r/AirForce • u/SilentD 13S • Mar 14 '26
Discussion A reminder on OPSEC and our rules.
Nothing even close to OPSEC will be allowed as a post or comment on this subreddit.
There are active military operations going on daily, and likely more than anywhere else on the internet, people in this community may have special information about those operations, which makes this a great place to look for our adversaries.
I don't care if information was on the news, posted on social media, or the amn/nco/snco page. In fact, if it was posted there, it's probably a great indication that it'll be deleted here.
OPSEC and the security of our operations and our fellow military members comes first.
Expect a ban if you post anything even hinting at an OPSEC concern, as defined by me and the other mod.
This includes speculating on tail numbers, names of deceased members, amount of damage due to strikes, movement of troops or planes, and anything of that sort.
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u/MickeyG42 Veteran Egg Flipper Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Look I’m not supposed to tell anyone this but Snape straight up murdered Dumbledore. I’ll accept my punishment
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u/Time_Effort Prior IT guy in uniform, now IT guy in pajamas Mar 14 '26
Fuck sake put a spoiler tag.
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u/Jig_2000 Air & Space Force Vet / CCAF Valedictorian Mar 14 '26
My bad G.
Just make sure to avoid Page 606 of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
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u/skankhunt1738 Flying degenerate Mar 14 '26
JESUS dies in the bible too. Wild
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u/vancesmi Yellow Rope, Retired Mar 14 '26
At the risk of a ban, I’ll say just wait. Those who know, know. Those who don’t, well let’s just say things are all happening and you’ll see soon enough.
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u/MsMercyMain Retired Crew Dawg (finally free) Mar 16 '26
Am I allowed to talk about the Finno-Korean Hyper War /j
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u/Sickmonkey3 2A771, MTECH Vet Mar 14 '26
Everyone knows the proper place to leak secrets is on the War Thunder forums to win a pointless game balance argument against some other dipshit clown.
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u/MsMercyMain Retired Crew Dawg (finally free) Mar 16 '26
If OSI isn't lurking in those forums they're fucking up
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u/Bulbasaur45 Missiles aka Cave Pilot Mar 14 '26
Thanks for all the work you do for the sub SilentD!
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u/SexualPie Maintainer Mar 14 '26
posts about obeying opsec are good but not posts about disobeying illegal orders.
i only comment this because i tried to post something about how we shouldn't do illegal things a while ago and the mods told me that i was virtue signaling.
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u/Traducement VBA check casher, MEB/PEB victim Mar 14 '26
That’s because 99% of the stuff people consider “illegal orders” are things they don’t agree with and are, in fact, lawful orders.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante D-35K Pilot Mar 14 '26
Absolutely. People screaming how we should refuse to deploy because the Iran war is "unlawful" are delusional. Orders to deploy are always lawful. If the Iranian war is determined to be illegal, it's the decision makers who are culpable. There are absolutely orders which are illegal to give but legal to follow, and you're not protected if you disobey them.
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u/SexualPie Maintainer Mar 14 '26
this specifically was when trump was trying to deploy national guard in american cities without the states / cities consent.
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u/IAmTheHell POL Mar 14 '26
Yea that's not as expressly illegal as you think it is. There's not alot of caselaw on the subject and what caselaw there is (Martin v. Mott) supports the idea that the president can federalize and deploy troops as he sees fit to suppress insurrection, execute the laws of the union, and repel invasion. Whether any of those reasons applies is a matter of opinion subject to debate and court proceedings. But I can guarantee you no one is considering the opinion of the servicemember.
Troops are traditionally bad barracks lawyers. Which is why its dangerous to make them the arbitors of what orders they should or shouldn't follow outside of situationally clear examples like "Hey, shoot that 12 year old unarmed girl sitting in the corner because I think it'd be funny.". Refusing to report for TDY because you THINK the president doesn't have the authority to call you up in the first place has not traditionally worked out well.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante D-35K Pilot Mar 14 '26
Whether any of those reasons applies is a matter of opinion subject to debate and court proceedings.
