VA Joe has some great features for getting in contact with other members of the military, both Active Duty and retired. We’ve also come across some useful dating/singles websites that are catered towards the military only, and they may be something our single members find fun and useful. Here’s a short spotlight on Military Dating Online:

Today we see many strides by sites like Match.com, Yahoo! Personals, eHarmony.com and others trying to attract more singles to try online dating. While big sites like the ones mentioned are becoming house-hold names, singles are naturally gravitating more towards focused dating sites that appeal to their interests and needs.

MilitaryDatingOnline.com is a perfect example. As an online personals site focused on helping military singles and civilians interested in dating military men and women, MilitaryDatingOnline.com is steadily growing to become the favorite website for singles to meet and connect with singles all around the world. With features that rival most paid dating services, MilitaryDatingOnline.com offers free membership to anyone, regardless of military status and location.

Being a part of our community gives you instant access to all our member profiles complete with photos, interests, location and much more. In an effort to keep our community active and helping you find a date, love, activity partner or friendships, we have sections of our site like:

• Community forums for you to share and participate
• Online dating blog to keep you updated on our plans for the site
• Free Horoscopes
• And much more.

MilitaryDatingOnline.com provides free online personals and dating services to singles in active duty as well as people who are not in the military but are interested in relationships with service members.

Enjoy member features like:

• Free sign ups and No membership fees – Ever.
• Unlimited messaging
• Free photos and video uploads
• Customizable profiles
• Search members by interest, city and military bases
• Meet singles all around the world
• And much more.

If you are single and want to find your match, then come on over and create your free personals account today at MilitaryDatingOnline.com

About MilitaryDatingOnline.com:
MilitaryDatingOnline.com is run by 2 people, Will and Derek. The site started off as a pet project 3 years ago to see if 2 people, living in totally different states can successfully launch a full-featured community site. After seeing the growth in online dating services for niche audiences, we decided to take it a step further and make major improvements to the site by adding more member features, expanding to more countries and so forth.

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Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) provides a central, nonpartisan resource to register to vote and request an absentee ballot from overseas. With the generous financial support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, OVF has developed user-friendly, online voter tools applicable to voters from every state – www.overseasvotefoundation.org:

• An online overseas voter registration tool that prompts the voter for information necessary to register to vote in accordance with each state’s unique regulations.  Error-checks occur during the process to ensure that the voter does not forget any required information. The program then generates an official form in PDF format and provides the voter with the correct county election office address for mailing.

• A Voter Help Desk where voter questions are answered via email within 24 hours

• An Election Official Directory with contact information for the 7000+ election offices in the United States and its territories. 

• A hot topics list of relevant overseas voter news
• Links to nonpartisan organizations that offer candidate information for all states

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Honor Your Heroes by Submitting Their Stories: American Hero Award

VA Mortgage Center.com has launched a contest for honoring veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Hero Award, which comes with a prize of $5,000, will be awarded to the veteran who receives the most votes on the company’s website.

This year’s theme calls on citizens to “Honor Your Hero” by nominating friends and family members they think deserve to be recognized. Nominations will be accepted on the website until December 14, 2007. All nominations should explain why the nominee deserves to be recognized in 300 words or less.

Ten finalists will be selected and an open online vote will be used to determine the winner. Finalists will have their photograph and bios featured on the VA Mortgage Center.com voting page. Along with the $5,000 donation to the winning Veteran, VA Mortgage Center.com will be awarding $500 to each of the ten finalists.

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VAJoe Members: You Could Blog for VAJoe

VAJoe is looking for guest bloggers to share their expertise and opinions with VAJoe members and with the entire blogsphere.

If you have an area of military expertise, or knowledge of any subject that you think readers would be interested in, email lane@vajoe.com and find out about being Joe’s expert blogger for that topic.

We’d like blogsperts for the topics below, but the possibilities for other topics are endless. Contact lane@vajoe.com with your ideas and interests:

• Army News
• Navy News
• Air Force News
• Marine Corps News
• Coast Guard News
• Spouse & Family
• Veteran Issues
• Benefits
• World Events
• Conservative Politics
• Liberal Politics
• Military Charities
• Military History
• Anything else you’d like to blog on, from sports to humor, to movies to video games.  Email lane@vajoe.com and briefly state why you are qualified to be a VAJoe blogspert in your field!

As a thanks, guest bloggers receive a VAJoe J-shirt and J-cap.

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We recently interviewed Julio of The Life and Ministry of: Julio C. Medina to find out more about his blog.

What are 3 things your readers probably do not know about you?

