Reply #133: It would be noticible.

[TheWraith]

"...a soldier to go a couple of weeks without writing home?"

Maybe not unusual in the past, but these days with email, it's incredibly easy to stay in contact.

"When guys are on the front lines, do they have access to e-mail?"

With Forward Ops bases, there really aren't any "front lines." Obviously, they wouldn't be writing emails while they're out on patrol, but patrols don't usually last more than a day. Any any base of any significance would have at least a few computers, not to mention the ones that belong to the troops themselves.

"Could't IP addresses give away positions?"

No. An IP address can usually be localized to a city, but almost never any finer than that without network administrator access. And in any event, how would insurgents get ahold of IP addresses? And why would they care? There are easier ways to find out where the Americans are. Like, look for the big honking bases.