The Destroyermen Blog: Sunk! (Updated)

It was too good to last. Less than a month after its launch, a kick-ass blog edited by an officer aboard the USS Russell destroyer has been shuttered. Here's Lieutenant Commander Chris van Avery explaining:

I'm declaring an operational pause here at The Destroyermen. We've succeeded in doing something so "out of the box" that there are a few
Important Questions that need to be answered with respect to policy and in which direction we should proceed. And, most importantly, my first responsibility is to not make more work for the Captain, and I can see that unfolding before my eyes.

This is purely my decision and was not ordered or even requested by anyone in my chain of command, so there's no need to start formulating conspiracy theories. I think it’s time to give all the parties involved some breathing room to try and forge a path ahead.

Contrast this with last week's Navy-written news story that quoted yours truly:

With a new post nearly every day, this [blogging] method of storytelling has proven to be a hit for *Russell and the Navy. "When I discussed it with the chain of command and the public affairs community, I don't think any of us expected such a positive reaction from the public," van Avery said.

Freelance journalist and a long-time observer of how the armed services use and react to the alternative media, David Axe, stated on his personal blog, "War is boring." However, Axe was more complimentary about Russell*'s blog. *

"With this sweet little blog, the Navy is now in second place in the race to harness the power of the Internet for educating the American people about the military," Axe wrote on his blog, noting and crediting the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs capturing first place.

With The Destroyermen suddenly sinking, I think we can now place the Army ahead of the Navy in the New Media race. (The Air Force still dead last.)

"The good news is, with over 12,000 visitors to the site in its first four weeks and the overwhelmingly positive reaction of the public, I think we’ll figure out a way to make it work," van Avery said.

I sure hope so. But count me skeptical. It was perhaps too much to ask for a fun, colorful and relatively unfiltered portal into Navy life. We'll just have to settle for press releases, I guess.

Update 10:44 EST:

"The hyperventilating can stop," one commenter writes. It seems van Avery managed to get permission to keep blogging ... for now.