Here's My Article
(scroll down...I posted pictures)

Blogs provide connection for military families
By Brandon Telford
October 25, 2005
By Brandon Telford
Special to The Northern Light

At a Naval Junior ROTC dance at Chugiak High School her freshman year, Jamie Jennings met a young man who would become one of her closest friends.
As a member of a military family, Jennings was accustomed to changing schools frequently.
“I had never gone to one school for more than two years, until I was in high school,” said Jennings, a UAA sophomore fine arts major.
At the time Jennings and Matthew Bohling met, she was a freshmen and he was a senior. Neither their age difference, nor her friend’s complaints that Bohling was too outspoken, stopped them from becoming close friends and even dating briefly.
The summer after Bohling’s graduation, he enlisted in the Army.
“It was what he always wanted to do,” Jamie wrote in an e-mail.
Bohling was stationed in Georgia, but being several time zones apart, didn’t stop their friendship from growing. Jennings called Bohling for late night advice, often at four in the morning Georgia time.
“It didn’t matter how much I had to talk about… he always listened, always gave his advice,” Jennings said.
Communication between Jennings and Bohling was sparse during his first tour in Iraq, but whenever Bohling came home for leave, Jennings made time for the two of them to get together.
“Although I didn’t spend every waking moment with him when he was home, I gave him the time I could,” Jennings wrote.
After graduating high school, Jennings’ time was largely devoted to college and work. She experienced post-graduation loneliness as friends migrated away in pursuit of education and careers.
So when Matthew came home this August on leave from his second tour in Iraq, Jennings spent as much time as she could with him. She even took off early from class to see him off at the airport.
Jennings received several e-mails from Bohling after his return to Iraq, and then Sept. 6 she got a call from Bohling’s father. Bohling had been killed by an improvised explosive device.
After learning of Bohling’s death, Jennings spent several days searching the Internet for information about him. That’s how she came across the Web log of Some Soldier’s Mom. Soldier’s Mom had attended the memorial honoring Bohling at his home base in Georgia and had described the experience on her blog.
Some Soldier’s Mom, who asked that her real name not be disclosed, is a member of the blog group known as Milblogs. Milblogs are blogs written by soldiers and the families of soldiers.
After coming across Soldier’s Mom’s description of the memorial, Jennings e-mailed her.
“I realized that her son knew Matt and that’s when I needed to get in contact with her,” Jennings said.
Soldier’s Mom’s son Noah enlisted in the Army despite the protests of his parents. Soldier’s Mom and her husband, a 24-year veteran of the Navy, initially refused to sign a consent form to allow him to join before his 18th birthday, but he eventually succeeded in convincing them.
Noah deployed in January. His deployment left his mother reliant on her computer. She impatiently awaited the sporadic e-mails and instant messages from Iraq.
The silence between messages was made more unbearable when it was due to a communication blackout in Iraq.
The military is careful to prevent news of a soldier’s injury or death from reaching family through unofficial channels. When a soldier is injured or killed in Iraq, the military stops allowing instant communication and phone calls until the family has been notified.
“As we get past day three of a ‘blackout’ (comm lines down, busy schedules, banned communications because of casualties – whatever the reason), … I stay at my PC longer in the evenings and I get up earlier in the mornings, and if I awaken in the middle of the night, I stop in to look to see if anyone’s been on... to the point that I am going to bed about 2 a.m. and getting up by 7 a.m.,” Soldier’s Mom wrote in her blog.
Aug. 23, as Soldier’s Mom sat down to dinner, the phone rang. The caller ID was from Fort Benning, and the Sergeant on the line informed Soldier’s Mom that her son had been injured by an IED.
Noah received injuries to his back and shrapnel lacerations to his head and returned to the U.S. in September for physical therapy.
The communication between Soldier’s Mom and Jennings quickly led to the discovery that Bohling had been with Noah the day he was injured.
“Matt, in fact, helped Noah to the medical aid station,” wrote Soldier’s Mom in an e-mail.
While helping Noah to the aid station, Bohling spoke reassuringly to him, making reference to the day they had met.
“The last thing Matt said to Noah was, “Don’t worry... you’ll be fine – we still have to go back to Duluth,’” Soldier’s Mom wrote.
Weeks later, while Noah was recovering from his injuries, he learned of Bohling’s death.
“Noah describes Matt as a brother … even though they didn’t spend a lot of time together,” Jennings said.
As Jennings continues her education and prepares for an upcoming wedding with her Marine Corps fiance, she looks back fondly on her friendship with Bohling.
“Matt is the longest I’ve ever known any of my friends, and one of my best friends that I’ve ever had.”

