Letter to the editor

The Navy Marine Corps Intranet experience at our agency has been horrible.

They promised a developer seat for those who need to load, evaluate or develop software. To use it, you have to log out of your regular profile and then into your developerprofile, which has no access to the Internet. Therefore, you have no ability to download software, patches or updates.

If you opt for a scientific and technical seat, you provide your own computer (agency-owned as opposed to NMCI-leased) and lose major e-mail capabilities (attachments, archives, size of storage).

The help desk takes weeks, as opposed to hours, to respond to our problems.

They also are offering to sell back to us, as individuals, at noncompetitive prices, the very same government-owned computers we must turn over to EDS as we are migrated to NMCI.

The Navy is being stripped of vital IT capability and flexibility. All this as we prepare to defend our country's freedoms on multiple fronts.

Name withheld by request