Jarhead Journal was conceived around 1999 and is currently maintained by former marine Matt Sword. A buddy and I had an idea for an “All Marine” portal. A place for NCO’s to collaborate with each other and discuss current events, tactics and general BST topics. Due to the nature and security around tactics we thought it might not be smart.

I never wanted to give up the domain name because I thought it was a good one, so I decided to create a personal site with it. Recently, I was called to duty to help develop a quick site for some buddies in Lima Company 3/25. I worked with the Key Volunteer at my civilian job and she asked if I could help; after separating from the Marine Corps in 2000 I always wanted to get involved somehow and this was a good opportunity.

The main focus of Jarhead Journal during this time was to create a visual journal; photo album if you will, and an announcement page for the key volunteers. The later didn’t work out because Jarhead Journal would have to be censored and all content verified for validity, so Jarhead Journal sponsored the photo albums of Lima Company while they served in Iraq.

There was a lot of family participation on Jarhead Journal during Lima Company’s deployment. I’m very much honored to be a part of the history that was captured during this time. Marine friends and family poured their heart into the photo comments and to be the owner of this data is quite a responsibility.

I continue to host the Lima Company photos from Iraq, but I’ve posted lots of pictures of my 12 year Marine experience; although it’s not very exciting as compared to Marine experience of today.