Click below to see the picture.
If you sent me an email the last few days and I haven't responded it's because I've been out of town. I'll try and reply as soon as I can, but it might be a day or so.
We've noticed that the number of daily visitors to the site has increased pretty dramatically in the last couple weeks. If you're relatively new here, we wanted to point out that in addition to this main news page we also have a bulletin board (BBS) and a photo gallery.
The BBS has almost 500 registered users, mostly friends and family of soldiers serving with the SBCT. It's been a good support network of you're looking to connect with others during the deployment. As of this morning we have approximately 1,650 photos from the various units in our photo gallery. From the main gallery page you can click on the link for each unit to view the albums.
The first episode of "Band of Brothers" will be broadcast on Sunday night.
In related news, crews are finishing construction of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The site will be officially dedicated over the Memorial Day weekend in May - almost 60 years after D-Day.
(via Power Line)
I really miss the reporting of Michael Gilbert.
Mel wanted me to pass along some information for Stryker families located in the Shreveport and Bossier City areas of Louisiana. Apparently soldiers can call Barksdale Air Force base and they will be connected to a local phone number for free. Two fifteen-minute calls are allowed each week. More information is provided below.
UPDATED: Added one step to the instructions.
This morning our web host had a big spike in traffic, which slowed down all of the sites hosted on our server. Eventually they had to reboot the server, which caused our site to be down for a short period of time. Sorry for the inconvenience.
UPDATE: While we're on the subject, one of our visitors let us know that the main page was causing her browser to crash. It turns out that the clock script we were using was the culprit. Once again, we removed it and Dan found one that seems to be much more stable (we now have Ft. Lewis time also!). If you ever experience an error or problem, please let us know.
BREMERTON A trust fund has been set up at Washington Mutual for the family of Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, a soldier with the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade, who disappeared in the Tigris River after the boat he was in capsized Jan. 25...
Donations can be made at any Washington Mutual branch by requesting to donate to Michele Bunda's account.
As news trickled in yesterday regarding the explosion in Sinjar, I did something I told myself I wouldn't do - I posted an update based on word of mouth. That update turned out to be wrong. In an attempt to clear the confusion, I inadvertantly added to it. I'm sorry.
This is precisely why I try not to add analysis, commentary or conjecture to any news item we link to. I'd rather point you to the news and have you draw your own conclusions. From now on if I see a news story of interest I'll post it, but until I see an official press release or news story that provides additional details, I'll keep other information off the main page.
Regards,
Todd
Since the Weather Channel magnet displaying the current temperature in Mosul hardly ever worked, we replaced it with a simple link to a more accurate forecast. We'll keep looking for a better solution.
UPDATE: Never fear, Dan found a new and improved weather magnet that is much more reliable (looks better too). Thanks Dan!
We've enabled the site feature that allows you to email entries. To do so, click on "Link to this Entry". Scroll down until you see the email form, fill in the required fields and hit "Send". To send an entry to multiple recipients, separate each address with a comma. Voila!
For OPSEC purposes we should all read this article.
By Andrea Takash
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 30, 2004) The Army is working to ensure that thieves cant steal the personal information of Soldiers, their families and Army civilians.
Over the past five years, 27 million American adults have been victims of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commissions 2003 Identity Theft Survey Report...
We've received a few emails from soldiers with the SBCT recently, and others have left comments, so we wanted to officially welcome you to the site. Glad you found it. Thanks for everything you are doing for us over there and know that there is a large group of us following your progress and waiting for your safe return.
What else do you guys want to add? Leave a comment for them.
Did anyone else have trouble reaching the site this morning? Our web host was experiencing some technical difficulties and visitors using certain internet providers we unable to access the site, including myself. If you sent me an email this morning there's a chance I never received it. Everything seems back to normal now.
This is not Stryker related, but I thought I would warn all of you that a new virus is spreading via email. According to the Symantec website:
Security Response is currently investigating a new mass-mailing worm. Initial submissions have been received with file extensions of .exe, .pif, .scr, and .zip. Additional information will be made available as soon as possible.
I've received about 10 infected emails today with various subject lines, including, "Hi", "Hello", "Status" and "Test". If you receive an email with an attachment and don't know the recipient, I would suggest deleting it, then emptying your trash.
The Photo Gallery is up and running. For future reference, we've added a permanent link on the sidebar.
