Marines: We're in NMCI

The commandant of the Marine Corps has officially requested that the Marines not be removed from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

Gen. James Jones, in a one-page letter dated Aug. 27 to Sen. Carl Levin (R-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was seeking to "assure you and the members of the committee that the Marine Corps is committed to" NMCI.

"Any exclusion of the Marine Corps from NMCI would exacerbate the degraded condition of our information technology infrastructure that has not been modernized for almost two years awaiting NMCI," Jones wrote.

The commandant's letter comes in response to a provision in the House version of the Defense authorization bill that cut the Marines out of NMCI. Both Navy and Marine Corps officials have said they believe the Marines will begin using NMCI in the third quarter of fiscal 2002 as scheduled.

Corps officials have said that they did not ask the House to insert the language and that they are committed to the $6.9 billion initiative to outsource the Navy and Marine Corps' IT infrastructure. Jones' letter, however, is a high-level reiteration of those statements.

Navy officials said that they are working to inform lawmakers about the status of the project. But the official, who asked not to be identified, said the letter from the commandant definitely helps.