OPSEC/Casualty mishap

[amaristella]

I feel this story is relevant here. I understand that the Navy failed to apply its own protocols in this incident but it sounds like the widow would like to spread her story as a reminder to everyone. I know in past OPSEC discussions we've talked about whether it's appropriate to repeat information that has been released officially in a news article.

The story of how Theresa Vitale Jones found out she was widow via Facebook.
keepcalmandhaveacosmo.blogspot.com/2014/03/racing-facebook-new-challenge-for.html

Excerpt:
It has now been five months since Landon died and Theresa is trying to make a difference for other widows in the military. The culture of "instant gratification" has implications that reach far beyond what our culture tends to think about. Theresa's friend posted the article about the search because she was hoping to garner support for the Jones family. It was not malicious, but she inadvertently became the person who informed Theresa she was a widow.

In the naval aviation community, we often share posts about plane crashes or other mishaps because we want everyone wrapping their arms around the people involved. Never do we think that we actually might be the people who cause a woman to pace her house for an entire day, nervously glancing at the front door. Social media has become so fast and so instant that it is outpacing the real human interaction that has been a mainstay of humane military death and accident notification. I am totally guilty of it, Theresa admits that she was also guilty of it in the past, but she is motivated to make a change within the military and within the families, spouses' groups, and FRGs.

When dealing with military accidents and deaths, be gentle in your quest to get information out. If names haven't been produced by the military, it is likely because the notification process is still ongoing. Wait until those names are released. At that point, you can be sure that sharing links to articles, family fundraisers, and other outreaches is safe.

We so often talk about OPSEC (Operational Security) and PERSEC (Personal Security) when discussing the internet and it's relation to our lives. All Navy wives know the mantra "loose lips sink ships" and not to post your personal address on the open internet. Theresa's quest is more of a nuanced one, a gray area where people are sharing articles that are already "out there" in the media, so not a violation of the traditional rules. She is trying to get her message out to spouses and families. On a personal level, I think "big Navy" (and "big military", for that matter) should also take note.

There are families reading Facebook and Twitter. When the person in charge of Nimitz's Facebook page posted that a helicopter was down, were they thinking of the new mother nursing her baby in the wee hours of the morning? Probably not. And we need to keep those people in mind when trying to be the first to break or share a news story

[meltoine]

I feel like I'm missing something. It was the ship's official FB page, yes? Why did they post something before she had been notified? That seems like an awfully big lapse in judgement for their PR person.

[amaristella]

Mar 12, 2014 17:34:09 GMT -5 meltoine said:

I feel like I'm missing something. It was the ship's official FB page, yes? Why did they post something before she had been notified? That seems like an awfully big lapse in judgement for their PR person.

Multiple big lapses in judgement. It looks to me like they posted two different things that should not have been posted until after notifications.

[amaristella]

I'm starting to wonder if there isn't a weird gray area somewhere. Just because reading down into the blog's comments things like this have happened before. Maybe the protocol between when an incident happens and when names are officially released needs to be revised? It really doesn't seem like it should have happened like that.

[audette]

Mar 12, 2014 17:52:39 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Mar 12, 2014 17:34:09 GMT -5 meltoine said:

I feel like I'm missing something. It was the ship's official FB page, yes? Why did they post something before she had been notified? That seems like an awfully big lapse in judgement for their PR person.

Multiple big lapses in judgement. It looks to me like they posted two different things that should not have been posted until after notifications.

Yeah - these were _massive_ screw-ups on the part of the navy - the person running the FB page for the ship, and whoever authorized the publishing of the article about suspending the search.

While I can see the argument being made in the post about being cautious about sharing news articles and so forth, if the appropriate processes are followed by the military personnel regarding PR and casualty notification, this spouse would not have learned of her husband's death on FB.

That being said, it doesn't hurt to remind folks that there is a time and place to call people out on FB, and a situation like the one mentioned in the article is rarely one of them.  Yes, reach out _privately_ to the person involved.  But don't splash their name on FB in a time of tragedy.  Seriously.  This isn't something we should have to tell people...

[JakJak]

Many people screwed up big time. I feel so bad for this poor woman, I can't imagine losing my spouse and finding out this way.

[pennylane]

How that all went down is just awful. Those poor families.

[brandienee]

This makes me really angry. These articles shouldn't have gotten out there in the first place until the family was notified. But to then have your FRIEND share something... it just... ugh.

[audette]

Mar 12, 2014 21:29:00 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

I had an actual fear of this happening during H's first deployment. I was convinced that since I was out of town all the time, I would find out through FB because the notification team couldn't find me.

This was a big fear of mine on DH's first deployment, too.  Work travel and personal travel had me all.over.the.place during DH's first deployment.  Domestic and international travel both.  (within a month of DH's departure, I travelled to Canada, Japan, and TX...  I was probably on the road about 50% of my time that deployment)

The rear-D commander actually assigned someone to keep track of where the hell I was, in case they needed to contact me.  I updated them with travel itineraries, including flight numbers, hotel info, dates, phone numbers, etc for each trip.  Aside from some poor guy in rear-D getting these wacky itineraries, it did a lot to ease my mind.

The second deployment, though, the rear-D commander was useless.  I remember asking him if we should notify anyone of travel, and he seemed confused that those of us not moving home might want to spend some time travelling...  In the end, that was the deployment that made me more nervous.

[VillainV]

I don't know the specifics of this story, what was released/posted when, or what exactly that woman read on Facebook (was it just that an aircraft from her husband's ship went down? Or was her husband's name mentioned in the BF post before she had been notified?).

I was in Afghanistan a few years ago when my squadron tragically lost a jet and two aircrew in a crash that occurred in the middle of the night. When things like this happen, communications go on lock-down. There is NO email, Facebook, phone calls, NOTHING until the family is notified. In this case it took about 8 hours. By the time we were finally allowed to contact our loved ones, the story was just about to break as the opening item on big morning news shows on the east coast. I had maybe 10 minutes to call my parents and let them know I was safe before they turned on the Today show and saw news of a crash splashed all over their TVs. Thank God I was able to call them in time, I can only imagine how terrified my poor mother would have been if she thought I might have been involved in the crash. It really bothers me that news shows were allowed to broadcast general news about "a crash" while notification was still ongoing.