Friday, 14 May, 2004

Convergent Mir from Dim Sum Diaries left a comment on my last post. pointing out that the KBR narrowing of the internet pipeline from (and to) Iraq may not be occurring. At least not in the sense that Kathryn Cramers possible source indicated. Citizen Smash was the blog Mir pointed me to. In a post titled Rumor control Central he lays this at the feet of a nother milblogger (to use the nomen-de-guerre) Ginmar. Long story short blogging from the front is a hit or miss propisition. Many units and bases seem to have set up internet cafes to get connecticity - by passing the hat - using the units morale fund etc. Ginmar's unit seems to have done it by war-chalking a KBR WiFi network. If true- more power to 'em I say, but you have to be able to move on if they bitch and cut you off. I came away from that dicussion again just stunned by the changes in the way the information/communication revolution has changed. In my day as I've said before we had regular mail we would direct our folks to send to one of two or three "Fleet Post Offices" which would take about three weeks to catch up to the ship. From shore you always had the option of phone calls - at international rates. Or from the bases, Subic in the Philippines or Yokuska in Japan there was the Mars network which was a pre internet network of ham radio operators in and out of the the service. You would tell them the town and telephone no. and they would try to set up a chaining link of hams extending across the world until they got within a local call then that person would dial into the phone network at patch the signal through to your momma. You had to say "over" every time you finished speaking and it was quirky for sure, but it was free. Old School. The only computer on the Ranger was a water cooled univac that read punch cards. The military was not any smaller back in those days. There were a lot of us out there on the waves, its just that little was going on and no one was paying much attention. We lived in a separate world and I think that suited us. Anytime that something happened to us that the people back home would hear open it would just leave us feeling vaguely uncomfortable and exposed. Like running into the oil tanker, MV Fortune, causing that major spill in Singapore. An article on Phattya beach turning up in Newsweek the same month we were there. Over the course of the four years I was in the Navy, I changed considerably as as a person. Mostly this was toward the end. The years I was in the fleet - the year overseas on the carrier I was nineteen who or what was going on in Washinton DC was of no concern of mine. I couldn't even tell you who was secretary of Defense at that time. I didn't care. The military was a parallel universe. What did we care about then? The work, there was always the work. Explaining ourselves to each other, comparing stories of growing up in different parts of the country (and one of the things you learn there is that it is a big country with a lot of different looks and feels). One of the things that united us is that we had all rolled out of high school with the crisply phrased words "not college material" hanging about our ears. We were focusing on the moment and not the life of limited possiblities that awaited us. It wasn't just a job - It was an adventure. I look on the soldiers and sailors in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and wonder what the nineteen year old I was would do and believe among them. 11:33:15 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2004 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 6/08/04; 09:39:27.