As for D-Day, the German forces were not on alert because the weather was bad. The top German commander was away celebrating his wife's birthday. Hitler might not have listened but the military professionals would've.

During Vietnam, the American forces were sloppy with operational security. I had a lot of detailed briefings on the subject while I was in the military. The VC could observe the actions on a military base and know what was going to happen hours in advance. Our forces became too predictable. For example, they could observe how the fuel trucks and bomb vehicles moved around the base and pretty well determine not only the type of mission but the probable target.

In addition, mission plans were often reused. The worst case of this that I know about happened during Operation Linebacker II. Our B-52s flew the same routes at the same altitudes at the same times for several days in a row. As a result, several B-52s were shot down. There was actually a mutiny in the briefing room when the crews were ordered to do the same thing one time too many after having lost several planes. The crews refused to fly until the mission plan was changed.

There are a lot of reporters who know virtually nothing about the military and don't care who they get killed as long as they get the story. Remember the stupid "What time will the ground war start, General?" question from the Gulf War? Well, they're still asking the same stupid questions today. I honestly believe that many of these reporters came along when hating the military was in vogue and don't care if something they report causes an operational disaster.

I know that reporters have a Constitutional duty to perform. I just don't have to respect them as individuals nor do I respect most of them for the way they do their jobs. I've seen firsthand the kind of damage an uncaring reporter can do to innocent people. The incident that I'm talking about happened over 26 years ago to some friends of mine. Their daughter killed herself and some sleazebag reporter published her suicide letter. It was picked up by the wire services and published nationwide. Not only did my friends have to suffer through the death of their daughter, they had to put up with hundreds of crank letters from all over the country that resulted from that story. To this day, if I ever found the reporter who hurt my friends, I'd give him some firsthand experience at dealing with pain of his own.