Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. – All Marines will be required to take one operational security class every calendar year, according to new Marine Corps order 3070.2A implemented on July 2, 2013.
Marines can find the OPSEC course on Marinenet by searching for the course code OPSECUS001. The class takes a minimum amount of one hour to complete, and Marine’s are required to take it on their own time before the end of the calendar year.
Upon issue of this order, the Marine Corps will develop and sustain an OPSEC program to protect critical information in order to prevent an adversary or potential adversary from obtaining specific facts about our intentions, capabilities and activities.
Therefore, insuring commands provide OPSEC assessment, training, planning support, installations, commands, units and personnel.
“Hopefully the new order will not affect the Marine here [aboard Quantico] because we already enforce the requirement for every Marine to take OPSEC training,” said Orvel Ronk, operations security coordinator, Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Everyone needs to be aware of what they talk about and what they are putting out online for people to see, because OPSEC is a real-world problem, he said.
All security violations are to be reported to ones chain of command or the OPSEC coordinator.
“I believe the reason why the order was passed is to cover any updates and changes to our operational security programs,” said Ronk.
“OPSEC is not just about protecting top secret documents, but keeping portions of our personal lives private as well,” said Frances Seybold, family readiness officer, Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
For example, “if I am telling everyone what a great time I am having in Florida with my family, what am I really telling people is that my home in Stafford is not occupied and it can be a great opportunity for thieves,” said the family readiness officer.
There is a real need for operational security in our daily lives as much as our professional lives, she said.
“Sometimes what we say sends a completely different message than what we intended to an audience that may be waiting to victimize us,” said Seybold. “Not everyone needs to know where we are and what we are doing “real time.”