Public Domain
What do you have a need to know?
For 20 years I held a security clearance with the United States Navy.
Not because I was in the Navy, though I had an ID card, but because I was married to someone in the Navy.
I needed to have a clearance so I could know when he was coming and going.
“Loose lips sink ships,” as the World War II warning went, though in our case that wasn’t such a bad thing since he sailed on a submarine.
Still, my clearance did not authorize me to know everything, and it always came down to a simple question: “Do you have a need to know?”
Not a want, but a need.
What to do with knowledge
Many years ago when my husband attended nuclear prototype training in Ballston Spa, New York, I applied for a job at the local newspaper.
The editor reviewed my clips and studied me before asking what a girl from California was doing in upstate New York.
His eyes gleamed when he heard why we lived in the tiny town.
“I’ll tell you what. You get me any story out of that nuclear power plant and I’ll hire you.”
“I can’t do that.” I hadn’t been married long, but I knew I could not betray my husband that way.
He shrugged and turned away. “Your choice.”
I edited a book instead.
Consequences of learning what you don’t need to know
My father served in the Navy during the Korean War and liked to tell the story about how he ended up with a highly classifed clearance.
“I was in the radio room when a special code came through,” he laughed every time. “Since I overheard it all, they had a choice: throw me out of the Navy or raise my classification. I got a raise.”
That’s what he said, but he also liked to tell stories of escorting caskets across the country to bereaved families–a Lieutenant?– so it’s hard to know what really happened.
Regardless, it’s an honor to be trusted with secrets and not one that should be taken lightly.
In the mid-1980s, the operational tempo of my husband’s submarine changed and many of our friends wore concerned looks on their puzzled brows.
I later learned the Soviets suddenly could detect our previously undetectable submarines. What happened?
Family of spies–the Walker family sold out submarine technology for a mere $1 million dollars–mostly to squander on a house and jewelry.
Astonishing, submariners sold the technology that put their shipmates, as well as my husband’s, life at risk for a paltry sum compared to what your government spent to develop it.
Loose lips nearly sank a lot of ships in a terrible betrayal.
What do I need to know about Navy SEALs?
I thought about this often as I worked on Bridging Two Hearts.
I’ve already written about my experience trying to obtain information, but I was surprised at how readily people in Coronado talked about Navy SEALs, though rarely about operations.
Everyone knew where SEALs liked to hang out, where you could find them exercising, where they trained, and often could point out men who probably were SEALs.
Perhaps they spoke more readily to me because I’m a member of the “Navy club,”and I “spoke” their language, but no one asked me for my ID.
Only one person asked or information–the owner of the local pub where “they” often can be found. I left him my business card. I did not flash my ID.
But I had my military ID with me. I also had my retired Navy guy as an escort.
Safety from not having information
Long ago, word came down the boat call tree as a warning to us.
US Navy official photo
“If the Skipjack wives don’t stop talking about maneuvers in the commissary, we’ll revoke all their clearances and you’ll only know when you men are coming home when they call you from the dock.”
“We” (used generically, certainly not me) knew better and shut up. You didn’t discuss ships movement on the telephone. You didn’t chat with your friends in public.
I didn’t even tell the children. I’d mark a fictitious date on the calendar the boys crossed off waiting for Daddy to come home.
I deliberately indicated week or two out from what I knew to be the approximate date. When he showed up “early,” the boys were thrilled.
They really didn’t have a need to know.
Are you surprised by “secrets” you read about in the paper–things that really shouldn’t be discussed? Why do you suppose many people want to know things they really don’t have a need to know?
Recently, as in last week, a Canadian was sentenced to 20 years for betraying our navy to the Russians. For 120,000$. Okay, first, he should be left alone with some war widows. Ahem.. THEN put in prison where he’ll be safer. Second, 120K? Seriously? HOW DUMB ARE YOU???
Secrets are personal currency with which we can affect our social economy. Who doesn’t gather around someone when they yell “Oh my word, you won’t believe this!” ?
A person of whom I’ve made an acquaintance did a job or two that required he never speak of what he did. “It won’t just mean me getting in trouble, but the people I met and their families, I simply can not say any more than that.” And yes, I do trust him with my life, but I can’t tell you why.
I like your line, “secrets are personal currency with which we can affect our social economy,” and the betrayal hurts–in some cases forever.
I’m surprised at how angry I still feel about the Walkers. One got out of prison, for good behavior, in 2000. The ringleaders are up for parole in 2015. 🙁
Thanks,
Are you serious?!?!?! How many Americans died because of what they did?? Good grief!!
I guess good behaviour wipes the slate clean, eh? I can almost guarantee wherever our sell-out is, he will be roughed up by alot of his neighbours. People here have a hard time with cross-border shopping, but spying? I don’t see how this guy will fare in prison.
The father of a former roommate told a story I’ve laughed at for twenty years. He kept trying to get through to a manager of some company, and kept getting stopped by others who wouldn’t let his phone calls through.
One day he called, and the person who answered politely asked, “May I ask what you need to talk to him about?”
“Not unless you have an I-96 clearance, you can’t.”
He was patched through. After a short and gracious conversation, the man he had called asked, “By the way, what on earth is an I-96 clearance?”
“I have no idea. But it got me through to talk with you, didn’t it?”
Both men laughed, and I imagine both had a good story to tell.
Yeah… What makes me angry is when respected journalists from WAPO talk about operations and tactics in long newspaper articles. Such was an article written by Robert Woodward shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan wherein he wrote about the SF role over there. The scathing letter I wrote to him and WAPO went unansewred.
Having lived in Berlin before the fall of the Wall. Berlin was a Cold War spy Capitol. Aboutr 1 in 5 people were working for someone’s intelligence community. You didn’t talk about anything to anyone.
During the Desert Storm, My father-in-law started asking question over the phone (We were stationed in Germany at the time.) We always assumed someone was tapping our phones, so I was being evasive about my husband’s whereabouts, I actually had to lie and tell him I didn’t know. FIL tried to be cute and speak some lame and easy to break code about where he thought his son was. I told him, “we’re done talking,” and hung up the phone. I sat right down and wrote him a letter about OPSEC, and the jeopardy he was placing people in, particularly his son. I told him that at such time as there was information I couild give him, I would. He never asked me anythig related to his son’s job again, or any comings and goings. My husband found that letter among his father’s things after he passed. He asked me what the deal with it was. His father had never told him about it.
When my kids were growing up, especially when we lived in Germany, my kids cringed every time the phone rang. It was often a “fly-away” mission. Last minute, go now sort of thing. We never knew when or where he was going, and sometimes, I’d get notes from him through neighbors wherein he usually apologized and said, “I’ll see you when I see you.” Or I’d see him off to an exercise and get a phonecall saying “Gotta go.” I learned to look at the tiny news blurbs buried in the world news about the hot spot du jour and figure out where he went.
When my kids were in college, they told me that it got awkward when at school or even at college, they were asked “What does your Dad do?” It was embarrassing to say, “I don’t know.” They still don’t know completely, and sometimes neither do I.
The Walkers – I remember being upset with them when they were arrested, and I also remember thinking that American traitors are always so cheaply bought. We were already living in this area when their arrest went down. I too had the same angry reaction. I really wish treason was punnished more severely these days.