You can see the picture that went with it at: http://www.thenorthernlight.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/25/435eecc81a6a3

Brandon

Here's What I did Saturday Night

I'm not in any of the pictures as I was taking them. I didn't stay long, but it was fun. There were a lot of cool costumes. The guy in the cowboy hat is Matt, he tutors Chemistry and is the only reason I'm passing right now. The girls are in some of my classes, and I hang out with them sometimes. Enjoy

Here's What I Woke Up To:

Every morning I peak out the window to see how many layers of clothing I will need. This morning I looked out onto a white world. We've finally got our snow!

It hasn't been warm, as you can tell by the thermometer picture. It's been in the low 20's at night. I really need to dig my block heater out of my engine. It's still tied up to the firewall, where the person who installed it left it. I need to run the cord out of the grill, so I can use it.

I'm not looking forward to class tomorrow, I'll be getting my Calc test back. I'm sure I bombed it. Another reason I should have spent the weekend studying. Did I? No. Had a couple other things to tend to. Like hockey games for one. I love watching the Aces. They play on this whole other level.

I ran in to a couple of Marines at the game. They were from the local recon unit. They gave me the number to the unit so I can make plans to come see the place. I need to check it out before I commit to anything.

For some reason I can't type tonight. My fingers keep hitting the wrong damn keys.

I've been feeling like ranting recently. The school paper ran an article covering an Alaskan's for Peace and Justice rally at the school in the issue the blog article came out in. This group is constantly putting on anti-whatever rallies and they seem to do most of their recruiting at the college. I see their fliers all over.

I'm always tempted to pull them down and throw them away. I resist this temptation because it would violate the principles that I served to uphold. They have the right to their opinion, however wrong it may be.

Anyway, I find myself becoming increasingly annoyed with these idiots. There has been an increase in the number of "Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home" bumper stickers around campus. Don't these Douche Bags realize what they are saying? The Alaskans for Peace and Justice want the Iraqis left high and dry. They want us to pull out our troops and leave democracy seeking people to be slaughtered. Where's the peace and justice in that?

Anyway, I'll post more rant later. I'm just not energetic enough right now. Besides, my fingers keep hitting the wrong damn keys.

Enjoy the Pics.

Brandon

For all who are keeping track, I won my hockey game Thursday. It was a great effort by the team that brought the win. They stepped it up in the third, when we were down by two, and they came back with three unanswered goals to bring us the win. It was a really good game.

I went to see the Aces play last night. That was a really good game too. The Aces scored their only three goals the first period, and the Bakersfield Condoms only scored once, on a garbage goal.

It's almost Halloween. Tonight there is a special Halloween thing going on at the college. The different clubs are supposed to put on games for kids and hand out candy. I signed up to help the ASCE club. That's a professional society for civil engineers. I'm supposed to help run the "pin the nose on the pumpkin" game. A bunch of people signed up, so if I didn't go I doubt I'd be missed. I may go though. I need to do some catch up homework.

My Calc test yesterday didn't go well. I didn't have a clue about half the stuff on the test. I've been working so hard on Chemistry, I've fallen pretty far behind in Calc. I wish I could just take a bunch of English and History classes, I'm good at those. I'm constantly told that the skill most lacked by engineers is writing. This excites me since writing is my strongest skill. I know I can find a place in the engineering world with my writing skills.

I better get to doing something productive.

Brandon

Humpday Already?

I can't believe it's already Wednesday. The week sure flies when classes are canceled. I haven't had my surveying lecture this week because the professor has been out of town. We had a proctor for our surveying midterm on Tuesday, but that was not too big of a deal.

It's around freezing outside right now. I think it might be just above, like 33 or 34. We still haven't gotten any snow here in Anchorage. I hear that this is really different than how things were ten or twenty years ago. Hopefully it'll snow by Halloween. I'm sure the global warming nuts are feeling pretty smug about the hurricanes and the late snows. Obviously the earth is a warmer place than it has been in a while. Go figure, who would have thought that coming out of an ice-age would warm things up. My question is, if we stop the warming process are we ready to go back into ice-age? I'm not loving that idea.

