DOD doles out CIO awards

Personnel in the Air Force's Europe Communications and Information Directorate and a civilian employee in the Office of the Army Chief Information Officer received top honors in this year's Defense Department CIO Awards program.

The Air Force unit that oversees communications and information-management efforts in the European theater received the team award for updating land mobile radios across the command more than four years ahead of DOD's encryption-compliance deadline. It also received the award for leading the Air Force in migrating to the Defense Message System in a combat environment, and increasing interface security and decreasing air-task processing time during a military exercise, according to DOD officials.

Army computer specialist Patricia Bodenstein received the individual award for initiatives to improve the service's management and delivery of information technology with easy-to-use commercial products that saved more than $100 million.

Linton Wells II, acting assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration, presented this year's awards during the DOD CIO Executive Board meeting yesterday at the Pentagon. Wells also serves as the department's acting CIO.

Officials in DOD's CIO offices received 80 nominations this year. The awards began in 2001.

Officials also announced the following awardees:

Team Award

Second place: Marine Corps Equipment Readiness Information Tool.

Third place: U.S. Export Systems Interagency Program Management Office.

Finalists: Air Force Senior Leadership Management Office, IT Division, and the Strategic Command Combat Support Directorate, Architecture and Integration Division.

Individual Award

Second place: Donna Moore, Navy.

Third place: Senior Master Sgt. Joseph Mason Jr., Air Force.

Finalists: Lt. Col. Francis Brady, Marine Corps, and Maj. Barry Jones, Joint Staff, Air Force.