Demolition Ops Afghanistan
You guys have probably noticed by now that I've taken over for Christian. He was promoted up the chain to the land of the big PX and outside of Military.com.
My goal is to keep building on the great job he did here and occasionally harass him for the guest post or two. He'll always have a place at the Kit Up table as long as I have anything to say about it.
While I'm a former SEAL, this is not a SEAL centric blog. Personally I'm SEAL'd out with all the media BS these days. I've worked closely with all the other branches and been to more Army schools then Navy. The best thing I did for my career was to work with OGA and have the opportunity to work with guys from other branches. This really made me appreciate the other services and gave me the chance to work with some solid guys from all over US SOCOM. All that said, it comes down to branch culture and the "secret handshake". I want to make sure that this site represents all Military branches while maintaining cultural integrity. Relevant content, contributors and candid posts...period.
I want to acknowledge Jack Murphy (Army Ranger/SF) for his kickass posts on here, Jack's a great writer and I'm glad to have him on point. I also want to welcome David Reeder (USAF) and Bill Janson (USMC Recon Battalion) to the mix, both solid dudes and looking forward to seeing them rock out some great stuff. Last but not least, Matt Cox (USA 82nd Airborne) and the Mad Duo!. Both rock and are solid contributors when they pop by for a post. These guys are what make this site rock and I'm glad to have them on the Kit Up! Team.
I really want your feedback on the Fireteam page that Charlie and I just created (He's covering my six on IT). It's also great a way for you guys to share some stories and info with us. We are in the process of re-designing the site too so look for some cool changes coming soon.
I'm going to start doing more live chat interviews so expect to see some more "live' chat guests in the future. You'll also have access to the editorial team to ask questions of us during these interviews. So be on the look out for upcoming events and let us know what times work best. I try to include both coasts and overseas as well when scheduling.
I have to tell you, the folks at Military.com are great to work with and the brass is pretty supportive of me and the team posting critical content regardless of how it reflects on any of our advertisers products (Thanks Ward). You need to know that this is not normal. I started writing for a few magazines last year and stopped after they started pulling critical feedback out of my articles (On Target Magazine is the exception...Ben Battles is a solid editor). What's the point if all you hear are reviews that suck up to advertisers? I'm a capitalist at heart and appreciate the business end of things but the integrity of this site is important to me. That's what makes Kit Up so powerful and such a great community, we don't pull punches. Fortunately Military.com and the advertisers on here support this philosophy.
That's all for now, hit the like button (trust me, it helps spread the word like an Anthranx mailer) and thanks for your support.
Brandon
