Two Plus Two; More Than Four

More than a few people, including military members, have asked why military blogs and sites like MySpace have been cut off to them.

A story told by an acquaintance of mine. The names have been changed to protect the intelligent.

It's about 2+2 becoming something more than 4.

In the early '70s, those of us volunteering at the Pima County Air Museum noticed that there was a new type of U-2 flying overhead daily, from Davis-Monthan. Much bigger, and obviously not a mod of the original design. Aviation Leak had never mentioned it.

Rick, who was then just graduating from high school, went to the squadron and asked about it. He got the usual, "no comment", but was called back a few weeks later, and I went with him.

We were told, (obviously messages had gone back and forth from Washington,) that they could not answer any questions with facts, but.... The Commander would take written questions, and pass them on, to be returned with a 'yes', or 'no comment' answer. A yes meant it became declassified and we could publish it.

The PCAM becomes spies. We photographed flying airplanes, frequented bars and snooped crew conversations over brews. NOBODY ever said anything directly, but we were able to fill in the blanks on a lot of stuff, and gave a lot of questions to the Colonel.

We got the designation "U-2R" cleared for publication, and pretty much got the story that is in print today about that airplane.

Finally, Rick got another call to be a guest speaker at the U-2 wing commander's call. He told the whole story, and said it was the quietest group of people he had ever seen. They had all thought they were security aware, but when they saw what an 18 year-old kid could find out about them...?

And that, boys and girls, is why your military relative or friend is no longer allowed to post even unclassified information in public places.

Me, I now blame Rick for what seems like two years of weekly briefings, security training documents, and assorted lessons in not talking about your job.