Hey Vets am I old school and this does not apply anymore...

[Rebellious Republican]

this topic I just posted is dropping like a lead balloon, what do guys think....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6892293

[rakeeb]

1. As irresponsible as it is, (and it is), actually nailing down

a specific date five months out that a specific unit is flying is impossible.
It may very well be that some unit is scheduled right now to depart from some airfield here, or arrive in some airfield there on Christmas, but i have yet to see a scheduled troop departure or arrival with the Air Force kick off without changing two or more times.

Where did you see this story?

[Rebellious Republican]

2. It was a part of Fred Thompson's speech last night at RNC

convention. He said was talking about John McCain's honorable family history of military service, which I have no problem with, but he went on to describe how McCain's own son will be deploying on Christmas day to Iraq.

Here is a you tube clip of the Thompson speech if you advance the video to 5min. 40 second thats the exact moment that he states when he is being deployed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0sYZZYw7-U

When I was in we were not allowed to talk about dates of possible deployments, it may seem small to those who do not understand. However if terrorists collect enough bits and pieces that can put the puzzle together about deployment schedules and troop movements.

I see you are in or were in the military and should know this, I carried a secret clearance when I served and worked with the spook community. I understand all to well the ramifications of these people dribbling out bits and pieces of classified information. Either they are giving up troop movement info (and in turn endangering our troops)or they are lying about these things to the American public and need to be called on it publicly.


:patriot:

[rakeeb]

3. he would have done better to say:

"he will miss Christmas".....but like I said, any aircraft scheduled for troops this far out is at best looking at a 5 day window, and when you get to that week you hear day to day whether you will depart the next day, based on avilablity/priority.

Don't get me wrong, it bothers me when people discuss specific units deploying, even though it is unclassified you are just adding to the open source pile.

But any organization concerned about troops deploying to Iraq don't have to look any further than the bordering countries where hourly rotator flights take troops in an out of theater. Knowing what day a unit is departing the U.S. will give you little clue as to which planes they will be on coming into country or on what day.

I should have figured it was the convention, I would have watched it but we were working late.

[Blaubart]

4. Classified or just OPSEC?

When I was in, information like this was considered "Operational Security" or OPSEC. You didn't talk about it openly (like on national television), but you were allowed to tell your spouses or other close relatives that didn't have a security clearance because it wasn't usually classified.

I'd be willing to bet cold hard cash that his exact deployment date (if it even exists yet) will change at least three times between now and Christmas.