Intercepts

JMCOMS star. Kenneth Slaght program manager for the Navy's Joint Maritime Communications System made the rear admiral (lower half) promotion list adding clout to the project designed to serve as the afloat pipeline for the Navy's IT21 project. Lillian Fishburne commanding officer of NCTAMS EASTPAC

JMCOMS star. Kenneth Slaght program manager for the Navy's Joint Maritime Communications System made the rear admiral (lower half) promotion list adding clout to the project designed to serve as the afloat pipeline for the Navy's IT-21 project. Lillian Fishburne commanding officer of NCTAMS EASTPAC in Hawaii also made the list but don't look for her to stay long in the land of Aloha. Capt. Julie Keesling 7th Fleet info tech maven should replace Fishburne this fall with either a Spawar or Pentagon tour in store for the new admiral.

* Gauss on board. Former DISA JIEO director Rear Adm. John Gauss has started to settle in at the Navy Space and Electronic Warfare shop donning the N60 hat previously worn by Rear Adm. Robert Nutwell. Does this mean Gauss will replace his Virginia tags that used to say "JIEO" with new ones sporting "N60"? Or should he opt for "IT-21"? Let me know your feelings on these - or other appropriate plates for Gauss - by sending an e-mail slugged "plate" to brewin@access.digex.net.

* Brubaker for ASD/C3I. Speculation runs wild in a vacuum and I've started to hear once again that Paul Brubaker former Hill aide to Secretary of Defense William Cohen has emerged as a possible contender for the ASD/C3I slot vacated this spring by Emmett Paige Jr. Brubaker now a muckety-muck at Litton/PRC Inc. should have a pretty good idea on how to make the Clinger-Cohen Act work in DOD - but does he want to take a pay cut?

* Army pass on GBS terminals? That's one conclusion to draw from the House version of the Defense spending bill which said the foot-sloggers decided not to purchase their own terminals opting to use Air Force terminals instead. Maybe the Army plans to buy the remote clickers giving it effective control of the terminals at little cost.

* End of an era. If you own a Zenith Data Systems PC - the standard-setter for DOD for more than a decade - don't throw it away without prying off the nameplate as you won't see the ZDS name anymore. Packard-Bell/NEC which bought ZDS last year has decided to drop the ZDS-brand name in favor of the NEC nameplate and logo - as well as answering the phone at the former ZDS federal offices in Herndon Va. with "NEC CSD (Computer Systems Division)."

NEC CSD continues to rightsize the old ZDS federal operation in Virginia moving all program management functions closer to the Packard-Bell factory in Sacramento Calif. which NEC CSD veep Jim Shea conceded "was even farther from the federal government than Herndon." Shea candidly admitted he did not know his future status in the re-org except to say that he was employed for today.

NEC CSD will continue its relationship with the Air Force despite being bounced from the Desktop V contact Shea said and plans to exhibit at next month's Air Force Information Technology Conference in Montgomery Ala. with a booth flying the new NEC CSD flag.