This week, You Served and VA Mortgage Center.com got a chance to talk with Greta from Hooah Wife. A many thanks to her for taking the time to answer a few questions - be sure to check out her fantastic blog!

You Served: What led you to be a Military Blogger?
Hooah Wife: I became a Military blogger the day I was reviewing my husband’s last will and testament before he headed to Iraq. I had to get my feelings out to the world. I haven’t been able to stop blogging since then and now have multiple blogs!

YS: Do you feel that being a female Military Bloggers adds a unique perspective to your blog? If yes, how so?
HW: My blogging comes from the unique perspective of having been a military spouse and now the wife of a retired soldier. I think every blogger offers a unique perspective - that is what is sooooo cool about blogging.

YS: What impact has your blog had on you and those who are part of your blogging community?
HW:I think Hooah Wife has made an impact on the Milblog community since it has been a consistent blog for over 3 years. It has now become a group blog with the other contributors keeping the main theme of supporting the troops and being pro-military. We are also proudly the home of the Wednesday Hero, where we highlight a hero a week.

YS: What is the best part about being a MilBlogger?
HW: The camaraderie! Over the years I have also had the privilege of meeting many of the men and woman behind the blogs in person at the Milblog and Soldiers’ Angels conferences and through my travels. It is truly a small world on the internet. Being a Milblogger is something I don’t take lightly. I realize there are lots of men and women in uniform and their family members looking for information and answers.

I have always tried to make myself readily available to anyone who needs advice.

YS: What, if any, lessons have you learned from being a MilBlogger?
HW: The lessons I have learned…well…blogging is time consuming. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t read or write. Hooah Wife has continued to have a nice community that is “troll free” and revels in discussion. It doesn’t take much to be noticed by those who you provoke on the internet and we continue to fly under the radar. We welcome diverse opinions and discussions, but treat everyone with respect. I have watched many blogs become infested with nasty commenters and am grateful that we have stayed small enough to maintain some sense of community.

YS: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start her own MilBlog?
HW: Do it and only keep it up only if you enjoy it. Be responsible and remember OPSEC home and away is extremely important. Blog as if your friend, the enemy, your Grandmother, your boss and God is reading your blog. If you follow those rules - you should never have a problem!

Profiling a MilBlogger returns this week as our staff sat down with a fantastic female milblogger - Carla from Some Soldier’s Mom. Let’s see what see had to say shall we:

You Served: What led you to be a Military Blogger?
Some Soldier’s Mom: When my son was getting ready to deploy to Iraq in late 2004, I was surfing the web to find information on what he might experience and what parents’ go through and any useful information that I could use.
I found a number of military blogs (milblogs) by soldiers but nothing from a parent, so I started Some Soldier’s Mom (www.somesoldiersmom.blogspot.com) as a way to share what I thought was a unique and important experience — to let people know what it was like to have a child at war.

YS: Do you feel that being a female Military Bloggers adds a unique perspective to your blog? If yes, how so?
SSM: Definitely yes. While I can be strident in my views about the war on terror and the necessity of our Country’s mission in Iraq, I am a mother first. It is a unique role — we experience emotions and have a perspective different from the soldiers (who can’t understand why we worry or cry so much) and wives (who willingly took on the role of military wife and has a daily relationship with their soldier).

I have written that a parent sending their son or daughter to war is one of the most counter-intuitive experiences a person can ever have: you spend 18 (or 19, 20… ) years protecting them and making sure that they are never too hot or too cold, that they are protected from biting bugs and making sure they are not anywhere that people might be shooting at them. Then you are called upon to be brave and [somewhat] cheerful as you send your child off to a place where it is always too hot or too cold, there are bugs the size of small dogs and people are shooting at them and trying to blow them up.

I also feel that female milbloggers bring a view not driven by the battlefield experience but by the support role expected of families back home. I have never been to war, but I have sent a child to war.
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Jami from AmericanBabble.com took the time to provide some great answers this week for our ongoing features on female MilBloggers. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us here on VAMC’s You Served Jami!

You Served: What led you to be a Mil Blogger?
Jami: I had been in the National Guard for 5 years before I was deployed to Iraq in 2005. I never thought about blogging until my deployment to the Middle East. I think I started maintaining a blog mostly to keep in touch with everyone back home. I knew they would be worrying
about how I was or what I was doing. Even though I wasn’t able to update my blog during that deployment as much as I do today, I think it still helped people understand what was going on with me and with the war in Iraq.

Part of me also maintained the blog to help document the experience. Today I’m so glad that I did! Memories tend to fade and distort with time. It’s my own personal time capsule.

YS: Do you feel that being a female Mil Blogger adds a unique perspective to your blog? If yes, how so?
J: I think that the vast majority of my blogging could have easily have been written by a male soldier. But I think the simple fact that I am a female soldier writer, regardless of what I write, makes it unique. I don’t believe that my writing speaks in any particular female voice. It’s simply another soldier’s perspective.

YS: In what ways did your time in Iraq change your perspectives?
J: When I arrived in the Middle East, I instantly recognized how sheltered I was as an American. This alone opened my eyes beyond anything else that had previously happened to me in my life. I also realized that being gone from home for so long taught me the importance of self reliance. I could also see what it really meant to be poor and it left me with disdain towards America’s culture of materialism. Most importantly, my time in Iraq changed my perspective on life and it helped me understand the importance of living it with fervor.

YS: What is the main message you seek to share with visitors to your blog?
J: I write mostly observational posts. With that being said, I suppose my main message would be for people to take a moment to let these observations roll around in their heads so that they can see that the world isn’t so black and white.

