“Keep that Fan Mail Coming.” Ceremonial Storytelling and Audience Interaction in a US Soldier’s Milblog

Abstract

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated a surge of texts by US soldiers who utilized recent Web 2.0 technology to forge new types of war narratives, such as the so-called "milblogs." Milblogs merge letter and journal writing with journalistic reporting, and they maintain contact between soldiers and their social environment. They are at once public and private communication. Military psychology since Vietnam has referred to warrior traditions of Native American communities to discuss public narration and ceremonial acknowledgment of a soldier's war experience as vital elements for veteran readjustment and trauma recovery. This article analyzes an exemplary milblog to argue that the interaction between blogger and audience does similar cultural work and has comparable ceremonial and, therefore, therapeutic functions: Soldiers publicly share their experience, reflect on it with their audience, receive appreciation and support, and thus mutually (re-)negotiate group identity.

Broadcasting War Trauma: An Exploratory Netnography of Veterans’ YouTube Vlogs

“…Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common mental health diagnosis for men who served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND), and the second most common for women who served in these operations (Koo, Hebenstreit, Madden, & Maguen, 2016). Recounting war experiences in a safe, supportive environment is vital for traumatized veterans' readjustment and recovery (Usbeck, 2014). "Soldiers and warriors have always related their combat experience to an audience; be it in songs, memoirs, or letters from the front" (Usbeck, 2012, p. 271).…”