Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 7, 2008
Pg. C5
By Brian Stelter
Andrew Olmsted, a United States Army major who wrote an online blog for The Rocky Mountain News, prepared for the possibility of his death by writing a 3,000-word piece.
“I’m dead,” he wrote in July 2007 as he arrived in Iraq for an 18-month tour of duty. “But if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.”
The major, who was 38, was killed Jan. 3 by small-arms fire from insurgents in Sadiyah, 100 miles northeast of Baghdad. The next day, a fellow blogger published Major Olmsted’s eloquent essay, leading to an outpouring of comments from more than 1,000 readers. His blog became exponentially more popular in death than in life, garnering more than 100,000 page views on Saturday.
Major Olmsted was one of the first “milbloggers,” an Internet term for members of the military who blog. Thousands of readers had followed his posts for more than five years, first on AndrewOlmsted.com and later on the Web site of The Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper in Colorado.
While bloggers have died in war zones before, several prominent military bloggers said they could not recall any previous instances of posthumous blog entries. Major Olmsted’s final post interspersed quotes from Plato and the movie “Team America” with reflections on his life and requests from his readers. He specifically asked that his death not be used for political purposes.
“We’re all going to die of something,” Major Olmsted wrote in his final post. “I died doing a job I loved. When your time comes, I hope you are as fortunate as I was.”
The ending of the post was almost uncomfortably personal, with a message to his wife of 10 years, concluding with “I love you.”
In March Major Olmsted approached his friend Hilary Bok, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and asked if she would publish a post for him if he died during the war. She said she immediately agreed. He sent a rough draft at the beginning of June, and kept redrafting until July 15, the day he arrived in Baghdad.
“When I first read it, I cried,” Ms. Bok said.
In the essay, simply titled “Final Post,” Major Olmsted acknowledged that he would miss blogging.
“The nature of blogging, the exchange of ideas, was something he really enjoyed,” said David Montero, a Rocky Mountain News reporter who had spent several days with Major Olmsted for a front-page profile in June.
Before Major Olmsted left for Iraq, he met with the newspaper’s editors to discuss moving his blog to the newspaper’s Web site. The Army approved the arrangement, and he posted at least 38 times while in Kuwait and Iraq.
“He was building up a regular readership among people who appreciated his frontline view from the war,” said Deb Goeken, the managing editor of the newspaper.
January 7, 2008
Pg. C5
By Brian Stelter
Andrew Olmsted, a United States Army major who wrote an online blog for The Rocky Mountain News, prepared for the possibility of his death by writing a 3,000-word piece.
“I’m dead,” he wrote in July 2007 as he arrived in Iraq for an 18-month tour of duty. “But if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.”
The major, who was 38, was killed Jan. 3 by small-arms fire from insurgents in Sadiyah, 100 miles northeast of Baghdad. The next day, a fellow blogger published Major Olmsted’s eloquent essay, leading to an outpouring of comments from more than 1,000 readers. His blog became exponentially more popular in death than in life, garnering more than 100,000 page views on Saturday.
Major Olmsted was one of the first “milbloggers,” an Internet term for members of the military who blog. Thousands of readers had followed his posts for more than five years, first on AndrewOlmsted.com and later on the Web site of The Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper in Colorado.
While bloggers have died in war zones before, several prominent military bloggers said they could not recall any previous instances of posthumous blog entries. Major Olmsted’s final post interspersed quotes from Plato and the movie “Team America” with reflections on his life and requests from his readers. He specifically asked that his death not be used for political purposes.
“We’re all going to die of something,” Major Olmsted wrote in his final post. “I died doing a job I loved. When your time comes, I hope you are as fortunate as I was.”
The ending of the post was almost uncomfortably personal, with a message to his wife of 10 years, concluding with “I love you.”
In March Major Olmsted approached his friend Hilary Bok, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and asked if she would publish a post for him if he died during the war. She said she immediately agreed. He sent a rough draft at the beginning of June, and kept redrafting until July 15, the day he arrived in Baghdad.
“When I first read it, I cried,” Ms. Bok said.
In the essay, simply titled “Final Post,” Major Olmsted acknowledged that he would miss blogging.
“The nature of blogging, the exchange of ideas, was something he really enjoyed,” said David Montero, a Rocky Mountain News reporter who had spent several days with Major Olmsted for a front-page profile in June.
Before Major Olmsted left for Iraq, he met with the newspaper’s editors to discuss moving his blog to the newspaper’s Web site. The Army approved the arrangement, and he posted at least 38 times while in Kuwait and Iraq.
“He was building up a regular readership among people who appreciated his frontline view from the war,” said Deb Goeken, the managing editor of the newspaper.