The holiday season of 2008 finds more than 150,000 Americans serving in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. For some, this is their third, fourth, or fifth Christmas (or similar holiday) spent away from home and family.
Technology is the thin tether that helps keep their lives together, but despite the proliferation of social media services, mobile devices, and high-speed networks over the past several years, issues of policy, security, and access still come between soldiers and their loved ones.
Sergeant Scott McManus of the Washington State Army National Guard was recently deployed to Iraq for his third tour of duty. He writes that soldiers have to register use of Facebook , MySpace , and blogs with the military for security reasons, adding that “the majority of soldiers do [not] have the time to keep up with such sites and blogs due to missions, maintenance, details, personal hygiene, meals, sleep, and, last but not least, communicating with loved ones back home via phone or IM.”
Gaining access to connections is no simple matter in overseas military bases in places like Iraq. “You either have to pay $75 for dial-up or wireless service that may have an inconsistent signal, or else go to the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Internet cafe and be limited to 30 minutes at a time,” McManus writes from his station at Qayyarah Airfield West, some 300 km north of Baghdad, where lines for the few Internet terminals are often discouragingly long.
Security and control of information also pose barriers. Considering that a handful of digital photos taken by U.S. soldiers within the walls of Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 revealed shocking visual details of practices that did lasting damage to America’s image in the world, the military is understandably sensitive about the kind of information that troops capture on personal devices and share on public networks.
In 2007, the U.S. military banned the use of consumer social media and technology sites such as YouTube Inc. , ostensibly worried that videos contributed by soldiers might give away sensitive details about troop deployments, missions, and conditions on the ground. After more than a year, the Department of Defense finally unveiled the government-approved alternative.
TroopTube debuted in November, developed by MilitaryOneSource and funded by the Department of Defense. The site allows active-duty members of the armed forces, government employees, and their friends and families to upload and watch videos in the familiar YouTube style.
Videos are limited to five minutes or 20 Mbytes. All submissions are screened by government monitors who flag videos that reveal sensitive information, contain graphic violence and obscenity, or break copyright laws.
There are currently more than 1,000 videos being shared on TroopTube, ranging from public greetings to the troops from celebrities and sports figures, to personal family moments like a child’s birthday party or a heartfelt “I miss you” from a loved one.
While it’s encouraging that the Internet and social networking can help reduce the virtual distance between soldiers and their families during the long deployments fraught with fear, loneliness, boredom, and uncertainty, let’s not forget that there is another, simpler way to solve this problem.
Bring them home, with thanks and honor.
Peace on Earth, and happy holidays to the Internet Evolution community!
Terrific, substantive post, Jason... thanks for spelling out clearly and precisely the constraints under which military personal labor/live/communicate. Everyone on this thread seems to understand and agree with the need for some sort of filtering; your spelling out the letter and spirit of the law was even more helpful.
But just to be clear, the pencil-n-paper route you suggest is equal to the same controls and oversight as an electronic communication, right? Someone's got to be reading those letters too to ensure no sensitive information escapes.
Interesting Post Rob; RE: “While it’s encouraging that the Internet and social networking can help reduce the virtual distance between soldiers and their families during the long deployments fraught with fear, loneliness, boredom, and uncertainty, let’s not forget that there is another, simpler way to solve this problem. Bring them home, with thanks and honor.”
Great thoughts, but, the mission is long and arduous as our leaders have said. This is not an easy fight. This type of fight is unprecedented in scope; it’s frightening really…if you think about it. Freedom is never free; and let us never forget this idea nor these brave men & women serving. We have it pretty damn easy, even in these tough, trying times as free citizens, in a free country. Many in the Middle East have no where near the political, social, economic or even technicial freedoms that we enjoy (because of the sacrifice and continued vigilance of many) and I think that is a major reason for the rise of extremism in the Middle East. The troops do need to come home, but the enemy’s defeat or “containment” is of thee utmost importance to a secure, viable United States of America and a FREE world. Even Mr. Obama knows this.
As far as technical security of military personel, ”Loose lips sink ships.” In the modern technical age, loose zeroes & ones can get people killed. One of my great friends is an officer in the military, and did work in Army Intelligience as well, I’d strongly agree with posts by tdstamulis and Jason_13 – they summed up very well.
I have a huge amount of respect for those who have volunteered to serve in the armed forces, and I share the concern that they are being cut off from friends and family back home, but agree that their own safety is paramount. I have to wonder that a country that allegedly has the ability to pick spoken words out of millions of phone calls couldn't somehow come up with an automated screening/censoring of electronic posts. It's just an idea.
Scott just e-mailed me a link to your article. Now I know of trooptube.tv. I went to the site and signed up. It looks like all I can do right now is upload videos to one big pile of uploads. I don't have a video camera and I suppose I will have to direct people to my upload so they don't have to sift through all of them. The ability to upload photos and write a blog would be helpful. Maybe soon...