Anyway, I haven't heard back from the recruiter. I hope he got my e-mail. I have no other contact information for him, so I have no way to make sure. Hopefully he'll get back to me.

On other subjects, my articles came out in the school paper yesterday. I am working on getting digital copies of them so I can post them here. We'll see how that goes.

Brandon

28 Degrees, Still No Snow


Just thought I'd post a little update. There isn't much new news in my life. I am busy in school, as usual, and I don't commit enough time to studying. I should have a book open right now, but look what I'm doing. I haven't won a hockey game in a while. Thursday I will be playing with the club team, so there is a pretty good chance we'll win.

I've been taking a lot of midterms recently. I had a test in Chem Scored a whopping 67%. That curved out to a 88% as the class high was a 75.5%. The professor doesn't see having a class high of 75.5% as a problem. He says that's normal for a class like this one. I say there's some fixing that could be done. Maybe the test is a little too hard? Or maybe the class isn't receiving the high quality edumacation that we're paying top dollar for. Not that the students are really paying that much, but I hear the college eats a pretty big % of the State budget. Can't we get some quality instruction?

My actual opinion on this issue is that there is a time honored tradition among professors to make science classes much more difficult than necessary. This is often true for math classes also, but math is on the science side of the house. This strategy appears to be dying in many places, but that hasn't reached Professor F. yet. "The lashings will continue until morale improves."

So this is what I am dealt, and this is what I will deal with. I still have like an 85% in the class, so I'm not doing too badly.

I've been talking at a prior service recruiter. They finally got the anti-terrorism unit going up here. He's supposed to be scheduling a physical for me so I can see if I'm eligible to join. I think it would be great to put the uniform back on. I miss it.

Brandon

Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe how busy the first two days of this week have been. It's not going to get better in the next two days. Tomorrow I have a chemistry test that I haven't had much luck studying for. Tonight I skipped hockey to do some of the studying I need to do. I hate skipping hockey. It's rained a little this week, but no snow anywhere but the mountains. It' s still pretty cold, although it hit 50 today.

I better get on to doing that studying thing. Tomorrow is going to be tuff.

Brandon

I thought I'd post a couple pictures I took around the house today. The thermometer picture was taken around 5:00 this afternoon. It's much colder now. The picture of the mountain is a good example of what we call termination dust. The snow line will move up and down for a while, and then will drop into the city, and everything will be white. The other picture is of the lake by my house. It kind of looked like there was some ice out there, but I saw a float plane take off so maybe not.

I stopped into Some Soldier's Mom today, and learned about the deaths in her son's unit. Her son is trying to deal with not being "there." He's feeling like he's letting his brothers down by not being there to cover their back. That's a feeling I understand. I'm not sure how to deal with these feelings. I tell myself that I am working towards something that will make me a better person, and a better Marine should I feel the need to return once I am finished with school. This is a little helpful. I think that it's more difficult to talk myself into not going back than it would be to talk myself into going back.

One of the ways I have justified not going back has been realizing the Marine Corps could and would call me back if I was needed. I am IRR still, they could call me back if they needed to.

Enough about me, check out Soldier's Mom's blog.

Brandon

Look Who Was in Front of My House.


I came home the other day to this guy and his girlfriend hanging around. One of the joys of living in Alaska. Seeing moose is cool, if they are far away or not in front of your car at 65mph. Moose attacks aren't common, but there are plenty of people who have had to change their underwear after being charged. I juset heard a story today of some girls being chased down one of the trails at school. Can't confirm the story, but its possible.

Remember that article I was writing on the milblogs for the school paper. Thanks to Some Soldier's Mom and TCOverride, it's going well. Some Soldier's Mom has put me in touch with a friend of a local soldier killed in Iraq. Turns out this local girl is a student at UAA. It's a small world. I'm really interested in learning about her and her relationship with the soldier.
Right now I am at my girlfriend's parents house in Wasilla. The mountains out here are pretty well covered in snow at the peaks. I'm going to go out and get pictures later. We're still waiting for our first snow. It's been cold enough at night. It's low 30's at night and low 40's in the day.
UAA won their game last night in the classic. The team didn't look too good. It could be another one of "those" seasons for us. I guess most of our seasons are. I hope the Aces will be worth watching again. Last season was amazing.
I better get to homework, not much time between now and Monday.
Brandon

It's Friday?

