Local Soldier Blogging From Afghanistan

The ABJ leads today with the story of Sgt. Brandon White from Ravenna who is a serving and blogging in Afghanistan. His blog gwot.us (or gwot dot us) is worth the visit. More than that, it's worth bookmarking.

First and foremost, Sgt. White is a good writer. His story, like the story of anyone serving in a combat theatre, is compelling. But unlike some military blogs, he can put the words together to tell it compellingly. His style is simple and straightforward. Even when he's getting exercised about something, he remains remarkable even.

But don't just take my work for it. Sgt. White's blog was voted this weekend to be the favorite Afghanistan blog and the fourth most popular overall.

Sgt. White describes himself as a "moderate conservative," so he and I don't agree on much. He still believes in both wars, though he thinks the surge and Bush's early unilateralism were mistakes. But politics is beside the point. His blog is a chance to read in more or less real time the story of one of our soldiers trying to do his job and stay alive. It shouldn't be this way, but knowing this man's family prays for his safe return in a house less than an hour from me, makes it more real.

I like the gwot dot us so much so that I added him to my reader and to a blogroll of basically miscellaneous cool stuff that I've been working on. It would be nice to be able to find other military bloggers from the area. Unfortunately the MilBlogging search function lets you search using a number of criteria, but not home town.

Meanwhile, with reports of a looming Taliban Spring offensive, we all wish the best for Sgt. White and his family.