I've never logged onto Facebook or Myspace. Looks like I have some catching up to do in the social internet world. Scott and I were hoping to be able to IM eachother with video calls more often, but the technology just isn't available in Iraq, like your article said. It is really great to be able to get e-mails from him about twice a week and so far we have IMed about once a month. I can't wait to have him home and be able to rid the distance and technology barrier between us.
I understand that security is very important. I hope with the creation and monitoring of Troop Tube, that it will become more versitle and user friendly. I've heard too many stories of soldiers becoming estranged from their partners at home. It's very disconcerting and I'm sure is a major source of stress for the troops. I think that the internet should be used to it's full potential to allow us to keep in touch.
I encourage everyone to send care packages to the troops. Having the tactile items from home is another great source of comfort for those serving in foreign areas.
Thanks for the insightful post Jason. I guess something similar happens in corporate America, having to keep secrets about new products and new ideas before they come out to the public - obviously the consequences are very different.
I wonder if someday, when the internet is as ubiquitous as it could possibly be, we'll have to worry about soldiers doing some sort of 'twittering' about the battles they are in.
First - Thanks to all the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen! Your sacrifices are appreciated. Stay safe and come home proud.
Second, as a veteran of the Army, I can tell you that as military personnel, you have given up certain rights and liberties. There are limits on free speech.
If you're an officer, you are subject to Article 88, which basically prohibits you from speaking out in a negative manner against the President, VP, Secretaries, and even Governors. To do so can result in a military court martial.
As an enlisted service member, you are subject to Articles 89 and 91, which prohibit disrespectful and negative speech against superior commissioned and non-commissioned officers. An enlisted service member can be disrepectful to a civilian authority apparently, but I would advise against it.
The Internet, and its availability, presents some major challenges for the military. The intelligence alone that can be ascertained from even the most innocent postings is tremendous.
Having worked in the intelligence field, I can tell you that examining communications is key. A photograph of a soldier with a background can give indication of location. Names and descriptions of locations and activities can prove damaging.
The military must control these communications. Not so much to catch individuals doing something wrong, but to protect them and their fellow service members.
Before any of the soldiers complain about the cost of Internet access or the 30-minute time limit at the MWR cafe, let me tell you what it was like to get 10 minutes to try to dial home from Bosnia hopiing you would even get through. Sometimes it would take 9 minutes to get connected to the states and have one minute to say hi. As another poster said, "paper and pencil" was about the best we could hope for.
Unfortunately without some kind of monitoring service members can easily be lured into talking about things that are best left off of the internet. Even if the information that they release is technically unclassified what if the piece of information they provide is tied with information from someone else? We already know that China, Russia and Al Qaeda use the internet agressively what would preclude them from social engineering via FaceBook or MySpace?
I also feel it is very complicated for the military to allow the troops to have open use of the internet. I feel that trooptube will help since it is moderated. I do feel for the familes of the deployed troops who cannot always communicate with their loved ones. I think as the internet becomes more and more prevalent in the day to day use the military will allow the troops to have moderated ways to communicate with their families and still keep the secret things from getting into the wrong hands.
I empathize with all of you regarding your concern for the soldiers that are serving our great country and away from their loved ones during the holidays. I am also elated to hear about the DoD's "TroopTube" effort. It is a great addition to assisting soldiers and family members to stay in touch. However, I served in Iraq from Feb 2003 to Feb 2004 for OIF-1. Also, I ended up working at the CJTF Headquarters and saw how information is handled in "controlled chaos". Without order, there is anarchy and that is the last thing that the military and the soldiers need while there. When you join the military, you voluntarily suspend some of your rights afforded to you for the good of the mission and the soldiers that surround you.
I know that this is difficult for someone that may have never served, but it is a necessary requirement to protect all that are serving. I agree that the military can be heavy handed at times on how they deal with certain issues, but let's keep in mind that the DoD, does not always employ the brightest civilians that are advising our military leaders and has to do the best that they can with what they have to work with.
Another thing to keep in mind is that when I first arrived to Iraq in 2003, I did not have Internet access for almost four months. However, I still had a responsibility to let my family know I was safe. For the really young ones that read this, we called it "paper and pencil". Perhaps some of these soldiers could try that approach, because all you need is paper, a writing utensil and some light. Also, unless it has changed, it is also "free" when sending a letter from a war zone.
I think the access to the Internet should be controlled. What if one soldier decides to send pictures of strategic object to his family or another guy tells some secret information about the location of troops to his friends?
The interesting feature of Internet is that not only soldier and his friends receive information, but also Special Forces of the opposite side can receive it. Of course, we have different methods, like secret connections, but I doubt that Facebook or Yahoo Messenger are ready to provide good (in military sense) algorithms of data encryption, so that only sergeant and his relatives receive information during the communication.
The same is about visual images. They can give an excellent chance to the opposite side specialists to define the location of troops.
Army men are not free in their actions and have special instructions. But this is the price they pay for the honor to be the best of the best to defend the Nation and peace in the World.
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