Thanks to all of you that have submitted photos so far. If you have any Stryker Brigade related pictures, send us an email and we can get you set up as a contributor (please DO NOT send photos - just a note saying you would like to create an album of your own). Just a reminder, we don't want any photos pulled from news articles or military websites - original content only.
For those of you visiting the Gallery, please be reminded that all images belong to the album owners. If you would like to display these photos elsewhere, contact us and we will put you in touch with the right person. It is ultimately their decision whether or not to share the photos. Thanks for your understanding.
Dan is the man! When I asked if anyone knew a way to insert a clock with Mosul time, Dan immediately sent me a script that works quite nicely. We are now able to display a real-time clock featuring Fort Lewis and Mosul time on the sidebar under the "Mosul Info." heading.
The page may load a bit slower because it has to go and retrieve the current time, but I think it's worth the wait. Don't you? Now if we could only find a way to keep the Mosul weather station reporting consistently we'd be set.
Thanks for helping us out Dan. Very cool!
UPDATE: We're taking down the clock for the time being; it was causing problems for Nescape and Mozilla browsers. Once we figure out the glitch we'll put it back up. Sorry for the pump-fake.
FIXED: I think we're back in business. Dan sent a simplified script which displays Mosul time. Let us know if you have any problems with this one.
On the sidebar you should now see a weather magnet from the Weather Channel displaying current conditions for Mosul, Iraq. You can click it for a 10 day forecast, I believe.
I've been testing this for a couple days and the stats are iffy; for obvious reasons the reporting station in Mosul is not very reliable. If you see "N/A" from time to time, it's only because the Weather Channel can't get a current reading. It was working today so I decided to put it up.
I have to laugh at the "Airport Delays", "Sporting Events" and "Pollen Reports" links they include. Can't change that.
Oh, I was also going to display a clock with the current time in Mosul, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Most of the clocks I found pull the current time from your personal computer, not a specific location. Instead I inserted a link to the World Clock, which displays the current time in Mosul. Any web gurus out there? I'm just an amateur.
I'll be travelling through Sunday evening, so Mike's the man if you have any questions/submissions in the meantime.
Take care.
For those of you visiting this site for the first time, I just wanted let you know that we also have a very active bulletin board system installed. Click on over and register if you want to check it out.
We all know that the inaugural Stryker Brigade is being watched closely as it conducts operations in Iraq. Any new vehicle or weapon system is going to be scrutinized by its users and the military community at large. Donald Sensing has posted an entry at his blog which puts such discussion in proper perspective. Click over if you're interested.
FYI - I've received a number of emails from people wondering why we don't post more information on the Stryker vehicle. My answer is that this website is dedicated to news about the SBCT, not the vehicle. I'll link to an article that discusses the vehicle as it relates to the current deployment, but this site will not become a portal or discussion forum for the Stryker. Our focus will remain on the soldiers, not the machinery.
I just created a new entry category called, "Mail & Care Packages." If you want to find all entries related to this topic, you can find a link on the sidebar under "Entries by Category".
You'll notice that the Google Ads are gone from the sidebar for the time being. The only ones that were being displayed were public service ads, for which we receive no revenue for clicks. After searching the online support forum and trying to contact customer service, I still can't figure out why we're not receiving targeted ads.
Consequently, we're moving on to Plan B, which I have some reservations about. We've gone ahead and added a donation link on the sidebar. Our time is free, so any donation would go to offset maintenance costs associated with the site, especially as it grows. Absolutely no obligation, we'll still be here no matter what.
I know I speak for Mike and I both when I say that this has been a very rewarding experience so far. Thanks again for visiting.
Alright - back to the news!
UPDATE: We now have a PayPal and an Amazon Honor System link.
A couple of days ago I received an email from Steve, who owns the domain names strykerbrigade.com and strykerbrigade.org. He explained that his friend's son is deployed with the brigade and he was considering developing a site dedicated to the unit. He happened upon this site and instead decided to donate use of the names to us. Consequently, if you type in either of those domain names, you will be automatically forwarded here.
I think that's the main reason why we are moving up the ranks.
Thanks Steve!
Now that we have the site up and running, I just wanted to check and see if everything was working ok from a visitor/user perspective? I'm a feedback junkie, so share your thoughts in the comments.
One thing I have to admit - administratively it has been a busy few days. You are always free to send an email to me or Mike and we'll try to reply as quickly as possible. However, if you think you can get answer on the bulletin board (lots of smart people there), try there first.
