Air Medal Society is formed

[phrogpilot73]

Hal -- I understand all that you have said, but all of my time in theater, we have rarely had to read a guy in. The vast majority of our folks have Secrets and get by without any problems.

To echo Steve, I think you have it backwards -- it should be the information that is sensitive (or how it was obtained) that drives the classification. If the codes are that sensitive, then only the people phyically handling them need the clearance.

Without getting too much in detail... And without any personal experience in the matter... I think that yes, there would be a time that you might need a TS/SCI to be on a net. At the operator level, you would never really need more than a Secret. However, I do think that the codes in the crypto are immaterial.

Case in point - I've never had a need for my TS/SCI, only a Secret. My wife on the other hand, due to the nature of her work - has never used anything other than TS/SCI. Well, that is unless we were sending SIPR emails because NIPR use was restricted

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Case in point - I've never had a need for my TS/SCI, only a Secret. My wife on the other hand, due to the nature of her work - has never used anything other than TS/SCI. Well, that is unless we were sending SIPR emails because NIPR use was restricted

Your wife is a SWO and the only thing she's used is TS/SCI? That doesn't jive.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Your wife is a SWO and the only thing she's used is TS/SCI? That doesn't jive.

FORMER SWO... She's a Cryppie now... And I guess I wasn't clear. The only thing she's used since the Lat Move...

 

[Steve Wilkins]

FORMER SWO... She's a Cryppie now... And I guess I wasn't clear. The only thing she's used since the Lat Move...

Well that makes perfect sense then. Of course her shit is TS/SCI.

 

[usmarinemike]

Well, that is unless we were sending SIPR emails because NIPR use was restricted

The fraud, waste, and abuse police have been called. Standby.

 

[phrogpilot73]

The fraud, waste, and abuse police have been called. Standby.

I'm holding my breath! To be honest with you, it pissed off some of the Marines because no matter what, my wife and I could communicate.

Air Medal. Just said that to make sure that it wasn't TRULY a ridiculous threadjack!

 

[Goober]

Goober -- not that we can go into detail -- I find it hard to believe that you need a TS to work certain nets.

Really, what non-staff type needs an SCI -- there really isn't anything we can't do on just a Secret clearance...

Won't talk about it. Just stating the fact. And it's more than just radios. End subject.

 

[Pugs]

But the crypto gear is invisible (irrelevant) to the end users.

Not always. Some nets required the aircrew and comsec custodian check out the keymat, go load the jet together, zeroize the keymat and then it could be returned to SSES.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Not always. Some nets required the aircrew and comsec custodian check out the keymat, go load the jet together, zeroize the keymat and then it could be returned to SSES.

Well no shit. You learn something new every day...

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Not always. Some nets required the aircrew and comsec custodian check out the keymat, go load the jet together, zeroize the keymat and then it could be returned to SSES.

Prowlers.....different beast all together. Nuff said.

 

[HAL Pilot]

But the crypto gear is invisible (irrelevant) to the end users.

Yes - at the ship level. But in the P-3, EP-3 and E-2 (could be wrong about the last one), the guys in the plane have the ability to both access and load the crypto. So they need the clearance.

Of course her shit is TS/SCI.

Is flushing an approved method of destruction for that material? What kind of logs must she keep? After all, it is the paperwork that always gets you in the end. (I know, it's bad but I couldn't resist.....I did leave out the lines I had about phrogs access to the immediate area.....)

Edit: Just saw Pugs already said the same thing as the first part of my post.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Yes - at the ship level. But in the P-3, EP-3 and E-2 (could be wrong about the last one), the guys in the plane have the ability to both access and load the crypto. So they need the clearance.[/I]

So are you saying that everyone who uses the net also loads their own crypto?

 

[HAL Pilot]

So are you saying that everyone who uses the net also loads their own crypto?

No, I'm just saying that crypto gear is not always invisible (irrelevant) to the end users. The guys in the aircraft are also end users. Since they have access to the crypto gear and crypto, they need the appropriate clearance level. That level is probably higher than the normal shipboard end user who picks up a hand set in Combat or on the bridge. In aviation, there are many end users who do load their own crypto so it can't be dismissed as invisible.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

No, I'm just saying that crypto gear is not always invisible (irrelevant) to the end users.

I didn't say it was always invisible (irrelevant). The sky is blue, but that doesn't mean it's always blue.

 

[Flash]

So are you saying that everyone who uses the net also loads their own crypto?

In the EP-3 the Nav had to load all of the friggin crypto on all of the damn radios. And if memory serves me correctly that was seven radios, some of them needed their own crypto and some needed two. Once you got it down it took about 15 minutes (you had to key each radio on three different channels for each crypto loaded...........:icon_rage), but the first few times it took 45-50 minutes. And this is before the automatic keying machines, it was an individual strips one by one in each friggin/damn/cursed radio.......and you had to do it all over again in flight when a new Zulu day turned over in PACOM............It was a real pain in the ass........

By the way, all of this was carried in a very heavy double-locked orange metal breifcase that weighed about 150 pounds.......okay, about 40......it was still a pain in the ass to haul around.

And we used all three nets all of the time, especially the highest one.