I am sometimes accused of being to passionate about some topics.

Be advised. This is one of them.

OpSec (operational security)

as you may have guessed we have rounded a corner on this upcoming deployment. Our days seem to draw a little shorter as reality seems to hit us.

and yet.

I think this one issue is key in having our military come home safe and sound. There are a lot of well meaning wives, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts, etc that talk about priveledged information online, over the phone, in our facebook status, through emails...

we need to be so very careful!

here are a few rules I plan to follow...

DON’T USE YOUR SERVICE MEMBER’S REAL NAME
Don’t discuss current or future destinations/ ports of call/deployment bases .
Don’t discuss current or future operations or missions.
Don’t discuss current or future dates and times of exercises or missions.
Don’t discuss readiness issues and numbers.
Don’t discuss specific training equipment.
Don’t discuss people’s names and operations.
Don’t speculate about current or future operations.
Don’t spread rumors about current, future, or past operations or movements.
Don’t assume the enemy is not trying to collect information on you; he/she is.
Don't relay any type of sensitive information over electronic media
Don't assume your family members understand OPSEC guidelines! Go over them with them before your servicemember deploys!!

With all that said- I will be blogging about the deployment. But not what he is going through. I will not post issues of morale. I will not be sharing specifically where he is heading. I assumed other members in my family understood this and I was proven wrong. ANyhoo...

stepping down....
please understand this issue truely can be the straw that breaks the camels back and is very important to me