Colby Buzzell (born July 17, 1976, in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

) is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger and former

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

. Buzzell grew up in

San Ramon, California San Ramon ( Spanish: ''San Ramón'', meaning "St. Raymond") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located within the San Ramon Valley, and east of San Francisco. San Ramon's population was 84,605 per the 2020 census, m ...

, and enlisted in the

at the age of 26. Prior to joining the U.S. Army he described his life as engaging in a lot of drinking, drug use, dead-end jobs and a minor criminal record. He was very optimistic about his Army service and was determined to follow the Army recruiting slogan of "Be All That You Can Be". He joined the service as an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

man and spent 2003–2004 in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, assigned to a

Stryker The Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) for the United States Army in a plant in London, Ontario. It ...

Brigade Combat Team. In his book he expresses a great deal of enthusiasm about the benefits of wheels over traditional treaded armor in urban settings. It was in Iraq that Buzzell began publishing a blog under the title "CBFTW", "Colby Buzzel Fuck The War", as a replacement for his habitual journaling back in the States. The blog gained popularity quickly because, as an

anonymous blogger Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

, Buzzell was able to share more lucid experiences than an embedded journalist, and he was also able to share a bit more of the truth than the Army was able to. Buzzell's blog gained recognition for its realistic portrayal of gripping first-hand accounts of the war in Iraq. This '

milblog A warblog or milblog is a weblog devoted mostly or wholly to covering news events concerning an ongoing war. Sometimes the use of the term "warblog" implies that the blog concerned has a hawkish, pro-war slant. The term "milblog" implies that th ...

' won praise as “an unfiltered, often ferocious expression of his boots-on-the-ground view of the Iraq war." Colby published a book on his experiences entitled '' My War: Killing Time in Iraq'', combining narrative, blog entries, and emails that evolved from his blog over time. The book received positive reviews and has been recommended for public libraries. In 2004, Buzzell was profiled in ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

''s "Best and Brightest" issue and has since contributed regularly. In 2007, Buzzell received the 2007

Lulu Blooker Prize Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. L ...

for '' My War: Killing Time in Iraq''. In 2008, Buzzell was recalled for active duty. After he arrived at his post, he was examined by the medical staff at Fort Benning and marked "not deployable" due to

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

. In 2011, Buzzell wrote the book '' Lost in America: A Dead-End Journey'', published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

, about coping with his post-traumatic stress disorder by taking a road trip to nowhere, all the while thinking about his newborn son, wife, and recently deceased mother.

References

External links

Colby Buzzell's website

3d Stryker Brigade, Fort Lewis WashingtonInterview with Colby Buzzell -- link deadOC Weekly interview August 30, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buzzell, Colby 1976 births Living people American bloggers People from San Ramon, California United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Iraq War Anonymous bloggers Esquire (magazine) people 21st-century American writers