In the March issue of Esquire, Stryker blogger cum California author Colby Buzzell writes about the dirt road from “dope-smoking, valet-parking, skateboarder” to detoxed, spankin’-clean, aptitude-tested US Army infantry recruit. And that’s just the first leg of a wild ride that’s taken him from his parents’ Bay Area house to Mosul, into battle and the blogosphere — where the gritty writing in his “My War” blog was compared to Joseph Heller and Michael Herr and drew in 10,000 readers a day — and on from there into a censorship tangle (between patrols) and now into a contract with G.P. Putnam’s Sons to turn “My War” into a book for Fall 2005.

Unfortunately, the original posts are no longer available on Buzzell’s site. What’s posted there now are some reprints of big-media coverage of his remarkable story and an interesting letter from his Battalion Commander. Check it out here. Can’t make it to a newstand? Read the Esquire story at KeepMedia. (30-day free trial registration required.) [thx Val]