MONEY BETS ON THE NAVY. My Ering antenna site has picked up strong signals that Art Money, still awaiting confirmation as ASD/C3I, has tapped Rear Adm. Robert Nutwell, currently the Navy N6, as his new principal assistant for all C4ISR matters, according to one report. Another report says Nutwell
MONEY BETS ON THE NAVY. My E-ring antenna site has picked up strong signals that Art Money, still awaiting confirmation as ASD/C3I, has tapped Rear Adm. Robert Nutwell, currently the Navy N6, as his new principal assistant for all C4ISR matters, according to one report. Another report says Nutwell will take over as DASD for C3 and Space Systems.
If that report is true, it would be a real setback for the Air Force, which had pushed Maj. Gen. Ken Israel, currently head of the troubled Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, for the job. That idea crashed and burned in the high reaches of OSD in a way reminiscent of the fate of some of the UAVs developed by DARO.
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MONEY MATTERS. When, if ever, will Money officially take over his job and drop the rather silly title of "senior civilian official" in the ASD/C3I shop?
The answer, I'm told, depends on whether congressmen fighting to protect bases in their districts forget the role Money played during his Air Force stint to "preserve" Air Logistics Centers slated for closure in California and Texas just before the last presidential election. That might have pleased the congressmen in those states but fried others facing potential base closings in their districts. So the short answer to when Money will ever get confirmed by Congress is quite possibly "never.''
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THE NEW "N'' IN N6. According to the latest data dump from my Yokosuka, Japan, remote unit, the Navy has tapped Vice Adm. Robert Natter as the new N6. The door revolves so fast in the N6 shop that
Natter will be the third person to hold that job in the past six months. (Nutwell replaced Vice Adm. Art Cebrowski, who just took command of the Naval War College.) I also hear that Rear Adm. Dick May, currently director of warfare systems at N6, will take over as Natter's deputy.
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GREAT TIMING. Probably not even the bidders on the Pentagon backbone contract sweated the almost month-long delay in award as much as Col. Scipio deKanter, the Army's Cecom PM. DeKanter's last day on the job was Aug. 21, and the Army finally awarded the contract on Aug. 19— allowing deKanter to head off to Fort Belvoir with his mission accomplished.
At Belvoir, deKanter will take over as East Coast director of engineering for the Army Information Systems Engineering Command. Col. Bob Kirsch, currently director of engineering at Belvoir, will replace deKanter as Pentagon Telecommunications PM.
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GUAM COPERNICANS? Commander, Naval Forces Marianas has nominated two of my favorite IT musketeers— Lt. Cmdr. Marcial Dumlao and Cmdr. Mike Francis— for the coveted Navy Copernicus award. The nomination cited the two for developing an integrated IT LAN for the Navy and other commands on Guam that is expected to save $3.7 million over the next five years. The two are also credited with developing and installing a LAN for a new DOD school system on the island with just two months' notice. Perhaps most importantly, both are genuinely nice guys and a credit to the naval service.
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DON'T SEND SNUFFIES. That's the strong message the Joint Chiefs are sending for a key September meeting on Y2K for operational personnel from the Unified Commands. At a similar meeting this month, some of the commands sent only majors or colonels, while others (who shall remain anonymous) did not bother to send anyone at all. Sounds like their scheduling calendars may have some date code problems already.
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