Intercepts

* Basic enjoyment. Emmett Paige Jr. the ASD/C3I finally made his departure official in a talk he gave here at the annual AFCEA Asia-Pacific Conference saying he planned to formally submit his resignation by Nov. 15.

Paige who will continue to serve as long as necessary said he did not "enjoy the job...and I'm an easy guy to please. I enjoyed basic training." Paige who headed OAO Corp. before becoming ASD/C3I declined to reveal his plans.

* The WWMCCS wowzer. Paige said "killing off WWMCCS" was his greatest accomplishment as ASD/C3I accompanied by its replacement with GCCS. He quickly added "I don't take any credit for [that]."

* DISN delays. The buzz among the usual telecom suspects here is that DISA will not award the DISN Transmission Services (DTS)-CONUS contract until early in calendar 1997. The agency quietly extended the submission of bids from Nov. 13 until Nov. 25 and after evaluating those DISA still has to go through a BAFO round.

This delay - as well as the holidays - will push the award of DTS-CONUS into 1997 according to more than one Hawaiian-shirted telecom exec here.

* What's after downsizing? Capsizing if you don't do it right according to GSA telecom boss Bob Woods a featured lunch speaker at the AFCEA confab here.

GSA managed to do it right Woods said boosting revenue on FTS 2000 to its highest levels ever with the fewest employees supporting the program in its history.

Woods a master of the understated one-liner also confessed that when he first heard of it "I thought ITMRA was a city in Iowa."

* VTC whine. Just as in the European Command video teleconferencing has become an absolutely vital C2 system for the Pacific Command (Pacom) which covers 100 million square miles of the Earth's surface.

But Adm. Joseph Prueher commander in chief of Pacom is frustrated by an inability to interface his VTC systems with those of other agencies particularly the State Department when supporting contingency operations. Right now Prueher said "all I can do is whine about it."

* Mahalo to DISA-PAC. DISA-PAC uses 1 200 satellite and terrestrial trunks carrying 20 000 circuits to support Pacom.

Army Col. Mike Harvey the DISA-PAC Big Kahuna and his troops - including Marine Maj. Mark McCadden and Army Master Sgt. Allen Middendorf - took time to show the Interceptor how they do that job from the bowels of the DISA-PAC Regional Control Center at Wheeler Army Airfield where "support the warfighter" has real immediacy.

* The DISA-PAC cat. Visitors to DISA-PAC are rather regally greeted by the command's cat an orange tabby named Skinny Bones Jones usually ensconced a foot from the front door.

Skinny Bones also "keeps the smokers company " Harvey said. DISA HQ should acquire a cat to perform similar duties for JIEO boss Rear Adm. John Gauss.