8/13/2019 Duffel Blog makes fun of military absurdities and has the Pentagon laughing, too

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t reads a bit like a brewing mutiny. Writing mostly under pen names, the tribe of former and current service members behind the satirical Duffel Blog regularly lampoons military leaders, blasts the bureaucracy and mocks policy.

You might think the Pentagon ealous about message control would be scrambling to unmask the scribes and shut down a site that has managed to find humor even in taboo sub!ects suc

h as the force"s suicide epidemic, the se#ual assault crisis and the psychiatric wounds of combat.

$%ourtesy of Paul &oldra' ( Paul &oldra, creator of the Duffel Blog.

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3he brass seems to be laughing along, for the most part, as the once(obscure site has become awidely read guilty pleasure at the Pentagon and at military bases around the country and the world.

When the Duffel Blog launched a couple of years ago, its creators said their only ambition was t

o lighten the mood among a generation of war(weary veterans who felt somewhat disconnectedfrom civilian merica.

But it has turned into much more, regularly attracting more than half a million uni;ue visitors per month. 0ts brand of satire often conveys grievances and contrarian views that are widely heldamong those in uniform. 3he articles have also helped bridge the country"s civilian(military divide, the blog"s writers say, by sparking conversations and portraying troops in ways that defy stereotypes.

8/13/2019 Duffel Blog makes fun of military absurdities and has the Pentagon laughing, too

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9Duffel Blog is a beautifully crafted response to an increasingly stuffy environment in today"s merica,: said retired , said in a phone interview from &an 4rancisco, where he works for a business news site. 9?ther people started recogniing the power of that.:

&oldra soon began getting e(mails from veterans around the country who wanted to play a role ,allowing him to build a group of roughly @A regular contributors, about half of whom are on active duty.

=arine captain who writes under the pseudonym Dark )aughter said he found solace and em

pathy in the Duffel Blog when he was having a hard time ad!usting to civilian life after a deployment to fghanistan.

90 remember walking around and marveling6 You would never guess in a million years that therewere people fighting in places like Baghdad or =ar!a,: said the officer, now a reservist in graduate school, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because he fears that his Duffel Blog work could negatively affect his career. 90t"s amaing how little people understand about themilitary, but also how little people are interested in closing that gap.