OPSEC rules are not meant to limit your free speech or restrict your liberties- that’s exactly what our Men and Women in uniform fight to protect. However, they are designed to help ensure the safety and security of those who Serve.
1) Do not post exact deployment dates or redeployment dates.
2) Do not reveal deployment locations, including nearby cities. After the deployment is officially announced by Military officials, you may discuss locations that have been released, normally on the Country level.
3) Do not discuss convoy routes (“they traveled through Takrit on thier way to X”)
4) Detailed information on the mission, capabilities or morale of a unit
5) Specific names or actual nicknames
6) Personnel transactions (Example: pay information, powers of attorney, wills, etc)
7) Details concerning security procedures, response times, tactics
8) Don’t discuss equipment or lack thereof, to include training equipment
9) Don’t speculate about future operations
10) If posting pictures, don’t post anything that could be misconstrued or used for propaganda purposes. A good rule of thumb is to look at your picture without your caption or explanation and consider if it could be re-captioned to reflect poorly on coalition forces. For example, your image might show your Soldier rescuing a child from a blast site, but could be re-captioned to insinuate that the child being captured or harmed. (it’s happened!)
11) Avoid the use of count-up or count-down tickers in regards to deployments for the same reason as rule #1
12) Be very careful if posting pictures of your Active Duty loved one. Avoid images that show significant landmarks near their base of operations, and black out last names and unit affiliations
13) Do not, ever, post information about casualties (coalition or enemy) before the official release of the information.
14) Do not pass on rumors (“I heard they’re coming home early”, etc)
If you have any questions, contact your sponsor’s unit OPSEC manager (or Chain of Command).
PERSEC ~ Personal Security is being aware of what you are sharing because it could give away more information than you intend on a personal level.
1) It is suggested that you use nicknames (other than those used in daily life) when referring to friends and family on your blog. There is nothing scarier than having a total stranger walk up to you in a store and exclaim how big 'little Michael' has gotten.
2) Keep in mind that everyone has an opinion and regularly shares it. Do not get upset or in a tiff about a disagreement. Just agree to disagree and move on.
3) On the topic of #2, I personally refuse to discuss Politics, Religion and personal beliefs on certain topics.
4) Do not disclose dates when going on vacation or the fact that you will be/are home alone.
5) Check your pictures carefully before posting to insure that license plates on vehicles, house numbers, address labels and any other identifiable item is either blurred or cropped out.
6) Do not post anything ( phone number, address, etc) that you would not tell to a perfect stranger in a parking lot ANYWHERE on your blog, Facebook page, or even your email profile. A lot of people do not realize that these new "smart phones" can put your phone number in anyone on your friend list's phone if it is listed anywhere on your Facebook profile ( even if it is "hidden"!) Found out this one the hard way.
7) Do not post any news on your blog that you want to share in person/don't want to share as you never know who reads your blog ( to include your In-laws and frienemies!).
8) Check your sources before posting news items.
9) Keep personal drama and arguments off your blog/Facebook page/etc.
10) Make sure that you have the permission of friends and family members to use their images ( and their children's) on your blog. Use made up nicknames when referring to them in posts and captions.
Basically, PERSEC is just common sense but sometimes we need to see these things in print to drill them into our heads and make that little light go "ding!"
If you see that I have erred and posted something that you feel that I should not, please feel free to send me an email at thepavlikperspective@gmail.com and let me know of my error. We are all human and do make mistakes from time to time, although this is a topic that I try to be diligent about being on task with. Thanks so much!
I hope that you have fun reading our blog and enjoying our adventures and are inspired to share your adventures as well. :) T-T-F-N! Ta Ta For Now!
