I Fought the Law and I Won

Ok, for those of you who have been curious for the last couple of days, my blog was down. This was in respect to a direct order I recieved from my Chain of Command. It was also in regards to me posting pictures when I was ordered not too. Now, granted, I probably shouldn't have posted the pictures and I posted them anyway, but from my understanding of military regulations, and my research on it, it seemed to me that my posting the pictures was not in violation of any military regulation, other then a disobeyment of a direct order that I thought was not entirely lawful.

Turns out that it was a violation of my first ammendment rights and they cannot tell me to shut down my website. Granted, soldiers have a more limited freedom of Speech then civilians do, but it is still there. As long as my pictures are not pictures depicting anything that has to do with the mission, sensitive items, damaged vehicles or anything of that sort or of that nature, I can post it. I will refrain from posting pictures in the military setting period, just so I can relieve this burdon of my blog off my command's shoulders (because believe me, they are sick of it), I will probably refrain from talking much on military matters anyway.

So anyway, the jig is this. I can post pictures on my website, and I can continue to post blog entrees on my website, as long as they don't violate the regulation on them. So my blog cannot be shut down. Higher up the chain confirmed this, and the Inspector General confirmed this. I am within my constitutional rights to post on this blog and have this website. I am not providing information to the enemy.

But I will refrain from mentioning the journey getting to that verdict, as honestly, I am still a soldier and I need to be respectful of my chain of command.

But believe me, it hasn't been a pretty fight.