Blackfive has organized an anthology of military bloggers (MILBLOGS), that Simon and Schuster will publish mid to late 2006. Blackfive will be the editor, and he has rustled up a fine stable of contributors already, and continues a call for new material.

Here's how he describes the project:

We will bring together the best of the military blogs, the purest distillation of the myriad voices of this war. These bloggers provide a powerful insight into the military, the War on Terror, and the heart of our nation. By bringing these voices together, we offer the first real-time, “oral” history of a war while it still going on. We will provide stories from many of the military blogs that cover the full range of the experience of this war – from the decision to serve in the military to their return home, from the front lines to the home front, and from the med-evac units and hospitals where the price of freedom is paid in blood and suffering to the friends that made the ultimate sacrifice.

We will provide a new way to view the military - uncensored, unmediated, direct, intimate and immediate. For everyone on both sides of the computer screen—the military blogs have been an experiment in putting lives that are on the line, online: Now, by pulling together these voices into a choir, by giving the ephemeral internet bits and bytes a permanent place to live by putting them between covers, we hope to, in some small way, pay lasting tribute to those men and women who have opened this window into their lives and to convey a better understanding of what it’s like to be a part of the War.

This is a terrific project, and not just because Blackfive was gracious enough to invite me to participate.

This is some of the best writing and best reporting available today. Some of the voices training in this struggle today will become leading voices tomorrow: in publishing, literature, journalism, politics certainly, every area of our society. Seeing the list of MILBLOGS Blackfive has recruited, the book should be a big success. It would be an honor to appear in print with these fine writers.

Keep an eye out, and if you read anything that you really think needs a wider audience -- nominate it for inclusion in the book:

Please either email me (blackfive@gmail.com) suggestions or put a link (if use http:// with the URL, the link will be live) in the Comments of the best Military Blog posts that you have read.

As editor, I'm looking at a wide range of experiences - Saying Goodbye (from deciding to serve in the military to leaving loved ones behind), Combat, the Weight of Command, the Fallen, Homefront (spouse and parent blogs), Humor, Time Off, and Coming Home.

You can also add a comment to the post linked to here.

Thanks to all of you, the readers of MILBLOGS, for making this possible.

UPDATE: Blackfive and his effort got Instalaunched!

Also linked at Mudville Gazette, Indepundit, Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, Project Nothing, The Daily Brief, CatHouse Chat, Small Town Veteran, Pajama Brigade, Gunn Nutt, Blogotional, Winds of Change