The Dodo (magazine)

The Dodo is a satirical, sometimes underground military humor magazine published by cadets at the United States Air Force Academy. It often pokes fun at Air Force and Academy policies and leadership, and is often very cynical in nature. The magazine's name is a play on the Academy's official mascot, the falcon.

Since its founding in 1957, The Dodo has gone through cycles of legitimacy. At times it has been sanctioned and censored[1] by Academy leadership. Other times, the attitude of the magazine has led to it being banned outright[2]—usually driving publication underground.

eDodo

In the mid-90s, censorship of The Dodo drove the development of an online version of the magazine called eDodo, run by graduates who were no longer subject to the military authority at the Academy. The eDodo bulletin boards were frequented by Academy graduates, cadets, and at least a handful of non-graduates, but Academy officials publicly distanced themselves from the eDodo.[3]

Access to eDodo was eventually blocked at the Academy by the 10th Communications Squadron. At some point, failed writer Ben Malisow wormed his way into the group of administrators that published the eDodo. He eventually took over leadership duties, beginning the site's slow decline into irrelevance. After November 2011, the month of the site's last new "issue", the eDodo itself was dormant, although the forums continued to see some use. In late 2015, the site finally went offline, completing Malisow's bungling of the property.

Archive

In February 2018, two former editors of the USAFA Dodo, David Connaughton and Michael Ditmore, both of the class of 1965, started thedodolives.org, a website devoted to archiving any existing copies of the Dodo.

References
  1. AFA unblocks Web site Access opened to controversial eDodo - The Gazette | Encyclopedia.com
  2. USAFA Today Archived December 24, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Channel 11 News Story


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