1. I have a 6 inch metal plate in my left arm.

2. I love random humor.

3. I enjoy being sarcastic

How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

Since March 07. I started my blog as a way to keep up with all my friends and also to express my opinions on different topics etc…

What is your military experience?

New to the USAF as of 11.27.07

So my ‘experience’ is very limited but I am in it for the long haul so you can definalty read about my experience through my blog as time progresses.

What has been the biggest factor in helping you create and publish a successful blog?

Telling people about it and simply asking them to stop by at www.juliomedina.com.

Just doing it! When I first started my blog, I guess you could say I was even shy and then I realized…This is MY Blog and MY way to express myself about any and everything. So without fear and only confidence and the wonderful freedoms that we have and defend…I say what I want :)(Enjoy reading my posts and please comment.)

Do you have anything else you would like us to mention about you, your blog, or your readers?

Sign my guestbook! Don’t be shy and if you don’t want to leave a picture that’s fine too just sign it. But it means a lot to me when people stop by and let me know they did…

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Lt Col Patrick talks about his milblog Duty in the Desert and his career.

Flown mostly C-130s during my career at numerous locations, to include a tour as instructor pilot at the C-130 schoolhouse at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, teaching new pilots how to fly the Hercules. Did a stint as Director of Operations, Chief Pilot, and Chief of Stan-Eval at a rapid-response C-130 unit specializing in high-priority, sensitive projects and test flights. Also served as an advance agent for Air Force One directly supporting the President of the United States. Married my best friend and we have 3 children that keep us very busy.

Q & A with Lt Col Patrick

Question: What are 3 things your readers probably do not know about you?

1. I was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program at Oregon State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in History.

2. I was a student pilot assigned to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas, as part of an Air Force-Navy exchange program, where I earned my Air Force silver wings and learned a new language that included the Navy terms; deck, gouge, head, and topside. It’s all fun and games until the Navy lead aircraft of the formation asks this Air Force pilot to rejoin on his “starboard” side. Whiskey tango foxtrot!

3. I was the lead Pentagon planner at Pt Mugu Naval Air Station, California, for President Reagan’s funeral. At the time of President Reagan’s death, I was an advance agent for Air Force One and was dispatched within a couple hours to Pt Mugu to handle all the on-site coordination between the Navy base, White House, Air Force One crew, and Mrs Reagan’s staff.

Question: How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

I started blogging on October 9, 2006, while I was deployed to SW Asia in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. My initial reports to family were via e-mails but as the list of friends and relatives continued to grow it became easier to just post my thoughts and pictures on a blog. I went back and added all my previous e-mails from the previous month to my milblog to have a complete record of my deployment.

(more…)

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Instapinch talks about his milblog instapinch.com.

Question: What are 3 things your readers probably do not know about you?

Let’s see….I’ve been pretty open about most everything over the few years I’ve been doing this. They probably don’t know I drive a Prius, which is one of the first hybrid cars to come out and is usually associated with the wacko-environmental moonbats (pretty radical for a staunch conservative like me but the money saved on gas is pretty sweet and it has a few other advantages in a commuter-world like the DC area). They probably don’t know I was a single-parent for most of the last 13 years, raising 2 daughters by myself. Third, my callsign when I flew was Pinch. The “Instapinch” came about when I was rasslin’ around for a blog name and I stole the “Insta” from Glenn Reynolds’ “Instapundit”. I figured if it was good enough for him, it would be fine for me.

Question: How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

Instapinch began in March of 2005, so it has been almost 2 and a half years. I initially started with a desire to get online some of the photos I took when I was flying. I was also in the last part of my Naval War College master program, so was writing a lot and looked at a blog as a way of getting some of that out there in the milblog world. My good friend Madmblue at Growing Old Disgracefully talked me into starting this and here we are.

Question: What is your military experience?

10 years of active duty as an F-14 radar intercept officer and 12 years (still ongoing) as a reserve officer serving on various staffs and units. Currently assigned to Commander, Strike Forces Training Atlantic in Norfolk.

Question: What are some of your other favorite Milblogs?

I post and contribute at Blackfive and Defense Tech. Neptunus Lex, The Wood Shed, Murdoc Online, OpFor, National Review’s The Tank, Steeljaw Scribe, Growing Old Disgracefully isn’t a milblog per se, but has some great international relations analysis.

Question: What has been the biggest factor in helping you create and publish a successful blog?

