Day 42: Opsec

Today was my husband's regimental town hall meeting about redeployment (which contrarily to how it sounds, means coming home). It was pretty cool. They did a webcast, so I got to stay home and watch the meeting. Unfortunately the posted time until broadcast was incorrect and I missed the first part of the meeting, but I think I got the gist.

The one part of the meeting that they took more care to discuss than previous units have, was OpSec, or operational security for those of you unfamiliar with the millions of army acronyms. We always have to be cautious about what we say over the phone, on email or social media (like Facebook or blogs) but especially about issues involving travel or missions.

While it seems crazy to us here in America, but especially on or near a military post where the patriotism runs very high, there are people out there who look to hurt America any way they can. They monitor email and Facebook and search for information that might help them. I watch my readership and know that people all over the world check out my blog, who's to say that they are just readers? I certainly can't know that.

While no one likes an alarmist, no of us want to be responsible for hurting our soldiers. I'm not sure who was leading the webcast since I came in late and he wasn't familiar to me, but even he said that this deployment has been rougher than anyone anticipated and more intense than previous deployments. He didn't elaborate, but based on what my husband has said, it has been much more violent and mentally challenging. We have to take this threat seriously.

It might be a 1% chance that something one of the family members says would ever get read by an unfriendly, but that is enough to get my attention. Honestly, it could be 75%. I really have no idea, but my soldier's safety is worth taking extra precautions. I can't imagine the horror that something a wife or father or sister says could cause an attack on a plane full of soldiers heading home.

So my countdown remains inaccurate. We have a pretty good idea that he will be home earlier than he left and my countdown is based on the date he left last year, but I'm not going to change my countdown. As it gets closer, I will write about things that relate to the return, but I won't put one or zero until the regiment posts on Facebook the Welcome Home ceremony and he lands in Maine (on American soil).

Unfortunately, as we found on Fort Hood last November, sometimes the people we trust (like a military doctor who ended up shooting fellow soldiers and medical personnel) can be the very people we should be afraid of. It isn't ridiculous to limit conversations about returns, just playing it safe and that is what OpSec is all about.