Loose Lips Still Sink Ships

Here’s an astounding discovery, which we clearance holders will immediately appreciate. We can literally feel the sense of utter frustration of this security advisor from 1943. In the below note, he speaks of real, existential threats being ignored by fighting men soon to engage the Germans in Normandy.  What makes this remarkable is that it was published in Para-dice, the publication of the 101st Airborne’s 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment while they were in England, preparing for the D-Day invasion.

Silence Is Golden

Dammit men, this stuff is important! A guy who shoots off his mouth is a traitor of the first line, a rat I don’t want around me. A man who can’t keep his mouth shut is no good in this racket. I depend on you to keep our important activities a secret, and you depend on me. Let’s be men about it–don’t let one another down. You can hardly call it a let-down when your ship is blown to hell or your troop train mysteriously finds itself derailed. It’s a downright heartbreaking tragedy. It’s especially hell when you know that you or a buddy you’ve learned to trust has given away the secret. Yes, the very thing the grinning Axis monster needed to put that baby deep in the drink. Nothing more painful is there to my ears than to hear some loud mouth tell interested civilians seemingly unimportant generalities about a ‘hot’ move. I heard it, the civilian heard it, God knows who else. Think this over, soldier. You owe it to Joe and Johnny and Pete and 2,000 other G.I.’s, and even more important, mom and dad and the gang back home. Take it from me—if it’s worth saying don’t mention it. In closing, I’d like to steal a sentence from an old Irish Colonel the whole Army has grown to love. “I want nothing from you Sir, but silence, and damn little of that! ”  – OYSTER-MOUTH

Have you ever had similar frustration with the security in your facility as ‘Oyster Mouth’ did with his paratroopers? Everyone who’s ever run a security awareness program wants to say what this writer said so simply and well. We’ve all asked ourselves how to tell our colleagues to keep their mouths shut, but must do so in ways appropriate to our audience. How do we make our concerns real to others? How can we show them that consequences of unimaginable danger can happen if we compromise what we are obligated to defend? How do we, today, tell others not to disclose ‘seemingly unimportant generalities’ about some ‘hot’ move, program, or plan? After all, it is becoming more and more apparent that adversaries have many an infinity of new ways to get our information than just overhearing a loudmouth at a bar. What we know about our job is a gold mine to an opponent. I’ve been confronted with this concern my entire career. I didn’t have a pending invasion to make it real to my listeners, but I had access to professionals who can tell what the real threat is, and what could happen if ‘you shoot your mouth off’.

Need an Ally in the Quest for Quiet? Consider the FBI

This is why I want to be sure that each clearance holder knows of this special program. If faced with the need to brief your people on keeping your information and people safe in today’s espionage tainted world, know about the FBI’s Strategic Partnership Program. This is a program begun to “protect United States corporate and academic Intellectual Property (IP), sensitive information, and technologies from foreign economic espionage activities.” Simple as that. These are professional counterintelligence officers who can come with briefings tailored to your audience. They can give classified briefings on who might be targeting you, and what they are looking for. What’s more, they will be able to give you current, real world examples of kinds of indicators that could point to such threats being present in your company or university research facilities.

They won’t offer shop worn tales of yesteryear, but rather current espionage capabilities which might reveal misuse of computer, phone, and internet access. They can assist with an assessment of your facility and technology and offer advice on how best to protect it. Even step by step processes can be explained to introduce your team to what they need to be aware of to prevent theft of creative, innovative, and national security-significant technical and academic research capabilities.

Establish an ongoing, professional relationship. I worked where a counterintelligence team met regularly to discuss issues pertinent to those present. We shared ideas, concerns, and issues. It was helpful to learn about who can do what, when, and for whom. Learn from the best, and get involved with the Strategic Partnership Program. They will advise you who else is out there to help. They’ll guide you to a tighter ship, and a professional counterespionage program, so you won’t have to begin your next briefing with, “Dammit…!”

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John William Davis was commissioned an artillery officer and served as a counterintelligence officer and linguist. Thereafter he was counterintelligence officer for Space and Missile Defense Command, instructing the threat portion of the Department of the Army's Operations Security Course. Upon retirement, he wrote of his experiences in Rainy Street Stories.