Best of the blogs: Bloggers win awards for musings on military life - Off Duty, Technology - Navy Times

Best of the blogs: Bloggers win awards for musings on military life

When Army Ranger Sgt. 1st Class Ben Rye and his wife Katie were hit by a truck on a summer night in 2009, friends and family launched a blog to serve as an online prayer vigil as the couple fought for their lives.

In time, Katie would take over the blog as her husband — who suffered severe head injuries — struggled through a painful recovery that continues to this day. Buoyed by his love and determination, she continues to fight for him with words infused with her own faith and courage.

Those words have inspired a growing circle of friends and well-wishers throughout the military and beyond. No wonder her blog — titled simply Ben and Katie — earned top honors at the sixth Annual MilBlog Conference held in Washington on April 29, garnering the Best Military Spouse Blog Award as well as the nod for Fan Favorite.

“I want him to be honored for his service and all he has done — a lot of deployments, awards and schools — because he deserves it and that’s one of the reasons I am still blogging,” Katie says.

Other awardees:

• Best Army Blog: Chief Wiggles, which chronicles Army integrator Chief Warrant Officer 5 Paul Holton’s deployment to Iraq.

• Best Navy Blog: USNI Blog, the independent forum of the U.S. Naval Institute.

• Best Air Force Blog: I’m Big in Japan, written by an airman assigned to Misawa Air Base in Japan.

• Best Marine Corps Blog: One Marine’s View, posted under the pseudonym “Major Pain” by a Marine officer with several combat deployments under his web belt.

• Best Coast Guard Blog: Coast Guard Compass, the “service’s flagship social media project and the centerpiece of our effort to engage the public.”

• Best Military Veteran Blog: Neptunus Lex, retired Top Gun pilot Capt. Carroll LeFon’s pithy musings of the day.

• Best Military Parent Blog: My Yellow Ribbon, the posts of Nancy Davin, the mother of an Iowa National Guardsman deployed to Afghanistan.

• Best Military Supporter Blog: From Cow Pastures To Kosovo, written under the name Parachute Cutie, a big booster of active troops, veterans and the Wound Warrior Foundation.

• Best Reporter Blog: The Unknown Soldiers, written by former journalist Tom Sileo, now a manager with the USO.