Air Force and Marines Get Social

The Air Force plans to allow its personnel to access social media sites from the Air Force Network under a new policy effective March 30 for bases in Hawaii and Asia managed by the Pacific Command. The policy will apply to the rest of the service later this month, according to this official story on the Air Force Web site.

The Defense Department finalized its overall social media policies in late March and the services have been fine tuning their own since then.

Brig. Gen. David Warner, communications and information director and CIO for the Air Space Command said, "All Air Force personnel will be allowed to utilize Internet-based social media sites via the AFNET for official use and limited personal use," but must use due diligence when posting information online and always follow Joint Ethics regulations and operational security.

The Marine Corps, in a March 29 message said it embraced social media, but like the Air Force, told its personnel to make security paramount when posting to sites such as Facebook.

The Marine's decision to go along with the overall Defense social network policy pleased Don Faul, Facebook's director of online operations.

Faul said "As a former active duty Marine, I'm heartened by this week's issuance of guidelines that encourage responsible and effective use of social networking by Marine Corps personnel. Social media services like Facebook play an important role in people's daily lives and are a particularly beneficial link between those stationed around the world and their families at home."

Faul served in the Marines from 1998 to 2003 with tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq and served as a platoon commander in the elite 1st Force Reconnaissance Company.

Based on that background, no one should ever try to pick a fight with Faul.