Taking in the trash: Deployed 'Rock' Airmen learn meaning of OPSEC

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jacob Barreiro
  • 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  Garbage cans and dumpsters aren't particularly appealing to people. In fact, most people could present dozens of compelling reasons to avoid venturing into trash receptacles. Reasons such as the foul stench of decayed food, bodily wastes, and the pests they attract. Garbage can also host dangerous materials like nails, sharp edges of aluminum or rusted metals that can cut and cause infections. Handling garbage is so repugnant to most people, that a lot of them pay other people to dispose of their trash for them. Yes, the debate of whether or not to handle trash or dumpster dive appears one-sided; however, a couple of deployed Airmen from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., found out that by digging through trash, they can possibly save a life.

The phrase operational security is heard often in the military, but Airmen 1st Class Kaylee Clark and Rachel Hutson, deployed with the 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, have taken a master's course in OPSEC while working with the Force Protection flight.

"We escort third country nationals on base with their garbage trucks so they collect and dump the trash," said Clark in an email. "Before they can dump it, we have to climb into the dumpster and look for any OPSEC material."

Common OPSEC violations Clark and Hutson look for in the trash includes: military uniforms, personal mailing labels, duty and recall rosters, maps, flying schedules, plane ticket stubs, baggage tags, personal identifiable information, unit or mission information and computer equipment.

The number of OPSEC violations found by the FP flight is staggering, said Clark.
Last month they found more than 1,900 violations and this month they have found more than 600, she said.

At Little Rock, Clark is a still photographer, and Hutson is an outpatient records technician, both were tasked with augmentee deployments, and both said the chance to funnel through garbage, although not a glorious job, has given them a better appreciation for the importance of OPSEC.

"I never thought looking in a dumpster would be necessary but I try to tell myself everyday that we could potentially be saving lives," said Clark.

"Personnel may think it's just a piece of paper you are throwing in the trash but as they say one man's trash is another man's treasure," said Hutson.

Some of the "treasure" found by the deployed Airmen includes 82 pages of the expeditionary base's recall rosters and multiple pages of flight information. Such things could provide critical information to enemies, said Greg Call, 19th Airlift Wing Operations Security program manager.

"We don't know where the adversary comes from," said Call. "They can come from anywhere. Recall rosters with contact information and locations are a huge vulnerability."
Practicing good OPSEC starts at the home station, said Call. Poor habits with trash and garbage at home will undoubtedly travel with the Airmen when they deploy. Airmen that don't protect critical information at home won't do so when they deploy.

A priority on practicing good OPSEC at home is one of the reasons why Little Rock implemented a 100 percent shred policy for critical information. Yet, it's not just critical information that service members should be conscious of, said Call.

"Plain, everyday, unclassified information makes up 90 percent of the information gathered by adversaries," said Call. "So while protecting critical information is important, it's equally as important to practice good OPSEC with unclassified material."

For deployed Airmen, practicing good OPSEC can be as easy as emptying out the pockets of their uniforms before washing them, and properly disposing of documents with important information on them, like recall rosters.

While Airmen like Clark and Hutson can find a lot of these violations, it's impossible to find everything.

The Airmen said they are happy to know they could be saving lives by scouring dumpsters, but the job is still kind of gross. A normal duty day involves getting inside of things that most people wouldn't voluntarily go near.

"When I say climb into dumpsters I mean we literally get inside of a dumpster and rip open trash bags," said Clark.

The crew is provided appropriate equipment and sanitizer, said Clark. But gloves, steel-toed boots and rubbing alcohol aren't enough to suppress the disgust in finding urine in a bottle, or human waste in a box, or a used pregnancy test.

Still, Clark said she understands that while the job may be messy, it's necessary and important.

"OPSEC violations don't only affect the person making them, but possibly the whole AOR," said Clark. "If the violation has your home address it could also affect your family and friends."

The importance of teaching OPSEC is common at their expeditionary base, the deployed Airmen said. When violations are discovered, the crew logs them and sends the information to the First Sergeants, and sometimes the squadron or even wing Commander.

"Some individuals have actually had to ride with us on our routes and shadow us," said Clark. "We like to call it 'OPSEC training'."

Replacing a power-point slide show with a hands-on tutorial involving submersion into dumpsters proves effective "training, "said Clark.

"I think next time they will be more careful and check their garbage for OPSEC more than once," she said.