I personally don’t use my real name for several reasons.  Firstly, OPSEC is something 99.9% of soldiers adhere to with great pride.  Revealing my name as a way to monitor my ability to keep OPSEC isn’t necessary.  Most soldiers recognize that leaking essential information puts not only themselves but also their buddies at risk.  I am no different in this concern.

Secondly, when I began blogging in 2005 while deployed to Iraq, my commander and other members of the command staff were extremely conservative.  This was a time when disclosing a personal blog was not strictly enforced as (I believe) it’s beginning to be now.  I made the decision to write anonymously for concern that conservative members of my unit may pressure me in ways I wasn’t prepared to deal with on deployment.

Thirdly, there are weirdos out there in the ‘internets’!  I’d rather not make it easy for them to use their weirdo powers on me.

MAJ Jakob Bruhl conducted a short poll on his milblog and the results are in!

Should Soldiers blog under their own name?

• 57% (8) Yes
• 43% (6) No

57% percent of respondents (14 total this time) said Soldiers should blog under their own name. This is certainly not a whopping majority, so I’ll take the response to suggest that we’re split on whether or not Soldiers should use their own name when blogging or should continue to use creative aliases.

So apparently, I’m in the minority for NOT using my real name when blogging.  Perhaps I’ve forgotten another reason some soldiers use their name; narcissism.

[Source: Soldiers in the Blogosphere via Milblogging.com]

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