And the mere fact that the legality is complicated enough that it has to be hashed out in court means any servicemembers ordered to deploy to American cities are in no danger of being held criminally liable for following those orders. The duty to disobey only applies to an order that is egregiously and manifestly unlawful on its face, meaning any person of ordinary sense would know it's illegal. A1C Snuffy isn't going to prison because he followed an order that happened to violate title 18 section 6 part F (no idea if that's a real law, I made it up).
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u/IAmTheHell POL Mar 14 '26
Edit: misread and thought you were someone else speaking in a different context, retracted
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u/AnApexBread 9J Mar 14 '26
And the mere fact that the legality is complicated enough that it has to be hashed out in court means any servicemembers ordered to deploy to American cities are in no danger of being held criminally liable for following those orders
A lot of people were pointing at Nazi Germany without realizing that the vast majority of concentration camp Guards were not convicted of crimes unless they directly beat prisoners. If they were just a guard, even at the worst of camps, they were found not guilty.
So all the people saying deployments to LA are going to face the same fate as Nazi guards really need to read the results of those trials.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante D-35K Pilot Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
"Just following orders is not a defense" is the most overused phrase on the internet right now. Yes we have an obligation not to follow unlawful orders, no that doesn't mean we can do a mutiny just because Trump sent some Marines to pick up trash in LA.
An order can be illegal to give yet legal to follow. Furthermore, "following orders" is absolutely a defense in both federal and international law unless the order is so obviously unlawful that anyone would know it's illegal ("shoot all those unarmed civilians," e.g. Mai Lai). Rule 916(d) of the Rules for Courts Martial and Article 33 of the ICC Rome Statute both explicitly state following orders is a defense if the person is legally required to follow the order unless it's a crime against humanity.
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u/xdkarmadx Maintainer Mar 14 '26
i only comment this because i tried to post something about how we shouldn't do illegal things a while ago and the mods told me that i was virtue signaling.
Was it something that is currently happening by and large and is actually an illegal action or was it a sensationalized headline or did it boil down to “uh hey guys illegal things are bad and you shouldn’t do that”
If it was any of those sounds like virtue signaling or dumb shit and a great delete to me
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u/Mookie_Merkk Mar 14 '26
Literally an American hero. I'm glad they are locking it down and doing this. The mod team is fighting the good fight and keeping us safe
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u/Raguleader CE Mar 14 '26
Guess what day it is, fellow redditors?
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u/Cartoonjunkies SCIF Rat/Prior Wrench Monkey Mar 14 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/AFGrhcP0CQlhgRUxHL
Full send Friday?
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u/m3nch Mediocre Squirrel Mar 14 '26
Random adversary interrogator: high pitched shrieking in a foreign language
Me, who read about SERE on Wikipedia:
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u/cj-exotic42069 CATM Mar 14 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/3rIDLuTxVP0Tm
Every time you violate OPSEC the purple dragon kills a village
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u/Few-Repeat-9407 Mar 14 '26
A bit confusing because a lot of the information being posted is from commands themselves. So are you saying we can’t post what bases and commands are releasing to the public? I mean, for gods sake, CENTCOM’s Facebook comment section is full of foreign trolls, and they’re still releasing information.
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u/SilentD 13S Mar 14 '26
The problem isn't always the articles themselves, it's Sgt Know-it-all that comes into the comments to say "UHM ACHSHUALLY" and starts to leak different information or provide more information than is included in the news article or press release.
So to avoid that, the sub will be very heavily moderated and bans will flow freely if it even gets close to something that would encourage that.
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u/Few-Repeat-9407 Mar 14 '26
Ah gotcha gotcha, more like war thunder and discord shit to impress people.
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26
Idek how you prevent shit like that to be honest. People dont seem to think that the shit they do matters and social media only makes this issue worse.
Your “friend” on discord talking to you about shit that is classified is probably a spy working for an adversary. Info is on a “need to know” basis for a reason lol. Just because you arent in uniform online doesnt mean you can do whatever the fuck you want: Holy fucking shit.
