He said he had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend, who had just spoken to her nephew, who told her that he was ordered for an emergency deployment to Gitmo in the next 6 hours from then.
With that piece of info and what I had just told him, he was taking what I was saying very seriously, and is going to stay with his girlfriend for the foreseeable future.
I know this piece of info is inconsequential to the bigger scope of the picture, but to me it only adds to the validity of it with her nephews sudden deployment to Gitmo.
Same for me too. Been out for 22 years and still use OPSEC. Great example - I told my wife I was looking for a certain specific thing recently. I took the dogs outside, and when I came in she was in the middle of posting what I was looking for to a neighborhood Fakebook page. She thought she was helping. It took me the next 20 minutes to explain to her why posting that wasn't a good idea, and why it could bring unwanted attention. She knows now.
Did you get the same OPSEC training telling you about some cold weather op years ago that was secret -- until everyone in town started ordering parkas, gloves, and other cold weather gear? Seems like that was one of the favorites to hammer home OPSEC.