[FROM: United States Forces-Iraq, Advise and Train (formerly MNSTC-I)]
1. You run in terror from a controlled detonation your first week, then stand in the open to watch real mortars landing– a month later.
2. The most intimate contact you’ve had in months is with the shower curtain.
3. Your most successful pick-up line is “I’ve got a vehicle.”
4. […]

Editor’s Note: Katie Gallagher is a junior majoring in print journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This article is the second of a series offering a perspective on military issues from the college perspective.

In which Jamie falls asleep in class, but wakes up in the nick of time.

A new shield law that would allow bloggers like me to better protect their sources is stalled in the Congress at the moment, but President Obama says he’ll sign it if it gets to his desk. I asked a fellow journalism student at the University of Maryland, (where I am wrapping up my Master’s degree) to do a little digging on the status of the bill.

That “loser” John McCain called me a “jerk,” but it’s not what you think…

This may be splitting hairs, but I would describe the random slaughter of 13 people and the wounding of 38 others, as a “massacre.”

“I think we are in a dire situation on the brink of failure.  What’s needed is a whole new strategy that focuses more on air attacks, rather than a ground war of attrition.  And for that we probably need fresh reinforcements, and a new field commander.   But enough about the Washington Redskins….“
– Jamie McIntyre, in […]

He is a keen observer but never a smug know-it-all; he is alert to irony without lapsing into wizened cynicism; his sense of proportion is a trusted barometer; he always knew when a Washington tempest was a passing melodrama and when it was a critical story for the paper to jump onto.

From Bing West’s Facebook Post:
“This video from my most recent embed in Afghanistan illustrates a serious problem. Our heaviness in armor means that on daily patrols the Talibs have the decided advantage in mobility. They have maneuver; we have firepower that cannot be applied against camouflaged, elusive targets. We are not finishing the firefights. You […]

I have to repost this story from my colleague Jonathan Landay. It shows the dedication of reporters who are out there taking real risks with troops to try to get the ground truth.