Picture blogging to support the troops

I try to read a fair few blogs so every now and then it’s refreshing not to have to trawl through pages and pages of writing. Military Motivator is one of the blogs I like ‘looking at’ rather than reading. I got in contact with the author of the blog to see how it started.

The blog is updated by Chris, a thirty year old IT manager. He attended the US Military Academy at West Point but says he didn’t graduate because the military found out he was married.
Chris missed life in the service and started following military blogs to keep in touch with some of the guys he knew serving on the front line. He decided to begin making his own ‘motivators’ as a way of supporting the troops. Like the one pictured above, a ‘motivator’ consists of a photo which is made entertaining or meaningful by a pithy caption or witty comment.

I started the blog after seeing a post on Neptunus Lex’s site. I went and made a couple of motivators and thought, this is a simple way to maybe support the troops.
At the very least, it may make them smile. I came up with a bunch right away, started combing Defense media sites for images and was familiar with a lot of the crap that both enlisted and commissioned guys put up with.

Chris realised that making several motivators a day was going to be hard work so asked for contributions. He usually has a backlog of 20-30 posts from which to choose.
Most of them are simply humorous, some are far darker in tone. Others continue rivalries between different sections of the armed forces, and a few are serious memorials to fallen servicemen and women.

I try to mix in my own posts… and hopefully give something for people to enjoy even if sometimes the humor is Black or takes a shot at a rival service.

Chris says he tries to limit the politics of US intervention on the blog. But he is unequivocal in his support for the troops and their mission in Iraq:

I know that to support the men and women of the armed forces, means to support their mission (you cannot claim to do one but not the other)… and that sometimes colors my posts regarding politics.