Below is a message which I’ve
steadfastly spread and adhered to for nearly 2 years since I began to Honor
Them. Please read it in its entirety and the heartbreaking story which
follows it.
The United
States of America holds one of the most powerful military forces in the world. It
is because of this that so many countries turn to us in their time of need. Sadly
whether at war or in peace time, we do lose many brave sons and daughters who
serve our great country. In a time of war, as we are now, those numbers
increase. This is an inevitable yet heartbreaking part of war. When this
happens, as a country we grieve. However, while we may be saddened by the loss
of yet another one of our courageous men and women, that can’t possibly compare
to the grief felt by their friends and family of the fallen. It is important
that we put the feelings of their loved ones first, above all else.
The amount of posts on both Facebook and Twitter which pay tribute to our fallen heroes has been growing. In these posts many times the fallen hero’s name is given and sometimes even include their unit and branch as well. Normally I would say this is a wonderful thing, as part of my mission to Honor Them is to make sure that we all Honor Those Fallen so they are Never Forgotten for the tremendous sacrifice they’ve made on our behalf.
With that being said, an recurring problem for quite some time has been posts which are releasing sensitive information prior to the Department of Defense making an official release. It is important to know that the DOD releases this information only after the family has been notified. Losing a loved one is hard enough on these family members. The least we can all do is offer them the courtesy of making sure they receive notice in the most respectful and dignified manner possible.
Please remember and respect OPSEC (Operations Security) and the extremely sensitive nature of the information you have at your fingertips before you post anything, or relay information of any kind in any way, shape or form. Prematurely posting details regarding a casualty that a family member might see prior to being notified by the proper authorities is nothing I wish on any of the families of our fallen heroes.
Our brave and selfless troops fight to protect our freedoms and liberties. Let’s all work together to protect their families from any further hurt.
For the most part I think a
majority of people understand the importance of the above message. However, I
still find quite a few people who wish to debate the issue with me. Their
reasons vary from “our local news reported it” or “my family readiness group
posted it” or “I know someone in the unit and everyone is talking about it” or
the one that makes me cringe the most “I saw it on Facebook and/or Twitter”.
Here is my problem with the above
excuses – quite honestly that’s what they are is excuses, because they are not justifiable
reasons to share sensitive information – the sources these people are obtaining
this highly sensitive information from are not the Department of Defense. The DOD is the
only entity which is permitted to put out a first notice/release of the death
of one of our brave fallen heroes. No one else has that right, nor should they
assume that they do.
This brings me to the reason for
this blog entry. On April 3, 2012 we lost Fort Carson soldier, Staff
Sgt. Christopher Brown due to wounds caused by an improvised explosive
device. This in itself is tragic enough, however tragedy struck a second time
for the family of Staff Sgt. Brown. Before I explain what happened, I’d like to
give a little of background as to why I find the soon to be mentioned incident
even more troubling and completely avoidable.
On April 4th I received
a public request on Twitter asking me to honor and pay remembrance to Staff
Sgt. Brown. My first reaction was to check the DOD site to see if I had perhaps
missed a release. I was of course concerned when I saw that an official release
had not yet been made regarding Staff Sgt. Brown. I sent this person (an Army
wife) a private message requesting that she please delete her tweet with the soldiers
name and explained my reasons why. I was surprised when I was met with some
resistance on the subject. The reasons she gave me was that Staff Sgt. Brown
was in her husband’s unit, their family readiness group had posted it and the
family had been notified. I still chose to not publicly tweet the information
and explained to her that in my way of Honoring
Them, I will not post information on a death until I am 100% positive –
meaning the DOD has made official release – that the family has been notified.
The debate ensued and I was
surprised to received messages from other ‘wives of soldiers in the unit’ who requested
that I pay public tribute to Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown. I have and will
continue to Honor all of those brave we lose, however I will never do it until the DOD has made a release.
It is because of this that I had to respectfully decline yet again and also explain
my reasons why. I did find it odd that I received so many requests in such a
short period of time (mere hours) for this one soldier and even went back
through my messages this morning to make sure my memory wasn’t failing me
before I wrote this post. My memory did not fail and I had more than one wife
of a soldier requesting I publicly post this brave hero’s death information
before the proper authorities had made such a release. An important side note to this is that the official
release of Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown’s death was made by the DOD on
April 5th. The day after these requests took place.
This morning I was saw the
unfortunate result of what can happen when sensitive information gets into the
wrong hands and causes tragic results. Please
click on this link: Wife
of Fort Carson Soldier Learns of His Death on Facebook and read how crucial
it is that everyone understand and respect OPSEC, and the information that
somehow may have fallen into their hands. A similar incident happened in
February when the wife of a fallen soldier received a phone call from her friend
after reading about the death of the woman’s husband on Facebook.
Folks, my simple message to you is
this: OPSEC exists for a reason. Our military forces have grown, thrived and
remained strong on the principles of protecting Operations Security. We cannot hinder
those who protect and defend us. It is our duty as Americans to use good
sensibility with information. There should never
be a rush to be the first to post sensitive information. I personally would
rather be the last to post information regarding a death and know that the
family was taken care of. Whether you serve, know someone who does, are in a
military family or just read something on a social networking site, you still
don’t have the authority to share the information publicly. No one does. Not until that fateful
knock at the door happens, the family of our fallen have been taken care of and
The Department of Defense has
made an official release. The internet is a powerful tool, it has and can be
used as a weapon, please use its strength wisely.
Very respectfully
~ Amanda