Being one of the few voices on the blogosphere to talk about the F-14 when its career was winding down definitely helped – its still amazing the fan club that aircraft had. I try to write about my experiences – which could fall into the category of sticking with what you know. Keep the networking up with other blogs you know – link to them and they’ll link to you. Keep it fresh, interesting, post as often as you can and don’t stray too far out of your core competency.

Question: Do you have anything else you would like us to mention about you, your blog, or your readers?

I appreciate every comment that comes my way. It’s gives me great satisfaction knowing that what I write or post at times is enjoyed by some of the readers out there. Thanks for the visits and keep coming back!

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Charity for Charities

You vote. Joe gives $2,000 to military charities.

Vote August 5–20.

Vote for your favorite charitable military organization from August 5–20.  Joe will donate $2,000 to the charities with the most votes. Nominate your favorite charitable military organization now or anytime after the voting begins.

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Stoli talks about his milblog Mission Iraq - Round 2.

Question: How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

I have been blogging since January 07 when I started this deployment. This is an easy way for family and friends to stay up with what I am doing in Iraq.

Question: What is your military experience?

I have been in the Air Force for 16 years and have worked many different types of jobs…although lately been doing a lot of staff work. I have been to Korea, Japan, England, Germany, Italy, Bosnia, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq.

Question: What are some of your other favorite Milblogs?

The One Wire, The Landlocked Sailor, and the AF EWO in Iraq. They are linked on my blog. I should probably expand my blog horizons and check out some others.

Question: What has been the biggest factor in helping you create and publish a successful blog?

My children are growing up without me while I serve over here. Thus, the blog lets them see what I am doing, seeing, and thinking while 8,000 miles away from home. It gives them something tangible to keep for later in life in addition to memories of my phone calls and emails.

Question: Do you have anything else you would like us to mention about you, your blog, or your readers?

I really appreciate the random emails of support and thanks from people back in America. Our presence has become unpopular both in America and in Iraq, yet it’s good to know we have a loyal following of support from home.

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Karl talks about his milblog Learning Straight Up

Question: What are 3 things your readers probably do not know about you?

I am a die hard fan of Firefly and Serenity, I collect useless trivia and I used to be a free lance wedding photographer.

Question: How long have you been blogging and why did you get into blogging?

I started blogging 4 years ago as a vent and outlet, a personal journal, really. In 2004, however, we had the farcical Governors election in Washington and I started paying more attention to blogs locally as they unraveled the elections mess, as well as the national blogs regarding the presidential election. So I widened my perspective from personal issues to political ones, and essentially lit my own fire. I discovered I liked being a part of a national debate, and kept getting more involved until I finally launched my own domain in March 2006. It has been a great experience.

Question: What is your military experience?

I was a C5 and C141 Mechanic at Travis AFB for 12.5 years of Active Duty, and 2 years of Reserve Duty at McChord AFB.I left the military in 1995, and I am now a disabled veteran. Yes, as odd as it sounds, I did all my Active Duty service at one base. I reached the rank of E5 and was one of a few chosen to attend the NCO Academy at Norton AFB. The NCOA was normally reserved for E6 and higher.

My military experience was what most would regard as mundane, and not glamorous or flashy. The closest to war and danger I got was providing Chemical Weapons briefing to aircrews during Desert Storm as a member of the base’s Disaster Preparedness Support Team. But my service while boring was important as a part of the whiole picture. It made me appreciate the logistical challenges the military faces, and the essential nature of the support services that enable our Military to be the finest in the world.

It also made me a much better person.

Question: What are some of your other favorite Milblogs?

I think I have read more at Blackfive then most, but I enjoy hitting the Random Link button and seeing who all of the various bloggers are. I also have a great admiration of Michael Yon.

Question: What has been the biggest factor in helping you create and publish a successful blog?

The kindness of some established bloggers, notably Sister Toldjah, who has been a great influence, has given me great advice, and has been a solid friend. Aside from that aspect, the biggest personal factor has been a refusal to give up, because some days you are weary of the efforts it takes to research and publish information daily. Then, some positive feedback comes in and you remember that maybe somehow you are making a difference and that all the work is worthwhile. Blogging takes work.

Question: Do you have anything else you would like us to mention about you, your blog, or your readers?

I think my blog speaks for itself. I welcome all readers form all ideologies, and hope I have something to contribute to everyones benefit.

I would like to personally extend my gratitude and admiration to men and women of the Military (US and other), for their dedication and service, and for fighting for the freedom of us all.

And on the heels of that, my appreciation and admiration to all the Mil Bloggers, active duty, reserve, veteran or civilian alike, for all their hard work and determination to keep the information flowing, and for their overall support of the Military.

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