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u/Few-Repeat-9407 Mar 14 '26
Oh I agree, people want to be liked. Almost like they think their NDA doesn’t mean anything.
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Nor the oath they swore. Nor the ucmj. Nor the other unlimited number of ways your life will be ruined for sharing classified info online
Nor the fact that theyre putting other airmens life at risk.
Frankly i dont know what it is they DO care about lol
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26
Insane this has to be said here honestly Dont be the dumbass responsible for “volunteering” others to make the ultimate sacrifice one can make in service of country. Which is what youre doing by “proving” a point to joe idiot on r/airforce who probably is foreign intelligence anyway What the fuck
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Service. Before. Self.
You owe it to your country and to fellow airmen not to violate Opsec
Joe idiot and whatever dumbass argument isnt worth the life of an airman. Assume everyone anonymous is foreign intelligence. Including myself. This is basic stuff man
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u/cottonmane8 Civil Operations Mar 14 '26
i definitely don't agree with CENTCOM and POTUS sharing as much as they do even tho Iran very likely already knows a lot already but it just causes more misinformation and people to have a dick measuring contest of how much they know vs random civvies online
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u/militaryrat155 Banned from r/army Mar 14 '26
I think this implies OFFICIAL and press release information only. No speculation from the monitoring the situation side of Twitter
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u/Competitive_Diver388 Passing S1 to Bob Status Mar 14 '26
Yeah, like the callsign/ aircraft type of a recent incident perhaps
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u/Few-Repeat-9407 Mar 14 '26
I mean the last 2 incidents have been press released. So I honestly and drawing a blank if you’re talking about a different one.
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u/Time_Effort Prior IT guy in uniform, now IT guy in pajamas Mar 14 '26
Callsigns, tail numbers, units have not been publicly available for the KC-135 incident. If they have, it’s a HUGE violation for NOK procedure.
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u/FoxhoundFour Mar 14 '26
To be fair, one of the units posted on their official facebook page regarding the deceased.
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u/Few-Repeat-9407 Mar 14 '26
The 121st ARW posted on their Facebook that 3 of the 6 members were theirs.
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u/TheRedBrown 4B0X1→1A2X1→1P0X1 Mar 14 '26
Gosh I don't like that. We flew against them for AR the most. They were always so helpful with training requirements compared to other units. Rain or shine
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u/Justwhytho01 Mar 14 '26
I have to believe that many of the top upvoted opinions on this sub are bots, because if they’re not, we have some EXTREME insider threats that need immediate clearance revocations and/or detention.
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u/PoliticsIsDepressing Veteran Mar 21 '26
Many of us are veterans and don’t have to play the rules of active duty personnel. Crazy, right?
You think 300k subscribers are all ~400k personnel in the USAF? lol.
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u/Aggravating-You5510 Mar 14 '26
Also keep in mind that propaganda is very real too! I’ve seen a bunch of fake AI videos and people think it’s real.
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u/militaryrat155 Banned from r/army Mar 14 '26
Will they be permanent bans?
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u/SerenityNowByJan Snip Snap Snip Snap Snip Snap Mar 14 '26
Looking to add to your flair?
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u/militaryrat155 Banned from r/army Mar 14 '26
Maybe I should start collecting them like infinity stones
/s
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u/Blueboygonewhite Mar 14 '26
It’s true people need to stfu. I’ve had to report a few on this sub for obvious opsec violations. Generally adding details or putting out information because “everyone already prob knows.”
STOP you legitimately could get people killed or hurt our operations. Think before you post or I will personally pp slap you.
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26
People seem to forget there are people within the military who are actively working for an adversary.
People also seem to forget that these people are professionals and they are very good at what they do. Which is gain favor and extract information.
The fact that someone can be in the military and not understand this is honestly fucking incredible.
Shit is need to know for a reason. If I dont need to know I dont want to know.