This week just flew. I can't believe its Friday already. I could have used a couple more days. I've been running my ass off just to stay a step behind in school. Next week I have four or so midterms, and am pretty far from being ready for them. I will have to go without a life this weekend.
Tonight is the first night of the hockey classic here in Anchorage. UAA invites a couple of teams up every year for a tournament, so this is the first chance to see our team in action. I'm going with some people from class, my girlfriend has to work.
I turned in my article on military blogs for the school paper. Many thanks to Some Soldier's Mom and TCOverride for their help. I need to do a little tweaking to it before it can be printed. It needs a local flare. I need to find a local blog or someone that reads milblogs to give it the local angle. This is proving to be a little difficult, but I hope an angle or two will pan out.
I have another assignment, not as interesting. I'm writing about a potential fee-hike for the concert board here on campus. That's truly local.
Hockey update: its been a tuff week. Back to back losses early in the week. Actually one may have been a tie, depending on if they got the ref's decision overturned. Last night the ref didn't show up, so we played a scrimmage. It went really well, and the score board said 8-5 at the end. We had the 8. It's not really a win, since it wasn't a game, but it feels good to finish on top.
I dropped a mask off at a paint shop to get airbrushed. I'm pretty anxious about it, its a lot of money to buy a mask and get it painted. I've seen the guy's work though, and it's good. I'm sure it will look good. I'll get some pictures up when I get it, should be in a week or so.

Brandon

Paper Assignment, Winter, and Club Hockey

Back in the library. I have some time before my calculus tutoring starts, so I came here to do some research on my article. My research consists of reading through blogs from Iraq. I'm pretty well read up now, but I don't have my article saved to my thumb drive, so I can't work on it. That's fine, because I really need to do some catching up here.

I got an assignment from the school paper. It was a little vague, so I am adapting it to what I want it to be. Basically I want to write an article on the presence of military blogs from Iraq, so that students can be aware that they can find news about the war somewhere other than CNN. Hopefully I can get all my thoughts down before its due. I have until Saturday.

It's starting to feel like winter here. The temps been in the high fourties, low fifties. I guess that's a pretty far cry from -20, but it sure feels like winter. I could see some of the taller mountains yesturday, and they are pretty well covered in snow now. The lower mountains around town here are getting dusted every couple of days, but the snow isn't really hanging around too long. I'll try to get some pictures and post them, but light hasn't been cooperative. A couple of weeks ago when the semester started the sun was good and up by the start of my math class, 8:30 am. Now the sun comes over the mountains during class. It wont be long, and light will be at a premium.

I found out last night that the other club team goalie is getting his wisdom teeth out today. This means that he can't play tonight's game. I'll be the #1 until he's able to play again. Then we'll go bak to alternating. I wasn't planning on playing tonight's game, so I wasn't really worked up for it. It'll be ok though, just another game. My last three games have been wins. I'm not sure what my win/loss is so far this year, but it's like 3/4, maybe 3/3.

The club team is a strong team. We have lots of talent, and I was shocked at how disciplined the team is. They take coaching well. Last game the coach had them hold back for the first two periods, after two the score was 3/2 us. Third period the coach let the team loose. The game ended 10/2 us. That's some disciple they showed in the first two. We'll see what tonight brings. The game's at 10:30 tonight, so we only had ten players volunteer to play, out of 30.

Finally able to post!

It's been over a week since I've last posted. I'm such a slacker. I've been really busy. I had to bomb two tests last week. I studied really hard, but it didn't make much difference. My chem professor gave zero points on any problem where I made a mistake on the chemical formula. It didn't matter that I did the problem right, only that I got the formula wrong. I would have likely scored two grades better if it weren't for this policy.

It's getting a little cold. It was in the high thirties this morning. I don't know that it got much warmer until after noon. I'm going to have to bundle up a little for the surveying lab I have tomorrow. I'll have to be outside for a couple of hours.

I've been spending a lot of time reading Some Soldiers Mom. If you haven't been to this blog, go. I'll link to it as soon as I can. It's one of the best written blogs I've read.

It's getting late here and I should get to bed. I hope to post again tomorrow, I have a lot more to say.

Brandon