I've received a few emails wondering how to get in touch with brigade soldiers in Iraq (mailing/email addresses etc.). I need to reiterate that, to date, I have had no contact with Ft. Lewis or the FRGs (I'm not in "the official loop", so to speak). Official questions need to be directed elsewhere; I just can't help, unfortunately. There are a number of bulletin board visitors that would probably be willing to help, so that's a good place to start.
Thanks for your patience.
Many people have emailed me with problems they've had trying to register for the BBS. They sign up, but never get the confirmation email needed to become an "active" user. My best guess as to what is occurring is that the confirmation email is sent to your trash folder b/c your email system thinks it is junk. Check your trash, or change your settings until you get the confirmation email.
If all else fails, send me an email with your user name and I will activate your account manually.
Thanks,
Todd
We're all set to go with the bulletin board system (BBS) for the site. I just wanted to set out some guidelines and instructions before we open it up for business.
Additionally, if you plan on using this feature regularly and would like to help us moderate the forum, please send me an email.
I'd like to wish all of you a Happy New Year!
2003 has been an historic year for all of us, but creating this spot for you has been a positive highlight for me personally.
Best regards,
Todd
P.S. - Remember, you need to start writing "2004" on your checks...it usually takes me a couple months to figure that one out.
In an effort to clean up the sidebar a bit, I've moved all of the links to a separate page. All you need to do is click a link category on the right and it will take you to a full list on the links page. I have a problem with clutter, but if you prefer to have all the links listed on the main page let me know...we can negotiate.
We've added a little guestmap to the site. The link will be permanently displayed on the sidebar. Let us know where you're visiting from.
Can you tell I'm trying to clear out a few of these admin items?
If you look over on the sidebar, you'll notice that I've added a few Google ads to the site. Google ads are randomly generated based on keywords found on the site, so I have no control over which ads appear (just in case you spot a weird one). They will be displayed on the home and archive pages.
The ads generate revenue for every click, so my hope is that this will offset the cost of maintaining the site and make it self-sustaining. Now, I am not allowed to solicit clicks, but if you happen to find one that's interesting, by all means check it out...once.
If this gets too irritating, or doesn't work, we'll move on to Plan B.
The following will serve as the site's official disclaimer regarding Military Operational Security ("OPSEC"). I found this at the Solo-Ops website (which is worth a visit) and thought it was very appropriate for this forum. Thanks to Cannoneer No. 4 for the link.
Would you like a bulletin board system on this site?
A bulletin board would be similar to the comments section, but it's more permanent and you get to choose the topic of conversation. Right now, when an entry is more than a week old it slides off the front page and into the archives. Often times people leave a comment to an old entry, but no one ever responds because the entry is out of sight. The bulletin board would help with that problem.
There are probably many other positive uses that I haven't even thought of. We could have sections for each of the units. We could have a section for care package questions. The possibilities for topics are pretty much endless.
The only downsides would be the increased cost of web server space and the need to monitor/administer the forum. Those obstacles can be taken care of if you guys want it. This is your site.
Just FYI - I successfully imported all of the "Stryker Brigade" entries from the other site. I still need to assign each entry to a category, but at least everythig is here for you to browse.
Doing a quick scan, I noticed that some entries do not have all of the comments included (the "Holiday Open Thread" had close to 100 comments, only 26 were imported). I'll take a look, but since they are all listed at my old site, I'm not going to kill myself trying to figure it out.
Whew, glad that worked.
UPDATE: Everything has been categorized.
Well, this is the new site. We're not done tinkering, but it's ready to use. We will be posting all new news here, so bookmark this site for future reference. Thanks for all of the encouragement.
We want this site to be as interactive and as user-friendly as possible, so if you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to send us an email. In the near future we will be adding a number of features, such as a guest map and a bulletin board. We'll let you know as they come online.
I will continue to contribute to this site, but I have also enlisted a few others to help out. Mike, who covered the news while I was gone, will be a contributor. We'll be joined by two others as soon as we get them set up and comfortable with the software.
If you have something that you would like to share with others, we are open to guest submissions. Just send me a note to discuss.
Thanks for your patience as we continue working on the site in the background.