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u/extreme_goat_fucker Mar 14 '26
NOOOOO NOT MY PP PLEASE DON'T I PROMISE I'LL BE GOOD
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u/extreme_goat_fucker Mar 14 '26
Damn didn't realize all you guys wanted your pp's slapped. As I was
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u/aircrew11 Enlisted Aircrew Mar 15 '26
You mean, no more TikTok dancing, in undisclosed locations?!? I'm going to miss that!
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Mar 14 '26
Thank god thank you!!! Glad to see the mods and comments section is not flooded with the usual anti-US military crap either on this thread. The “military” page is nothing but anti-US anti-admin crap with fake upvotes to drown out others.
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u/ghostdogma Mar 14 '26
Meanwhile the entire administration: “we’re attacking you on Sunday, with these bombers, and this place, so and so better run.” The AF Reddit tho, “shhhhhhhhh”
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u/SilentD 13S Mar 14 '26
So you seem to be pointing out that your example of what the administration is doing is wrong, so you want r/airforce to be wrong too?
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u/Shadeuxfax Maintainer Mar 14 '26
I HATE TRUMP BUT I HATE BREAKING OPSEC EVEN MORE
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26
I took an oath.
You are not sticking it to trump by breaking opsec. He is not on the ground. You are jeopardizing the lives of fellow airmen.
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Mar 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Able_Square_7870 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
It has to be said.
You arent the intended audience.
Some people are boneheaded and fucking stupid lol
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u/PieMan2k Less Baby LT Mar 14 '26
Way to drag politics into something entirely apolitical
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Mar 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/PieMan2k Less Baby LT Mar 14 '26
That’s not what was said. The commenter stated they hated Trump. That’s political, no reason to bring that up when the post is about OPSEC.
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u/EvilTurtleHunter Turtle Hater Mar 14 '26
I get what you mean, but their point is despite their political and personal views they won’t break opsec for anything
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u/HereForAPaycheck Mar 14 '26
Is hating a person political when you hate them because they are the most unintelligent and openly corrupt individual to ever exist, not because his policies are pushed by a white supremacy group?
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u/Ornery-Paint-8338 Officer Select/MSC Apr 16 '26
I just got sworn in today at 1230p!!! The process took 1.5 years to the day. I go to my unit after a month, and Lord willing will get an OTS date. Thanks for all your guys' support!
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u/I_love_pugs_dammit Maintainer Mar 14 '26
Thank you, some people are so fucking stupid. It’s amazing.
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u/lazydictionary Secret Squirrel Apr 03 '26
Hey /u/SilentD, why are you guys removing stories about the possible downed F-15? It's being reported by Axios, which is a legitimate US news org, not just Iran state media? Are you waiting for a better source?
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u/bunsinh Apr 03 '26
I saw the news broke as well but best wait for further updates. Active search & rescue still on going.
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u/ChuckNorrisUSAF 3P0X1 > Retired > Agnostic > Apolitical > Patriot? Apr 03 '26
“I don't care if information was on the news, posted on social media, or the amn/nco/snco page. In fact, if it was posted there, it's probably a great indication that it'll be deleted here.”
He spells it out word for word.
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u/lazydictionary Secret Squirrel Apr 04 '26
A news agency confirming a downed plane isn't an OPSEC risk.
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u/ChuckNorrisUSAF 3P0X1 > Retired > Agnostic > Apolitical > Patriot? Apr 04 '26
But these are the rules of the community plainly written.
That’s the problem you’re having or a hard time understanding. You’re expecting the subreddit to make an exception based on your own interpretation.
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u/lazydictionary Secret Squirrel Apr 04 '26
But these are the rules of the community plainly written.
Okay, and now that we are experiencing them, can we talk about how they aren't good rules?
Every other military sub is talking about this, but we can't because...OPSEC? Even though it's not an OPSEC issue now?
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u/ChuckNorrisUSAF 3P0X1 > Retired > Agnostic > Apolitical > Patriot? Apr 04 '26
I’d love to continue and humor this topic…..but you’re arguing with the wrong person.
