Admiral: ‘Commonality of systems’ vital to military communications

When (and IF!) "we" one day look back upon the late 20th and early 21st century 'age', you know what will be the defining characteristic about which they write, point, gasp and shake their heads?

War?

Terrorism?

Technology?

SARS, Big Bird's flu or blogs?

Tsunamis?

Nope, assuming there is any form of cogent life able to view what has happened - at an accelerating pace - over the last few years here on "our" planet I reckon they will sigh/laugh/cry at the incredible INEPTITUDE.

I think INEPTITUDE is the defining characteristic of our age.

From heads of states down to voters/electorate/peasants/CongestionChargePayers, the human race is rapidly e-Volving(TM) into a moronic bunch of increasingly illiterate, red-herring-chasing, self-absorbed, uneducated, unaware, INEPT morons.

Don't believe me?

Admiral: ‘Commonality of systems’ vital to military communications

"Adm. Thomas F. Hall said senior military leaders—such as Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who was in charge of the military's response to hurricane Katrina—sent runners to relay messages between bases and posts, reminiscent of relay tactics used during World War II.

"Somehow we have to get a commonality of systems," Hall said today."

Gee.... do you think?

In the Interim Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, dated March 30,1992, a report on various issues found to have arisen during the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, what do we find?

"Communications that work. Soldiers just outside shouting range of each other were often unable to communicate by radio. Pilots aloft, not of different nations but merely of different U.S. services, were also often unable to speak to each other on safely encoded radio circuits. The challenge for the future is to ensure that U.S. forces are equipped with the means to communicate with one another."

and that's not all....

"Operation Desert Storm demonstrated that tactical communications are still plagued by incompatibilities and technical limitations. At CENTCOM corps and wing levels, a significant portion of the war was conducted over commercial telephone lines because of the volume and compatibility."

That's not all, there's plenty more in there.

In the private sector, where likely nothing more than corporate bonuses, share values, profits, etc., are at stake, heads would roll if such monumentally stupid and systemic problems were allowed to impede healthy operation for years, let alone decades. In the military, it's only the lives of your son and daughters, of course.

So that's ok, then!

But then, of course, such problems don't only result in a less efficient war effort.

How many years has the Duhpartment of Homeland Insecurity been running now? What DO they get up to?

A report entitled Alaska Land Mobile Radio system is a template for U.S. Homeland Security/Homeland Defense communications opens with, "Four years after 9-11, Hurricane Katrina underscored the fact that the same communications problems that plagued first responders at the World Trade Center and Pentagon are still plaguing first responders today."

Let me just leave you with this little tidbit. Back in 2003, the US Congress held a hearing on The Spectrum Needs of Our Nation's First Responders in which, amongst many other useful things, it was stated,

"This is not a new problem. Five years before 9/11, the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC) reported that ‘‘unless immediate measures are taken to alleviate spectrum shortfall and promote interoperability, public safety will not be able to adequately discharge their obligation to protect life and property in a safe, efficient, and cost-effective manner.’’ Since that report, we have paid the price for inaction with the loss of lives."