‘I died doing a job I loved’ blogs U.S. soldier
Posted: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 9:38 AM
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Baghdad, Iraq
By Stephanie Gosk, NBC News Correspondent
Maj. Andrew Olmsted was shot and killed by a sniper in Diyala province on Jan.3. His was a dangerous job in a still-dangerous place in Iraq.
Before he left for this tour, Olmsted knew he might not make it home. As an avid blogger for the "Rocky Mountain News" paper, he prepared for his own possible death by writing a final entry to be posthumously posted on his own Web site should he be killed.
He wrote, "This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published…"
The 3,000-word blog thanks his friends and family, quotes Plato and the sci-fi show "Babylon 5," and urged his readers not to politicize his death.
"If you think the U.S. should stay in Iraq, don't drag me into it by claiming that somehow my death demands us staying in Iraq. If you think the U.S. ought to get out tomorrow, don't cite my name as an example of someone's life who was wasted by our mission in Iraq," he wrote.
‘Obsidian Wings’
Hilary Bok, a philosophy professor at Johns Hopkins University met Olmsted online through the website "Obsidian Wings" in July 2006 where they quickly became friends.
Bok agreed to answer NBC's questions about her role in Olmsted’s final blog, but asked if she could reply over e-mail.
"I still seem to be given to bursting into tears," she wrote, "and e-mail makes that easier to deal with."
In March 2007, Olmsted approached Bok and asked her if she would post a final blog for him should he be killed in Iraq. He was heading back for another tour in three months.
"I was honored that he would ask me," Bok said, "and agreed immediately. He sent me the first draft of the post early in June 2007, and kept working on it until mid-July."
Military blogging
In the last few years blogging within the military, or milblogging, has soared. Milblogging.com a website that indexes soldier's blogs, lists over 1,800 contributors. Once limited by hand-written accounts to family and friends, U.S. troops at war have taken advantage of the opportunity to share firsthand experiences in the blogosphere.
"I think [Olmsted] wrote partly because he liked it," Bok wrote, "but partly because he thought: even if you don't know that anyone will read what you write, all you can do is try your best to put reasonable arguments out there, in the hope that somehow, somewhere, they might do some good."
In July, Olmsted returned to Iraq as part of a Military Transition Team, or MiTT team, a small U.S. unit that embeds with the Iraqi military to help support and train their forces.
On Jan. 3, Olmsted confronted three suspected insurgents on the streets of Sadiyah, Iraq, trying to get them to surrender. When a sniper took aim, Olmsted was the first to fall. Capt. Thomas J. Casey went to help him and was gunned down as well. They were the first U.S. troops to be killed in 2008.
"I died doing a job I loved," Olmsted wrote, "when your time comes I hope you are as fortunate as I am."
And fellow soldier or not, Olmsted reminded all his readers to take stock.
"I'm dead, but if you're reading this, you're not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact."
