Loose lips sink ships, or worse

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Steven Dietz
  • SF Squadron
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  For those of us stationed in Europe in the late 80s, we remember well the American Forces Radio Television Service commercials concerning operational security. In one such commercial, a man sits in the corner of a bar with a newspaper.  To his left, someone talks about going on a trip to play games with their entire unit. Across from him, another American talks about the cold weather he will encounter but still being able to go to a festival during down time. At another table, someone is complaining he doesn't need to go anywhere to practice shooting down things. At the end of the commercial, the camera pans into the newspaper. Written down were bits from all three conversations, by themselves relatively harmless, but put together was written the big picture: the Air Defense Artillery brigade was deploying to Munich for exercises late September to October.

The purpose of this Cops' Corner is not to relive the days of the Cold War, but to recognize lessons from the past are just as important today, perhaps even more so. The enemy then was Communism, the Red Menace. The enemies today are Al-Qaeda and a list of others. Today's enemy, however, does not have to sit in the corner of a bar, but in front of a computer to obtain the same information. Personal networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace or others are a popular way of meeting new people. If used incorrectly, they give the enemy an excellent opportunity to learn about our operations. A new networking site, Togetherweserved/Air Force gives members the opportunity to post not only personal information, but complete information about their units, deployments, medals/ribbons, pictures from where they have been or where they are going. 

Public networking sites, including Togetherweserved, are not affiliated with military in any way. 

Let us look at what a modern AFRTS commercial may look like:
Someone in a dark room in front of a computer looking at a networking site, they come across the page for a Sergeant Doe with a picture of him wearing a military police  brassard in front of a Humvee. His blog talks about going to the sandbox again and not being back until Thanksgiving. The person then checks Sergeant Doe's friends list and clicks on Sergeant Tread, which has a picture of him standing in front of a sign with a snake and the word Anaconda. Sergeant Tread blogs on how this trip will leave his home unit severely strained for manning. See where this is going? With a few clicks, they could discover your units operations and status. The enemy is out there and they are they are using these types of sites to find little tidbits that will add up to the big picture.

Team Vance members are reminded that poor OPSEC has been a threat to the military as long as there has been conflict. While the Department of Defense is not restricting our ability to join those sites, they trust our judgment to ensure that we exercise good judgment in what we post. We are all entrusted to practice good OPSEC.