Todd
I received an email from Margaret that I think is worth posting. Here's the part worth repeating (emphasis added):
Hey Todd -
We just received an email from unit people requesting that we be extra careful about anything the we post on the internet, especially rumors or things that we have heard from our loved ones that could be considered an operational security violation. I thought it might be a good idea to remind everyone about that. We don't want that info to get into the wrong hands. From what I've read so far on your website, I don't think I've noticed anything like that, but it's probably better to put that out there anyway. You may want to put that disclaimer in a very obvious place on the new website. We need to be careful that we don't get into any discussions about where the guys are or what they will be doing next, etc. Thanks!!
-Margaret
Just an FYI, I've made sure that everything I post here is already in the public domain (on the net).
Curt Beck found a quote from his son, 1st Lt. Joel Beck, in this article. Anyone else spotted a loved one?
Well, here are the results as of 9:30 PST Friday night (the polls are now officially closed):
1. strykernews.com 50 votes - 54%
2. strykerweb.com 32 votes - 35%
3. strykerblog.com 9 votes - 10%
4. sbctnews.com 1 vote - 1%
5. sbctblog.com 0 votes - 0%
Consequently, www.strykernews.com will eventually be the new home to news about the Stryker Brigade. Don't go there now; there's nothing there. The next step for us (I've got help already, thanks!) is to get things set up.
Here's the deal. I'll be out of town Wednesday through Sunday of next week and will not be able to work on it during that time. Consequently, look for a switch around the first of the year. In the meantime I will still post news here at this site. I'm working on a solution for news updates while I'm gone. Stay tuned...
Lately I have been awed by the amount of responses received from those who have a loved one serving in Iraq or the surrounding area. I just wanted to thank each of you for sharing your knowledge and feelings regarding those representing us abroad. I hope you know that you, your loved ones, and those we personally know serving in Iraq will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers until they return home.
Happy Holidays . . . I look forward to your future posts.
Julie (Todd's wife)
Ok, the general consensus seems to be that a dedicated site would be a good idea. The next step is to register a domain name, so I thought I'd ask for some help. I've listed a few web addresses that are available below. Vote for which one you like the best, or include your own idea in the comments section. I'll leave the poll up for a couple days then decide which one to use.
I chose each of these primarily because they are short and descriptive. I like the first one best (strykerblog.com), but I'm flexible.
UPDATE: Based on a comment, I've added strykerweb.com as an option (hhhmmm...catchy, I like it).
(Voting is now over, to view the results go here.)
I have an idea I've been mulling over, which I think is a pretty good one, but I wanted to get some feedback. Stryker Brigade news has pretty much taken over this site. Don't get me wrong - that's a good thing in my opinion. I honestly had no idea so many people would find this site and visit regularly. The comments you have left and the emails you have written reinforce the notion that this news is important and demands attention. Consequently, I'm beginning to think that the topic deserves its own website - a blog.
Setting up a blog is pretty easy, and I'm more than happy to do it. There are a number of features that I don't use/need on this site that I think would be great to have on a site dedicated to the Strykers (email alerts, guestbook etc.). If I set one up I would aniticipate taking a break from this site and concentrating on the new one. Furthermore, I might see if there are one or two of you out there that are willing to contribute by posting new articles.
What are your thoughts?
First, let me say thanks again to all of you that have visited this site looking for information about friends and family serving with the Stryker Brigade in Iraq. I'm glad I can share most of the news about the brigade in one convenient spot.
Based on a few email exchanges there is one thing I need to clarify - I'm not a reporter embedded with the SBCT. I'm here in Seattle. Like most of you, I'm simply searching the news looking for stories about friends over there. I thought I would take advantage of this space and share what I've been able to gather with the rest of you. Additionally, many of you have been kind enough to forward articles that I've missed so I can post them for everyone's benefit. Please keep it up.
One of the great things about having a site like this is that you all can leave comments and make connections with others. Reading your comments makes it worthwhile for me.
Thanks,
Todd
A number of people have written emails wondering why I link to news about the Stryker Brigade, especially since I don't have an "About Me" page on this site that might provide an answer. The simple explanation is that Julie (my wife, for those that don't know me) and I have a good friend who is a Captain serving with the Stryker Brigade in Iraq right now. I would have searched for news for my own benefit, and I thought others might be interested as well. When the unit deployed to Kuwait/Iraq, I realized that there would likely be an increase in stories, and demand for stories, about the brigade, so I decided to create a separate category for them.
For those of you that are visiting this site for news about family or loved ones serving, thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email if there's something in particular you would like to see. Also, if you find a story I've missed, I would appreciate a reminder so I can post it here.
Thanks,
Todd