Michael Yon, MilBlog Website Review

Michael Yon is an independent reporter & blogger who regularly embeds with American and British military combat units in Iraq & Afghanistan.

While his fondness for American service personnel is evident in his reporting, his candor and opinions in some of his writings are sometimes in conflict with U.S. Military command.  In 2007 Michael Yon won the Weblog Award Poll for Best Military Blog.

Currently Michael Yon is embedded with American Green Berets in the Philippines helping the local Philippine military fight insurgents.  Prior to that, he was embedded with a group of British soldiers & Ghurka’s going through a tracking training school on the jungle island of Borneo.

I followed Michael Yon’s blog regularly during the Iraqi war, and I was fascinated by his blog posts while embedded with the 1st Battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment, a Stryker Brigade operating in the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq.  (A Stryker is an armored 8-wheeled infantry combat vehicle, with less armor & firepower than a tank but more speed & mobility.)  One of the most gripping things I’ve ever read was a blog post from August of 2005 titled “Gates of Fire.”

A soldier is shot while on patrol, and the unit commander, Lieutenant Colonel Erik Kurilla is searching Mosul with several other Stryker vehicles for those responsible, when they come across some suspicious characters sitting in a car.  A wild car chase ensues, then a foot chase, a gunfight where the commander gets shot but continues to fight, another soldier comes to the rescue and charges into the shop where the bad guy is hiding, resulting in hand-to-hand combat and a life-and-death struggle.  Michael Yon was there, taking pictures, while under enemy fire.  Here is a short excerpt . . .

”The driver (suspected terrorist) tucked his head and gunned the gas. The chase was on.  Strykers are fast, but Opels are faster. We were roaring through little streets and along roads, horn blaring, cars zipping off the sides, the steady chatter of multiple radio channels colliding inside the Stryker. A Kiowa helicopter pilot radioed that he spotted the car. As the chase continued, the Kiowa pilot said, “It’s going about 105 mph.”

Seriously, you have to click here on this link to Gates of Fire to read the whole gripping story.  You’ll never see pictures or hear first hand stories like this on ABC, NBC, CBS, or CNN.

Absolutely fantastic.

Click here to go to Michael Yon’s Dispatches.

Labels: Internet, Thoughts