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"'Awesome' was a word we used a lot in Iraq. How to use 'Awesome': If someone says, 'Dude, it's your turn again to do shit-burning detail,' you say: 'Awesome.' 'Holy shit, those idiots in Delta company shot at second platoon,' 'Awesome!'"

That's a grim vocabulary lesson from soldier and writer Jason Christopher Hartley, our special guest this week and author of Just Another Soldier.  

Ever since I read about the deaths of Andrew Olmsted (a soldier and blogger) and Scott Lange Kirkpatrick (a poet and soldier), the stories of soldiers have haunted me.

All week Hartley has reminded us how writings by soldiers in Iraq get misunderstood or buried under political rhetoric. Spend some time reading the writers who are caught up in this war.

If you want to even go farther, tonight, Kirkpatrick's family is holding a fundraising event to support wounded soldiers. As we end this week's writing interview, take a few minutes to remember the soldiers writing about this war: the active soldiers, the veterans, the wounded and the fallen.

Jason Boog: 
How has the military blog community evolved since 2005? What do we need to be reading about? 

Jason Christopher Hartley:
War is f**king weird as hell and if you don't feel conflicted and confused after reading about it, it's bad writing. Continue reading...

It's okay to build fables from war--it's the natural progression in our storytelling culture.  But when you get all Brother Grimm on me about how war is anything other than a complete shit sandwich, my bullshit sensors go into fault mode and my feelings get hurt that you thought I wouldn't notice that your dad helped you a little too much with your homework.

 The only milblog I ever read that I liked was American Short-Timer.  Here's a post with his response to the whole Bob Woodward drama back in '05:

'All I ask is that every single Joe gets his 800 word AP news wire write-up and his MSNBC headline when it's his time. That's all I ask. But no, even that's too much. F**K YOU Joe I hear all over again. Die off screen motherf**kers. And keep your voice down when you do. Take if for the f**king team low wage chump-ass bitches, is what I hear. You don't know the efforts average Joes make to keep these bungling clungling buffoon prima donna motherf**ker starlets outta harm's way. But why bother... who wants to know? The silence is nigh unbearable.

 Oh no nonononono, you don't understaaaaaaaaand, they're there to cover the war. The people gotta right to know. Spare me the bullshit. I got enough of it on this side of the wire. Right to know? Know what? What is it that you think you know? Mushroom cloud on the horizon on the six o'clock shaky cam. What do you know? What do you know? Mangled to sheer shit car body and gaggle-a-dumbf**ks dancing around it. What do you know? What? WHAT? Couple-a-Brads and some Hummers shootin' through an intersection. What's goin' on? WHAT? Major Sheisshnaz sayz we neutralized a dozen terrist motherf**king evildoers, detained fifty more and two Joes got bruised doin' all this splendid shit. What do you know now? What do you know? Colonel Pussyfurlips sayz we restored power and water in some unpronouncable goatdropping sandlot. Which means.... what? WHAT?

 Lemme spell this out. You know jackshit. You know nothing. You think you know what's goin' on? WE don't know what-the-f**k is going on. You think these prima donna teevee starlets and their hairdos and all serious-looking mugs know whattheF**K is going on? Nobody on Satan's burning ORB knows whattheF**K is going on, and those little slivers of motion and movement and hysteria and madness piped through yur opium tube are just confusing the issue. This is entertainment... GET IT. ENTERTAINMENT.

We're your Channel 22 alternative viewing choice between new episodes of Survivor and, heaven forF**KINGbid, American Idolatry. You wanna know whattheF**K is going on in the world, unplug yurself from that friggin' opium tube and start asking some questions for a change, instead of swallowing everything these f**kers keep shoving down our throats.

Think Bob Schieffer is gonna take some time outta his broadcast to wish me well when my shit gets f**ked up? No. No, I didn't think so.

 THANKS Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooob.'

This is good shit.  Show me something like this online now.  I will GLADLY eat my words.

If you want to read more from Hartley, check out the rest of his interview where we discussed:

Hartley's unexpected and inspiring Literary Influences

Then, we heard his take on web writing

After that, he talked about How a Soldier Feels

Then, he showed aspiring writers How To Write About War