My second day at Fort McCoy I received a mission. “We need a brigade policy on blogging. You have 48 hours.” I stared in disbelief, a stunned, blank look mistaken for a lack of confidence in my ability to complete this task in the time allowed. I did not disclose at that time the reason for my vapid response. Over 3,000 soldiers in the brigade and the brigade’s only blogger (so far) is allowed to write the blogging policy. Seemed a little like granting prisoners in a federal penitentiary freedom to write the pass and leave policy. Unfortunately the directive to write the policy came my way not because of my neophyte blogging skills but because of my position as the operations attorney. The brigade commander adopts brigade policies, the attorneys merely write them. I needed to write a policy that would make him happy, not the bloggers. My timeline did not include personal dialogue with the commander. I write, he signs. Or he sends back proposals with a comment such as “If something this stupid ever crosses my desk again the author will find himself on a three year assignment to Adak Island”. As I would often say before sitting down to a law school exam; “No Pressure”. A blogging policy balances a soldier’s first amendment rights against operational security, the rights of other soldiers and their families to their own stories, respect for the privacy rights of deceased or wounded soldiers, truth in media, use of government resources and a pesky set of rules known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I dove into the necessary research with the gusto of a law clerk wanting to impress a new boss. I then realized that the policy also should contain language such that any soldier with enough intelligence to know how to start a blog could clearly discern what they could and could not write about. During my previous Iraq tour I chose to send e-mails to a distribution list rather than post a blog due, in part, to the blogging policy in effect at the time. One blogger I knew from our base in Mosul, a National Guard doctor, was ordered to shut down his blog after he discussed the Dec. 21st suicide bombing at our dining facility. Other military bloggers received stricter sanction. One Arizona National Guard specialist was fined $1,640 and reduced in rank to a private for posting what the military considered classified material. A New York National Guard sergeant was reduced to Specialist, reassigned to the headquarters company and fined $1,000 for violating operational security. Perhaps part of the problem stems from the civilian mindset of National Guard soldiers. We see the world differently than our active duty cohorts. Given the tension between soldier bloggers and the military I am not surprised that most bloggers wish to remain anonymous. I am not surprised but I believe anonymity decreases credibility. I wanted our brigade policy to include an identity requirement. I feel a decrease in accountability increases the potential for inaccuracy and policy violations. 48 hours of mental anguish passed with only a few words written other than the policy title. The brigade’s chief attorney handed me a stapled packet. “Here is the current blogging policy for the Iraq theatre. All you need to do is type up a memo adopting this as the brigade’s policy.” Another stunned look. 48 hours of research and anxiety reduced to a paragraph adopting someone else’s work product. Okay, an important someone else, but I still felt as deflated as a Mariner’s World Series in 2008 or bust balloon.