Saturday, November 19, 2005

Grey Eagle

UPDATE: 11/21/05: Okay, I am in a bit of a shock. A few people had told me to check out Michelle Malkin's blog and I just got around to it...I'm on her blog!!! I'm not worthy!! Sorry, but I feel like I've glimpsed the holy grail! A very heartfelt thank you to all who have helped lift the morale of Grey Eagle and her fellow soldiers (270 comments and counting) and thank you to whoever tipped Michelle off to the post because now everyone will know and they will think about all the other Milblogs they read and will be even more likely to leave encouraging comments. It's a good day! (Cross-posted at A Rose By Any Other Name)
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UPDATE 11/20/05: Wizbang not only commented, but emailed with ideas for stopping the hackers from getting onto her blog/website. And thanks to everyone who went over there to leave encouraging comments this morning there were 30 and now there are almost 100! Thank you everyone!! Here is Grey Eagle's reply to Wizbang's post:
I first wish to thank Mr. "Wizbang" for his comments and the very nice email he sent me. There are many people who have been wonderful and very supportive. Not always of the war, but I never asked anyone to support or oppose the war, only that you support the troops, who do not make policy, but dedicate their lives to the beliefs of freedom, whether they are yours or the Iraqi people.

In response to my website and the question of confusion. I started the website out as a simple blog on blogspot while I was trainning for my deployment. As it grew, it became a website, and I have had to learn html and how to install simple php programs on the fly, as I had no real experience previously. In regards to the tribute, there are three little programs called "cute news php" that comprise my website. One of them is in a folder titled "tribute" and that makes up the various tributes using catagories to seperate the Female soldiers from the 101st soldiers. It is in this program that when I type in the information and click "save changes" that no matter what I type, I get the message printed out on my website "you have been hacked....bush lied", It does not seem to have affected the previous tributes I had done, only anything new I try to add. Since I am a basic learner at best that is all I can tell you. There were a couple of guys from the 160th Special Op's IT group that were going to build a new website with something called post nuke content management system, but they have been tasked out to special training for an upcoming deployment and as such the project is sort of on hold. I do not know enough to continue the project without them.

I hope this clears up any confusion on the website. My post was to address the fact that my freedoms to post my tributes were "taken away" while deployed to protect freedom. That is why I didn't address the specific's of the situation.

I am deployed at FOB Warrior, which is located just outside the city of Kirkuk where I am a combat medic the 101st Airborne Division. Whether I am working out of the treatment facility, on a convoy, or providing medical response for the patrols I can tell you that what I see is so much different than what I saw on the news or read about before my deployment. I simply wanted others to see what I see and make up their minds based on that and not be influenced by what someone else reports to them, whether it is the left or the right. But for you as Americans to take the freedom that I am here defending as use it to make decisions and opinions for yourself based on truth and not on political spin.

Adain Mr. Wizbang, thank you for your kind words and the opportunity to post my comments on your website.

Grey Eagle
Combat Medic
Charlie Company
426th BSB
1st Brigade
101st Airborne Division
FOB Warrior - Iraq
"Air Assault"
Posted by: Grey Eagle at November 20, 2005 08:47 AM
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Not too long ago, I asked that everyone go and leave a positive comment on Grey Eagle's blog (A Female Soldier 2) to encourage her since there were some really nasty comments there. To all those who left them, thank you! But apparently the problems went much further than just nasty comments. Here is a bit of what she has been dealing with the last two weeks.
I wish to express my congratulations to the hackers, vandals, and anti-war visitors who successfully blocked my ability to post any further tributes to the soldiers. I am sure you find victory in preventing myself and others from having a place to read and pay our respects to the Fallen Female Soldiers, and my brother’s in arms, the brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division. I can only imagine your satisfaction in justifying the disgrace of men and women who died for this country. You may not feel it was justified, but they gave their lives believing in what they were doing. Apparently freedom of speech is merely a phrase to you, not something you believe, in unless it applies to you. If you do not share the person’s view you justify your actions in removing the ability for them to express their opinions. In doing so, you have only displayed to me that your cause is unjust, and strengthen my resolve and beliefs in what we are doing here. You have dishonored those who did believe in something, and toke away my right to mourn their memories. These were men and women who actually took a stand in what they believed in, sacrificed their time with their families, and put themselves in danger simply because they believed in something. So to support your beliefs what have you done? Oh, that is right, you took away my freedom to pay tribute and mourn my fellow soldiers.

It is unbelievable that there would be such horrid people, but there are and we need to make sure they are the exception and not the rule. Once again I ask that we leave encouraging comments and if there is anyone out there with constructive ideas on how to stop these hackers, I'm sure she would be appreciative. I know that it would mean a lot for her readers to have her back on regularly to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers. Thank you!

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ED. NOTE:

UPDATE: Anna has posted a follow-up to this post HERE.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone out there who has taken the time to send a message of support to Grey Eagle and to our troops. The following is a list of blogs that I have been able to find that have linked either here or to Grey Eagle (or both) as part of this blog burst. Thank you!

American Flag League; Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, (2); Argghhh!; Bad Dog Barking; Basil's Blog; Betsy's Page; Blackfive; Blonde Sagacity; Blue Blogging Soapbox; Brainster's Blog; Cao's Blog; Cheat-Seeking Missiles; Common Sense Runs Wild; Conservative Musings; Daily Pundit; Dean's World; Delftsman; East Coast Wisdom; Ex-Donkey, (2); Freedom Folks, (2); Gateway Pundit; GM's Corner; Greg's Notes; The Gunn Nutt; Infinitely Prolonged; Inoperable Terran; J. Rob's House of Opinions; The Jawa Report; KenSCA, Rants and Rambles; Kerfuffles; Kitty Litter; Knowledge Is Power; Lucky Dawg News; Michelle Malkin; Marathon Pundit; Mike's America, (2); Military Families Voice of Victory; Moonbattery; The Mudville Gazette; MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy; NeoModernism; A North American Patriot; Old Controller; The Paladin Blog; Patriot World; Pettifog; Pirate's Cove; PoliPundit; Purple Avenger; Random Numbers; The Real Ugly American; Red Hot Cuppa Politics; Rite Turn Only; Shooting the Messenger; Sisu; A Small Town Veteran; Special Agent Utah; The Squiggler; Stander's Point; Steaming Pile of Orthodoxies; Sunday Morning Coffee; Swap Blog; A Texan Abroad; Thoughts by Seawitch; Thoughts on Politics, Life and God; The Voice; The Wide Awakes; Wizbang!, (2); Y-2-Dray 4-Ever

A tip of the hat to V the K as well, who was active in spreading the word, even though he felt his photo caption humor blog wasn't the most appropriate place to post on this subject.

Thank you for visiting The Right Place and don't forget to visit Anna's own wonderful blog A Rose by Any Other Name as well!

This list will be updated periodically. If you have a post on the subject, just trackback or comment here or send us an e-mail and we will be happy to recognize your efforts as well...

UPDATE 11/21: It has become apparent to me that a link to the comments from the article in question at Grey Eagle's blog functions as a permalink.

- Mr. Right

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