The Nest

These rules are here for your safety and the safety of thousands of troops serving around the world. Please follow them. If you are found to be in violation, you will be asked to edit or even delete your post. If you do not do these on your own, your post runs the risk of being deleted. Remember, this is for safety and security.

OPSEC & PERSEC

OPSEC

1. Do not post exact deployment dates or redeployment dates
2. Do not reveal camp 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 (“we travelled through Takrit on our way to X”)
4. Detailed information on the mission, capabilities or morale of a unit
5. Specific names or actual nicknames
6. Personnel transactions that occur in large numbers (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-down tickers for the same reason as rule #1
12. be very careful if posting pictures of your 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)

PERSEC

PERSEC is also known as personal security. Like OPSEC, this involves guarding the information that you know. Do not give out your soldier's name along with rank. Be vague about your personal information on the internet. This is plain common sense in just every day life -regardless of if your husband is in the military. The old saying loose lips sink ships still holds true today. Keep your soldier, your family and his unit safe by keeping the information you know to yourself. You never know who is lurking and gathering information on message boards, myspace pages and profiles, etc. Better safe than sorry!

Please be sure to look at your Bio's and make sure that there is not any identifying personal information. 

OPSEC/PERSEC FAQ's

"Can I have a countdown ticker?": The short answer is no. Anything hinting at a troop movement, whether alone or in a group, is strictly prohibited. If you do want and must have a ticker, use a count up ticker. IE: He has been gone for xxx days. If you MUST tell someone what is happening follow these examples...

Safe:
“My Marine/Sailor/Soldier/Airman/Coastie is coming home soon!”
“A few more months and he’ll hopefully be home!”
“Spoke with my Marine/Sailor/Soldier/Airman/Coastie today and they are busy!”

Not Safe:
“My Marine/Sailor/Soldier/Airman/Coastie will be home between 5-10 June”
“5 days until I see my Marine/Sailor/Soldier/Airman/Coastie”
“He’s due home in July!”
“Spoke with my Marine/Sailor/Soldier/Airman/Coastie today and they are busy doing patrols in XYZ province.”

The "Not Safe" examples are ACTUAL status messages pulled from people's FB and Myspace accounts. 

Posting specific information can and will delay homecomings. It has happened before. 

"I have a Facebook and Myspace, how do I keep myself safe?": You can take simple steps to keep yourself and your information safe by making them private and only inviting people you know to view your page. This can extend far past these two networking sites. Google is a powerful tool. One can Google the smallest bit of information and come up with thousands of hits for YOU. It is possible and has happened. You are not invincible. Take the correct steps to safeguard your accounts and your information. Remember to safeguard your Knot/Nest Bio as well! And remember what you say and do online can affect you and possibly yours or your spouse's career in the military.

"There's a picture of my husband/myself I want to use in my sig. He's/I'm in uniform and it shows his/my name and/or rank. Can I use it?": This is a judgment call. If your name is very unique and can be seen in the picture, blur out the name (a number of photo sites offer this feature) or pick a different picture. It you have a very common last name like Smith or Jones, it probably won't hurt you unless he/you are very high ranking which could make you potentially easy to find.

"What do I say to someone IRL who is violating OPSEC/PERSEC?": If it's a small thing, I would just bring it up in a friendly matter. Be sure to know exactly what the "violation" is when explaining to them that they violated OPSEC/PERSEC. If it's a major violation, get in contact with them immediately. If they are unwilling to change what they are doing, it is okay to take it up the Chain of Command (COC) to get it fixed. If they won't listen to you, chances are, they'll listen to someone in direct authority over them or their husbands.