OpSec and Painting Billy Goats

Most of us know the definition of OpSec these days, even civilian companies with no ties to the military have coined the phrase to indicate the need for security regarding personal information, intellectual property and dozens of other applications. Recently, threats to our military by terrorists groups have put the need for security in the headlines.
For the military family, the need to maintain OpSec is not new.



One of my earliest memories is being awake early in the morning while my father got ready for work. We lived on the economy in Ludenscheid, Germany. There were one or two military families in our building but most of our neighbors were German citizens. My father had one of those jobs that he couldn't speak about. Not wouldn't. Couldn't. And the threat of someone trying to gain information about the Army through family members was quite real.



So my father, both from a need to protect his children and maintain OpSec created a "job" for himself: Painting Billy Goats. It seemed that in Post War Germany, there was a need to color goats so that local goat keepers could keep their herds separate. Our Army helped by painting goats so they could be identified by the proper owners.



Fifty four years later that seems a bit silly but at the time is served a purpose. If anyone asked me what my father did for the Army, three year old me would answer "He paints billy goats. He painted me some blue ones today." I cant tell you when I realized that dad didn't paint goats. And I still cant tell you definitively what he did during his 20+ years with the Army. That was on a need to know basis and I didn't need to know. I can tell you that years later when the Baader Meinhof gang made threats against the military in Germany, specifically our tiny Kaserne, I was well aware of the need to maintain OpSec.



Did growing up with the awareness that there is a very real threat out there taint me in some way? Absolutely, resoundingly NO. What I didn't have was a false sense of security. A feeling that because we are the United States we are somehow impervious to the dangers in the world. When the twin towers came down I wept like everyone else. But unlike everyone else around me I didn't lose my blind faith that it could never happen here. Because I knew it could.
I have Brat friends who also have fathers with security clearances, and good friends who still serve.



Long before maintaining the safety of our military and their families became a sound bite on CNN, we were aware. We were vigilant and alert because we knew the stakes all too well.