You don't move large numbers of troops on a whim. It takes massive amounts of planning and organization. There are lots of people involved who are only involved from a logistical point of view. They most certainly are not too busy to chit-chat. If there are any out of the ordinary deployments anywhere in the world, people know about it. OPSEC in today's information age is almost impossible. People may not know WHY they are deploying. But people certainly know they are being deployed.