MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The Station's force protection personnel recently went on an operational security dumpster-diving exercise to find out how people are disposing trash here.
The results were shocking as both military and personal classified information was found in abundance by the force protection team involved with the exercise.
"After only looking for an hour and a half we found a lot of classified information," said Andrew R. Samuels, Station antiterrorism force protection officer. "We found two sets of unused checks, bank account statements, recall rosters, folders containing classified information stating not to allow foreign officials to see and keys to billeting. By the end of the exercise we had enough information to steal people's identities."
The purpose of the exercise was to find out the Station's weakness and then to find a way to correct and improve the problem, said Samuels.
"The problem with us finding such vital information about the Station and random people is no one knows who else can get their hands on the information," added Samuels.
Samuels said the information was found at a central location on the Station.
"All the trash collected aboard the Station was taken to a rally point where it was separated," said Samuels. "As part of the exercise, force protection personnel stood behind the garbage men ready to sort through the trash in order to monitor what service members are throwing away before the trash hits dumpsters in Japan."
The biggest problem is that someone wasn't taking the adequate steps to properly dispose of the information in the first place, added Samuels.
Shredding or tearing up documents with sensitive information are some of the methods that can be used to destroy classified material.
Capt. Stewart Upton, Public Affairs officer, said several steps will be taken to correct this problem.
"A public awareness campaign will be done to make sure people know they should not be disposing of personal and military classified information into normal dumpsters," said Upton. "If you are not sure how to dispose of specific items, contact your security manager. Also, if this continues, investigations will be formed to find out who is incorrectly disposing of this classified information."