A Thank You to Cyberspace

Finally, my odyssey is drawing to a close. Or at least this portion of it. I still have a feeling that the next leg of this odyssey lies before me—seeing what effect being here has had on my life at home. In the last few days that I will be posting from the desert there are several things I want to cover—things that I feel are important to be said and that I need to send out before the next chapter of this journey begins. So—plan on a blogging frenzy over the next few days as I try to get these out.

One of the surprising, if not the most surprising, benefits of doing this was the unbelievable support that I was given by scores of people that I never knew before September 9^th, 2005: the online community. Once people started reading these posts emails began to pour in from far and wide with incredible words of support and encouragement. It was one of the high points of my day to look at the world map on SiteMeter and see hits from literally all corners of the globe, and to see that someone had linked themselves to my website. People may not realize it, but whatever the reasons were to connect to my world, you can’t imagine how good it made me feel to have that level of support from people I didn’t know.

I can’t possibly name all of them here, but there were a number of individuals who went above and beyond to give whatever help they could, whether in the form of emails, comments, care packages, or linking to posts in my website. Among them: Richmond from One for the Road, Trouble in Shangri-La from Dubious Wonder, Smash from The Military Outpost, Mrs. Greyhawk from The Mudville Gazette’s Dawn Patrol, Wonder Woman from North American Patriot, MarcGuyver, NZ from The Truth Laid Bear, John Little from Blogs of War, Milblogging.com, and SPC Phil Van Treuren from Camp Katrina. Without the support of these people I don’t think more than a handful of people would have even known that Desert Odyssey existed.

I drew from several sources, including the ones mentioned above for inspiration to keep me going both personally and on here. Among them: Heather from Dooce, Joe from The Opinionator, Lex from Neptunus Lex, Soldier’s Angel Holly Aho, Michelle Malkin, Kevin Sites from In The Hot Zone, Bill Roggio from ThreatsWatch, Matt from BlackFive, Jonah’s Military Guys from Argghhh!!, Michael Yon, and the one that motivated me to do this in the first place, Sgt. Missick from A Line in the Sand.

Obviously there are many more here that I haven’t mentioned that I am indebted to. You are all incredible writers and thinkers and are changing the face of journalism and the media in the world. I hope to continue my odyssey at home, and hope to be able to return the support you have given me over the last four months. God Bless all of you.

Lucky