Question about OPSEC / PERSEC

[piper84]

I've been reading up on OPSEC / PERSEC -- it seems straightforward enough. One question I have is this: I have a personal blog that is only read by family and close friends. What information can I share? Obviously I would not write detailed information about deployments, etc... but what about PCSing? (Sorry if this is a totally dumb question).

Is it safe to write "Our family will be moving to XXX AFB on Sept. 20"?
As far as deployments go, since my blog is about my family's daily life, is there a way to talk about deployments without violating OPSEC / PERSEC? If H gets deployed, and I write a blog entry about saying goodbye to him, for example, won't it be apparent when he left and where he went?

Thanks! Trying to figure it all out. Better safe than sorry

[meltoine]

As far as the blog - unless it's password protected, you have to assume that anyone can see it. If you many to write a post about deployment, wait until he's been gone for a few days, then write your post. Don't mention exactly when he left, but it's fine to say "MH left a few days ago. It was hard to say goodbye but I'm okay blah blah blah..." or whatever. Just be vague on the departure dates.

Similarly, don't post that he's coming home in two days or anything. After he's back safe and sound, write a post. You also don't have to mention where he went. Saying he's deployed will get your message across without saying exactly where he is. It's fine for people to know he's in Afghanistan, but telling them exactly what base he's at or that he's flying a mission to (wherever) on Tuesday is not good.

How much info you share about a PCS is up to you. That's your own personal info and doesn't really affect the AF. I'm pretty stingy with personal info generally, so I never post exactly where I am at a given time, like when people "check in" somewhere via FB. I usually only say that I was somewhere after the fact. I just dont like to advertise my whereabouts or that my house is empty.

[piper84]

Sept 24, 2012 19:43:30 GMT -5 meltoine said:

As far as the blog - unless it's password protected, you have to assume that anyone can see it. If you many to write a post about deployment, wait until he's been gone for a few days, then write your post. Don't mention exactly when he left, but it's fine to say "MH left a few days ago. It was hard to say goodbye but I'm okay blah blah blah..." or whatever. Just be vague on the departure dates.

Similarly, don't post that he's coming home in two days or anything. After he's back safe and sound, write a post. You also don't have to mention where he went. Saying he's deployed will get your message across without saying exactly where he is. It's fine for people to know he's in Afghanistan, but telling them exactly what base he's at or that he's flying a mission to (wherever) on Tuesday is not good.

How much info you share about a PCS is up to you. That's your own personal info and doesn't really affect the AF. I'm pretty stingy with personal info generally, so I never post exactly where I am at a given time, like when people "check in" somewhere via FB. I usually only say that I was somewhere after the fact. I just dont like to advertise my whereabouts or that my house is empty.

Thank you. All that makes total sense. I feel the same way about personal info -- however, this is a blog with a very small audience so I feel comfortable sharing PCS info. I actually created the blog because I didn't want to share too much info on FB once our baby was born. The blog is just to update our families with info related to the baby, H's pursuit of the AF, etc. I understand about the deployment info, as well. I figure that readers of the blog will already know when H is deploying (since it's mostly our parents and siblings) so no need to mention exact details in the posts.

Thank you

[basilosaurus]

The basic rule of thumb I try to follow is making sure no one can figure out troop movement, either in the present or to predict a pattern. So, I might (hypothetically) say "leaving in a few days" or "has safely landed."

The other thing is to not share information that allows people to guess what missions are going on when and where. So, I might say H is doing well in Iraq. Another post might mention his job. So, piecing it together, you could see that x job is going on in y location. That may or not be ok. Now, with what my H does, his job is broad and vague enough that it's ok. But that's not true of every job.

You have awhile to figure this out b/c he'll be in school for a long time. Just watch and pay attention.

One thing that was really instructive to me was once when H looked over my shoulder and saw someone's sig pic on this board years ago. From that, he knew the guy's rank and job. Which wasn't that big a deal. Until I said, oh, yeah, her H is in x location. So, he was able to put the pieces together just from that to know all sorts of things about what missions were likely going on and what his specialty was. That kind of freaked me out.

Have your H help you with this, too. Ask what you're allowed to share. I know I've shared things I shouldn't have, through no fault of my own, so now I'm fairly proactive about asking what I can and cannot say. Like, now, I won't tell his location publicly, just due to who he works for. In other locations, it would have been perfectly fine. I wouldn't have known this if he didn't tell me.

[piper84]

Sept 24, 2012 20:44:24 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

One thing that was really instructive to me was once when H looked over my shoulder and saw someone's sig pic on this board years ago. From that, he knew the guy's rank and job. Which wasn't that big a deal. Until I said, oh, yeah, her H is in x location. So, he was able to put the pieces together just from that to know all sorts of things about what missions were likely going on and what his specialty was. That kind of freaked me out.

That is so crazy! Good to know...

[Deleted]

Another thing about deployment dates -- realize that they are ALWAYS flexible, and usually change. So, hypothetically, even if the departure WAS scheduled for say, the 20th, that means that in reality he can probably leave any time from a week before to two weeks after because things change, aircraft break, etc. It's happened to me. I don't even tell my husband an "actual" date anymore because I can pretty much guarantee that the date we're supposed to leave is not when we are actually going to leave (or come home for that matter).

So sometimes being vague is actually being realistic, as well. But yeah, from an OPSEC standpoint it's better to be be vague about times, locations, numbers of troops, types of missions, etc.