YS: What have you learned from your experience as a Mil Blogger?
J: I’ve learned that writing publicly is both fulfilling and intrusive. Sometimes I forget that it’s more than just myself who can read the posts. The first time a stranger approached me to talk about my blog in person, (specifically about a few emotional posts) I didn’t quite know how to react. It’s an unusual feeling knowing that the stranger in front of you knows you far better than you know them.

YS: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start her own MilBlog?
J: Try to write as honestly as possible but be mindful of the eyes who will be reading it. Also, for every negative comment you may get, you’ll received 10 more positive ones. Be sure you allow those 10 positive comments to out weight the one measly negative one.

This week, our ongoing spotlight on female milbloggers finds us talking with Brenda from Hello Iraq. Thanks for taking the time to talk Brenda, and we hope our readers enjoy.

You Served: What led you to be a Military Blogger?

Hello Iraq: When my nephew was killed in Kuwait March 5, 2004, I used to go to the DOHA website for support. One day I found my first milblog while looking over the site. I was entranced. That blog led me to others. I started visiting different milblogs of deployed soldiers and offering my support on their blogs. Shortly thereafter, I started my own blog, Hello Iraq, to support the troops and the War effort.

YS: Do you feel that being a female Military Bloggers adds a unique perspective to your blog? If yes, how so?

HI: Yes. Most people think don’t think of women when they think about the military, especially with regards to combat. Even though women are not officially assigned to combat, they are facing death every day side by side with our male troops and doing as well as the men. I read today that a women in Afghanistan was awarded the Silver Star.

But aside from combat, many of those who consider women in the military have a jaded view of us as muscular or gay jock types. That simply isn’t true.

The milblogs show Americans that we are just every day women who, like the men, have a strong sense of service to our country. But, otherwise, we are really no different than they are. Many of us are spouses and or mothers. As far as our everyday wants and needs, we are really no different. We’re just women!

YS: What impact has your blog had on you and those who are part of your blogging community?

HI: My blog has helped me grieve my nephew’s death and feel like I am helping our troops in some small way. My nephew died before we even had a chance to write him.

I know what type things the soldiers want to hear from home and what those of left behind need to hear. I use this to guide me on my blog.

I am not a great blogger like CJ at A Soldiers’ Perspective or some of the other well known bloggers. So I am not really sure that I have made any impact personally. But, I do try to make a difference any way I can in support of our troops and in the battle here at home.

YS: What is the best part about being a MilBlogger?

HI: I get a feeling of belonging to something larger than myself that I have not had since my days in the Corps in the late 60’s. I have also had the satisfaction of knowing that I helped two suicidal soldiers get help. I picked up something on their blogs that was not recognized by them or their fellow buddies. That alone has made my blogging satisfying and worthwhile.

At times, because I have PTSD, I have been able to help others in the military family, be it friend, spouse, or soldier with PTSD related issues in some small way. After all, besides educating and informing the public, isn’t that what blogging is all about, helping ourselves cope, helping the troops cope, and providing the public with the news they so desperately want and can’t find any where else?

YS: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start her own MilBlog?

I would tell her to go for it. To first find out what regs she needs to know so she doesn’t accidentally violate security protocols. Next I would suggest she find her own style, not try to write like someone else. If she is a family member of a service member, blogging is a good way to stay in touch with other women in like situations for support and friendship. As a soldier, blogs are a great way to ease the loneliness of deployment on any front, especially combat, and get support. It is also a great way to help cope with the stress of deployments. They have an excellent therapeutic value!

In an ongoing series spotlighting military blogs maintained by female bloggers, the You Served staff recently sat down with Deb from YankeeMom.com to learn more about the woman behind the popular milblog. She generously took time out of her day to participate. Enjoy!

You Served: What led you to be a Military Blogger?
Yankee Mom: My daughter decided to enlist in the Army in her senior year of High School. I had been reading everything online I could about the military and the wars and through this online searching, discovered the milblogs.

Finding a military community online was a godsend because I was then living in a town that wasn’t very pro-military. I was prodded to start my own blog by some folks at the troop support organization I was involved in. I wasn’t so sure I was the blogger type, but then my daughter left for Basic and I was mostly alone in dealing with it.

I found little understanding with the people I knew in town. Blogging was a great outlet for my rollercoaster emotions and I also received so much support from other military family members and soldiers online.

YS: Do you feel that being a female Military Bloggers adds a unique
perspective to your blog? If yes, how so?
YM: As far as being female actually meaning “Military Mom” in my case.

I know that reading other Soldiers Moms’ blogs has really helped me in adjusting to having a soldier daughter. It’s important to connect with others who are going through the same thing. Having a child in the military during war is something few non-military people can understand.

YS: What impact has your blog had on you and those who are part of your
blogging community?
YM: I have gained so much from having a blog. I have been able to connect with many, many wonderful people I would never had the chance to meet otherwise. It has opened up a whole new world of information and support. I’m much more aware of what’s happening in the country and world and how it affects me and mine. And it’s allowed me to be more proactive as a citizen.

I hope that I have been able to help others in the same way.

YS: What is the best part about being a MilBlogger?
YM: The best part is the getting to know other bloggers and the people who come by my blog and leave comments. The support network is outstanding, whether it’s for me, my daughter or one of my adopted soldiers. The other best thing is it’s an outlet for my emotions. My husband appreciates me blogging so he doesn’t have to listen to my rantings all the time.

YS: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start her own MilBlog?
YM: DO IT!! And don’t hesitate to ask other bloggers for advice or help. We love to help other voices get out there.