Marines' NMCI manager picked

Ending a five-month search, the Navy Department has selected a Marine Corps reservist to oversee the Marines' part of the department's $6.9 billion outsourcing procurement for voice, video and data services.

Joseph Cipriano, the Navy's program executive officer for information technology, named Col. Ken Knapp to serve as his deputy PEO IT for the Marine Corps June 4, Knapp said. He replaces David Litchfield, who returned to his job as a Pentagon contractor in January.

The Marines' Navy Marine Corps Intranet implementation with contractor Electronic Data Systems Corp. will take place during the latter part of fiscal 2002 and early 2003, said Col. Robert Baker, the Marines' deputy chief information officer for network plans and policy. He spoke Tuesday at an NMCI press conference in Arlington, Va.

Navy Capt. Chris Christopher, who took Litchfield's position on an acting basis, is now the deputy PEO IT for the Navy, Knapp said. Christopher also is a reservist.

A former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant, Knapp has been a Marine for 27 years. During the past 15 years, he has served as a reservist, training in London as well as Norfolk, Va., Northern Virginia and Wilmington, N.C., he said.

Separately, Brig. Gen. Robert Shea, the Marines' chief information officer, said he will remain in his position for another year. Although Shea was selected in February for promotion to major general, he will remain as CIO and assistant chief of staff for command, control, communications and computers primarily because of NMCI and the need to implement CIO-related legislation, such as the Clinger-Cohen Act and the Information Technology Management Reform Act, he said.

The first career Marine communications officer to become a general, Shea has served as CIO for three years. Most generals are reassigned after two or three years in a position. He said he doesn't know when he will be able to pin on his second star.