FIX BAYONETS!

On Tuesday, day 81 the WB discovered my blog. I hadn’t made any secret of it but, I had slowly gotten more critical and they were less than pleased.They said, “He’s not very complimentary.” and, “So, I guess I should be happy to be a WB cartooner.” according to the boss.

By Wednesday, they were furious and had decided that there were issues of OPSEC (operational security) involved, because I had listed the items we had received at RFI and mentioned that we had received some training from Special Forces. So I was up in front of the O-6 being told I wasn’t going downrange with my unit until the issue was resolved. He told me the General (which one is not specified) was mad about it, too. He told me the OPSEC people thought my blog was going to get people killed because it had revealed our whole playbook. Those OPSEC people had contacted me, to require the site be closed down immediately, which I had already done after talking with the COL. I responded to their e-mails to let them know that I had in fact shut it down and, they were appreciative and, not all that concerned. One even thought I should keep my site as a good commercial venture! This does not add up.

It’s easy to be hyper sensitive about OPSEC. If there is ever any question about what should be kept quiet, it’s always best to err on the side of caution. However, after reviewing OPSEC regs again, I found nothing in my posts that would stand up as an actual violation. (OPSEC specialists may have a differing opinion but, based on their responses to me, I don’t think so.)

I think what it boils down to is that, I let the blog get away from me. Originally, I intended it to be a chronicle of my service, pointing out the good things we’re doing while not ignoring bad things, as long as they don’t show up the Army too badly. (If something WERE to show up real badly, say another Abu Graib, then the blog wouldn’t be the right place for it anyway, because I’d have to be reporting it up through the proper chain of command, just like happened at Abu Graib long before the MSM got hold of it.)

But while things were interesting enough to write about, they definitely weren’t going well, primarily because of the WB but, also with poor input from other sources like the MUIC and various sections in other locations that did more road block setting up than road block clearing. So my tenor slowly switched to more negative reporting, based on what was happening. Then, I committed the unpardonable crime.

I forgot that some people have a very small sense of humor and that it gets exponentially smaller when their ox is being gored. I gored them fairly big time and in public.(though my hit counter had just over six thousand hits over the space of 33 months, or about 180 per month, which is abysmally small in blogdom.) Still, their feelings were hurt and the reaction was what you might expect.

So, I’m not allowed to ship with my unit. Gotta wait until they decide what to do with me. I’m required to report back to the O-6 tomorrow morning after the unit leaves. Went from his office to the computer center and pulled all my posts since the deployment began. Tried to get the home page to go invisible but couldn’t make it happen, so I deleted the entire blog. Just as I had planned to do if there were ever a problem.

(Addendum for the Blog fiasco)

After serving my punishment I finally had time to start really figuring time lines and etc. The Cyber security people sent me an e-mail two days AFTER the O-6 initially talked with me, so they weren’t the ones who found my site. Someone in Wah Wah found it, mentioned it to someone who took offense and they used the OPSEC angle to shut me up. Also, the Cyber types mentioned that they weren’t really interested in shutting me down, one (the program manager) mentioned that she had NOT seen anything on my site that violated OPSEC and another sent me jokes. I don’t think they were too happy about being used for some O-6’s pity party but, not a lot they could do about it.