Grr

[aadler]

 
Right now, I’m really frustrated.

I’m on LiveJournal. I enjoy it and draw value from it. I’m fully aware that the relatively few people who follow my posts here fall into three broad categories: those who share my pleasure in Buffy fanfiction, or just plain like to see what I choose to write next; those who, for whatever reason, have some slight interest in my personal life and what I do with it (a very small subset, since I’ve deliberately focused mostly elsewhere); and those who are primarily interested in my activities as a serving member of the U.S. military.

Problem is, there’s this little thing called opsec: operational security. We’re supposed to avoid revealing details that might compromise operations, said caution explicitly applying to non-classified information. It’s not always easy to know what does or doesn’t qualify as an opsec violation, but our official liaisons here have helpfully let us know that 1) details of training, and 2) times of departure toward and/or arrival at an operational theater, are most definitely included.

Well, let’s see. For the last three months, I’ve been training. And sometime in the near future, I and my unit will actually be leaving for Iraq. And I’m not supposed to talk about any of it except in the vaguest possible terms.

Hence, the frustration.

Nuts.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_finn_/]

You could totally do it like a madlibs and leave it as an exercise to the reader. =)

"So I was asked to train a group in [Subject] and we had [Number] gruelling [Time Period] in which [Number] people simply could not keep up, so I [Verbed] their [Adjective][Noun] and [redacted] their [Noun]!"

[leni-ba.livejournal.com]

seconded.

[aadler]

Not the approach I would choose, as I described in my reply to _finn_. But thanks.

[aadler]

That would be funny, but it wouldn’t actually communicate anything. Or, at best, it would be effort far out of proportion to the result. It’s a thought, but not for me.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

That must be very frustrating, but I'd much rather you were as safe as possible out there than have my curiosity satisfied.

[aadler]

Actually, it probably wouldn’t have much to do with MY safety. I’m a small cog in a large wheel. Others will be more active and visible, however, so I owe them a decent amount of caution.

Thanks for caring.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

We can live without the details - a friend was with the RAF in Iraq for a year or so, and the closest thing he ever gave to a location was an icon reading "I'M IN UR CLIMBUNG UR ZIGGURAT." with a photo of him on the ziggurat.

[aadler]

It won’t be necessary for the entire year. It’s movement and training details that are proscribed. Once I actually arrive on-station (as distinguished from “in-theater”), and settle into my duties, it should be sufficiently routine and unimportant that I can recount my activities without worry about compromise.