Decorated soldier’s blog attracts loyal following, but he says his bosses are muzzling him
Posted By Bouhammer on December 7, 2009
The following story came out today in all four Military Times Publications (Army Times, Air Force Times, Marine Times, Navy Times), on the back cover where the “Off Duty” Section is. As anyone who reads this blog knows, CJ and I are very close and talk regularly outside of our weekly Radio show that we host together. Please take a few moments to read this story and then hope, pray, cross your fingers, whatever that the Army does not retaliate against him.
By Jon R. Anderson
jona@militarytimes.com
Master Sgt. C.J.
Grisham is not the type to shy away from a fight. Decorated for valor in Iraq, the 15-year Army veteran is also saluted as one of the most popular, if sometimes controversial, bloggers in the military. Where the average life expectancy of a blog is said to be less than three months, Grisham’s has survived for six years.
But he says he has had enough.
“Blogging is no longer worth the trouble,” Grisham recently wrote on his blog, A Soldier ’s Perspective, under the headline “ASP Closed for Business.” Assigned to a military intelligence company at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., Grisham’s in-your-face opinions have won him a loyal following but also earned the scorn of his superiors, who contend he violated military limits about what troops can say on certain topics.
Grisham has criticized President Barack Obama’s fitness to run the country, chided the Democratic Party and battled with local school officials. He has been investigated by the inspector general and called on the carpet by his commanders.Though he has not been ordered to stop blogging, he says he can’t do so under the restrictions placed on him.
In a note to the nearly 5,000 people on his private mailing list, Grisham wrote, “The facts are clear. The Army does NOT want honest bloggers. They want sheep. … If I can’t be honest and open, I won’t write at all.” Lt. Col. Bruce Johnson, commander of Grisham’s parent command, the Fort Meade, Md.-based 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, referred questions to a spokesman.
Command Sgt. Maj. Carl Myers of the 309th told Military Times that Grisham’s situation was “in the process of being looked into. I’m not sure what the particulars are, just that it’s being looked into.” Grisham and his blog posts underscore the challenges in trying to impose military limitations on free speech on troops fighting to protect such freedoms. And they highlight the difficulties the brass faces in trying at the same time to embrace and contain the reach of blogging, Facebook, Twitter and other forms of newly emerging “social media.”...
I think by now everybody in the milblogging community knows about the ongoing issues CJ and his family is facing right now.
Bouhammer has the rest of this article up at his place, and, again, reminds all that the fight CJ is facing costs money - BIG money! Please go over to Bouhammer's here, read the rest of the article, and Bouhammer's comments. Then give what you can to CJ's legal fund. I am sure I don't need to go all political on any of my readers here, so instead I'll just take one quote from the article that is quintessential CJ:
Moral integrity means something to me. The NCO Creed means something to me,” he says,...
Those are not idle words from him. Even on the periphery of the milblogging and military community as I am, I see CJ LIVE those words every single day. He is one of the best of the best, and what is being done to him is wrong. Please stand with CJ, who has stood for all of us. Thank you.