Posted on Jul 10, 2014
Will your accounts be read by the Ken Burns of the future?
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When i was in boot camp, recruits were encouraged to keep a daily log or journal. I kept a log for most of my 23 years in the Coast Guard. During my last tour, I had 19 fresh recruits and I found that none of them had been encouraged to keep a journal or a log of their activities. Most had never seen the little green stock system log books. Have personal logs disappeared? Are we all relying on social media to keep a record for us? Much of the historical, first hand accounts of battles, explorations, and military life come from personal journals and logs. Has this become an abandoned tradition?
Posted 10 y ago
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I keep a daily work journal in an old fashioned green log book. I just started a new job and one of my new co-workers saw me writing in it at the end of the day and laughed at me for not putting it on the computer. There is just something about pen and paper...I read actual books too; no Kindle or whatever here (and I make handwritten notes in the margins, even with fiction).
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CPO Jon Campbell
I'm not against technology, in fact I love my Kindle because it allows me to carry around hundreds of books, take notes and email them to myself as well as see what other people have highlighted….but journals are different. I have tried many different journaling programs and there just isn't anything like hand writing a journal. I like to doodle and draw and diagram in my journals as well. Anything you put on a computer could be read by someone else and it could disappear or become inaccessible. At least with paper journals you have more control over the contents.
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MSG Wade Huffman
I agree Ma'am, there is something about a book or journal that just seems more 'real' than ebooks or blogs. I read both paper and electronic books and magazines, but still prefer the traditional media in most cases. The electronic format wins out in the convenience column only.
I also would like to commend you in your dedication to keeping a journal. As I stated earlier, I wish I had done that throughout my military career. Electronic or traditional debate aside, I think it's a good thing.
I also would like to commend you in your dedication to keeping a journal. As I stated earlier, I wish I had done that throughout my military career. Electronic or traditional debate aside, I think it's a good thing.
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CPT (Join to see)
I like tech, big time. But it's what I do for work. The closer something is to my heart, the lower tech I go. Yes, my background makes me p.a.r.a.n.o.i.d., but I grew up without any of that stuff and I kept a journal and read physical books as a kid so when I am doing something for personal edification, pen and paper *feels* personal.
Plus, if a light turns on unexpectedly while using a wifi enabled device, there goes 20 minutes while I try to run that to ground. I have found bad things before...
Plus, if a light turns on unexpectedly while using a wifi enabled device, there goes 20 minutes while I try to run that to ground. I have found bad things before...
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I watched the Ken Burn's Civil War documentary repeatedly and read several Civil War books (Confederate in the Attic, Battlecry of Freedom) while I was in Afghanistan and thought about this topic myself many times. I think our deployments today are just so much different that there'd be no use. The most interesting parts (IMO) from those books/documentaries were the letters home or between the president and generals. Now, we use skype or email and have contact (often) on a daily basis, and all communications between the president and generals are held under security. Plus, for most of us, there's no more of the immense feeling of isolation when you're out of contact with friends/family for months to years at a time. When I was in Kandahar, I was able to talk with my wife twice/day on most days throughout my tour. I would also add that the advent of cell phone cameras has given us first hand video of a LOT that goes of out there, so letters would be far less interesting. The movie "Hornet's Nest" is several hours of first hand footage. GOD would I love to have something like that from the Civil or Revolutionary wars!!
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CPO Jon Campbell
I think we trade the human story for the HD quality video and extensive raw footage. I'm a big fan of Storycorps and the efforts to record and preserve WWII veterans personal recollections. The personal recollections of the boots on the ground are often far different than the factual, but flat content of video and battle plans and official communications.
I have a journal of a girl how was detained as an American spy at the very beginning of WWI. Her first hand account, hand drawn diagrams, and observations are some of the most facinating things I have ever read about WWI.
I have a journal of a girl how was detained as an American spy at the very beginning of WWI. Her first hand account, hand drawn diagrams, and observations are some of the most facinating things I have ever read about WWI.
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SSgt (Join to see)
CPO Jon Campbell - History is important, and our history is colored by personalities and even those personalities own biases. But history records not only the events but the whys and hows. Not an attack but a way of bringing the human condition and events to life.
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MAJ (Join to see)
Watch this video until the 37 second mark. Anyone who has spent time on an airfield will know these sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuSKf4D82rw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuSKf4D82rw
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Great topic! I wish I had kept a journal, not so much for others, but primarily just for myself. I often find myself struggling to remember names and places and that would have given me the resource.
As to your question, I do believe it HAS become an abandoned tradition, or at a minimum, the exception, rather than the norm.
All is not lost for the future history buffs though. I have a feeling that the Ken Burns of the future will not be looking through old, dusty journals, but rather searching through indexes of blogs, which are probably more prevalent with today's generation that journals were with our ancestors given that literacy is not as great a factor as in previous generations.
As to your question, I do believe it HAS become an abandoned tradition, or at a minimum, the exception, rather than the norm.
All is not lost for the future history buffs though. I have a feeling that the Ken Burns of the future will not be looking through old, dusty journals, but rather searching through indexes of blogs, which are probably more prevalent with today's generation that journals were with our ancestors given that literacy is not as great a factor as in previous generations.
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