My Topic

My blog, “The Future of War is Now,” focuses on the advances in technology and how that affects how war is fought. I also wanted to focus on the affect that technology has on the human aspect of war. Much of what you see in movies and television are not just science fiction, but things that actually do exist. I did not even realize how much technology goes into fighting a war.

I’ve been a US Marine since 2007 and I’m a small arms repairman (which just means I work with the weapons), so the only technology I ever saw or need in my training before going to Iraq was a hammer, a screwdriver, and a punch. The only time I would use a computer was if I wanted to do paperwork with it rather than writing it by hand. All of my references are very large and thick manuals, but many references, yet not all, are making their way into electronic format.

Technology, though, has a very large role in the way we fight war and its affect on US service members and that is why I have selected that topic. I was just so very astonished at how much we can do with the new technologies that we have. For example, we have something called the Blue Force Tracker system, where Marines on a convoy hundreds of miles of way can be tracked from a central location with enough accuracy that they can be told of upcoming hazards or rough terrain. Likewise, those Marines in that convoy can know where the other vehicles are, something very critical in a combat environment. And if you have every played the video game “Call of Duty,” you have most certainly heard of predator drones, drones that I heard almost every night flying around.

I also selected this topic because how the advancement of communication technology made it easier for me to contact with home, thus I want to see how it affects people. When I was over there, not only did we have phones, but we had internet, albeit, very slow internet, running through a system of satellites all over base, which allowed us to contact home and allowed us to keep up with current events. This is a very big morale boost in a highly stressful environment.

Because of my personal experiences while in Iraq, my goals for selecting this topic is that I want to further explore the technology that shapes and will further shape warfare, but I also want to further explore how technology positively/negatively affects the human aspect of war.