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Conference AAR pt. 2

By John

I know that I'm coming in late on this whole after-action thing, but after a weekend like that, I needed some decompression time.

I think that the best way to recap the event isn't to detail the panels or the speeches, but the people who I was lucky enough to interact with while I was there. So here's part 2:

Met LaShawn Barber on the elevator first thing in the morning. What a classy broad.

SMASH declared himself chief of the fashion police. If Matt wasn't getting it for his neon-green shirt, I was getting it for my pre-torn jeans. SMASH called the look white trashy, I called it "broken in preppy." You say tomato and all that. He's a sharp dude (for an Annapolis grad and all). And someone should get him his own radio show. Stat.

I found myself wishing that I could have spent more time chewing fat with John Donovan, as we see eye to eye on the art of milblogging. The Castle was one of those milblogs I read before I started blogging, so finally meeting the guy was an experience.

Steve Schippert. I can not say enough nice things about this dude. I think everyone on Panel #1 agreed that Steve was the star of our show. And his commentary on the conference was nothing short of brilliant.

AWTM refused to believe that I read her blog (which I totally do), probably because I forgot to include her when I was setting up OpFor's blogroll. She gets the best volunteer ever award for making sure our gift bags were stuffed full of "the good stuff." She was a blast at the pub-crawl, where she developed a new marketing strategy for Blackfive.

I was really pleased to be able to meet with two guys who are on my frequent email list, Murdoc and Instapinch. Those two, Charlie, myself, and Matt had a long pow-wow over dark beers and Johnny Walker that I wish I could have recorded.

The First Lady. I met her apprx. half an hour before go time, half expecting to find a nervous wreck. Quite the opposite, she was cheerful and upbeat, gave Charlie and I hugs before ushering me backstage to get miked up. Andi did an amazing job with this whole dog and pony show, kudos to her. And she promised me that she caught up on her sleep yesterday, hooah.

***Charlie says:
Check out the BBC story on the Milblog Conference

Jimbo kept reminding me that I need to fight. For my right. To party. And LTs Sparky and Lumpy? wtf? Uncle J laid out his vision for the milblog wire and gathered the endorsements of the top names in milblogging for his run at White House press secretary. Jimbo para la secretaria prensa!

If talks of a petition to keep CJ blogging are true, somebody please pass it my way.

Kit and Heidi. It's hard not to like girls who are constantly grinning from ear to ear. And Heidi was quick with an "it's okay" smile whenever I was having one of my "what the hell am I doing up here?" moments on the panel.

Capt B is another one who I wish I talked with a bit more. I think we got apprx. one minute of chat-time in before either one of us got pulled in another direction. I remember looking at his 6-foot infinite frame and immediately feeling bad for the Iraqi insurgency.

You've probably already heard stories about Chuck's one-liners, I'm here to tell you that whatever you heard wasn't exaggerated. The guy had me in tears I was laughing so hard. When he wasn't passing out "Get Out of Hell Free" cards to everyone, he was ordering Jimbo shirley temples. Gyarrrr! His wife Carren is just as sharp as he is, watching panel 2 was like watching an episode of The Honeymooners meets Married With Children.

It made my day to meet Maj P from Rule 308. Not only is he an official historian of the Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, he's a fellow VMI man to boot. And small world that it is, he roomed with a certain VMI tactical officer who loved to inspect Charlie and I. Constantly. Must get stories next time we cross paths.

Ran into Grim from Grim's Hall at the pub. Grim was cool and all, but what we were really interested in was a one Eric Blair, who is a frequent reader/commenter here at OpFor and contributor at Grim's Hall. Eric is our local Know-It-All-in-Chief, and is constantly letting Charlie and I know how ill-informed we are. I'm breaking balls of course, he's one of our best readers and he'll show up to next year's conference if he knows what's good for him.

And speaking of favorite readers, what a pleasure it was meeting Boston Maggie. Maggie has been with us almost from the beginning, seeing her in person was a real treat. Plus she gave Charlie cigars and had a funny accent. We liked her immediately.

Got about two seconds with Dad Manly, more next year.

I've exchanged emails with Maj L from Kosovo Dad for a while now, was great meeting him. I hope he's a panelist next year....he's both an army PAO and a blogger, making him an indispensable addition to the milblogging family.

I'm still pissed that I didn't get to talk with Bill Roggio.

Maj. P introduced me to Mike Fay from Fire and Ice. At first I couldn't remember who he was, until he told me that he was on of the official sketch artists for the USMC. Light bulb. Remembered Malkin linking to his stuff a few months back. Took a second look at his page as soon as I got home, and I'm now feeling damn glad to have met him.

There were so many others I've lost count. I met so many great people that I felt drunk afterwards. Actually that may have been a result of the pub-crawl, but ya'll get the point. Lots of folks are doing recaps, but I've got to pimp the Mother of All Podcasts one more time. If you missed the conference, it's the next best thing to being there.

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