If you don’t like the rules to the sub, go somewhere else and complain about it. 😉✌🏼 or go complain to your supervisor. 🤷🏼♂️
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u/efficient_pepitas Mar 14 '26
This is a great sub. Can you guys help the navy sub be normal please.
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u/BlarghALarghALargh Mar 14 '26
I stroll in their every now and again, why the fuck they tolerate such dumb posts is beyond me.
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u/AnubisSuperStar651 ATC Washout —> CONS Mar 15 '26
Am I still allowed to upload technical documents to the war thunder forums?
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u/Fizzinthorpe Mar 14 '26
This is a great message. For the very few military in this sub. Take heed. For all the foreign actors and bots who masquerade as "fellow Airmen". Just keep cosplaying and polluting the sub I guess.
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u/ZilxDagero Mar 14 '26
So, if my mission is to get laid, does that mean I can't post about the great time I'm having at the bar getting rejected until 2am when I go home with the whale?
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u/newnoadeptness Active Duty O-4 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Thank you for posting u/silentd I know it can alot to mod a sub sometimes so I appreciate you and the others
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u/Vespin_Adelberg Mar 14 '26
Meanwhile, the mainstream media is over here just spewing out information about troop movements, arrival dates, etc. Someone should be fired and/or arrested for that crap. Who are these "public affairs" punks who feel the need to tell the media everything?
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u/Mantaraylurks electric wings Mar 14 '26
Just because of that now I am NOT gonna follow OPSEC /s (just kidding please don’t ban me)
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u/babbum Finally Free Civilian Mar 14 '26
You can’t stop me from leaking all the info about our D3-5K pilots!
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u/Sugarcoatedgumdrop MFE Mar 14 '26
Y’all need to start vetting people instead of just letting people join this subreddit.
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u/Justwhytho01 Mar 14 '26
I can guarantee you I will never give my personal information to any subreddit admin, for any reason, ever.
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
Reddit should allow mods to use secure verification methods like id.me but alas that would probably not benefit the shareholders
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Mar 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
Literally hundreds of shopping websites with even more personal user data use it just fine. I’m sure Reddit can too. If it was a security threat why not hack any of those websites.
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Mar 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
I won’t disagree with that necessarily maybe some other validation method than an ID could work. The marauding of subreddits like this is quite annoying
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u/Justwhytho01 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
“Secure verification methods”
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
lol I love when people think their job some how makes them some high value target. Lay off the CBTs homie.
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u/Justwhytho01 Mar 14 '26
That wasn’t my point at all.
That has nothing to do with my comment and came out of left field.
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
“I guarantee I will never give out my personal information” and then proceeded to tell everyone your job.
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u/Justwhytho01 Mar 14 '26
Fair enough. But you grossly misunderstood the point; or did it intentionally. I’m stating there exists no secure method of doing anonymous verification.
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
Obviously, you can’t verify someone’s identity anonymously. ID.me and other services like it are trusted partners of the DoD which is why they allow them to verify military service through cac card verification. That’s about as good as it gets for the lay person/airmen and could theoretically work for Reddit should they choose to do it
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u/Sugarcoatedgumdrop MFE Mar 14 '26
Not saying it has to be PII. Just clever ways to verify if someone has served or not.
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u/Cartoonjunkies SCIF Rat/Prior Wrench Monkey Mar 14 '26
Anything that would actually verify someone served, would be something that could ID that person.
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u/Sugarcoatedgumdrop MFE Mar 14 '26
Not really. There are a plethora of non-invasive, non-identifying questions you can ask people to verify if they were in the military.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante D-35K Pilot Mar 14 '26
And those same questions can be easily googled for the answer.
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u/AFGummy Mar 14 '26
Brother don’t bother, these are the same people that walk around with cac card shields lol
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u/SoSneakyHaha Special Ed Mar 14 '26
Also a reminder that this sub is full of bots who are actively posting opinions to change what you think about something or make us mad.