AFCEA SIGNAL Scape

Here are some notable quotes from the November issue of SIGNAL Magazine. For the complete table of contents, click here

“There is no truly joint network here, just an Army network with joint subscribers.” —Col. John B. Hildebrand, USA, commander, 11th Signal Brigade, in Tactical Communications Advances Seize The Day in Iraq

“Cost is a big issue. No one is going to pay any amount just because the word ‘fuel cell’ appears on it.” —Jacob Weiss, president, Medis Technologies Limited, in Personal Power Takes a Walk

“We have operations in cyberspace, not cyberspace operations.” —Col. Wayne A. Parks, USA, director, U.S. Army Information Operations and U.S. Army Computer Network Operation-Electronic Warfare Proponents, Combined Arms Command, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in Army Programs Face Daunting Challenges

This month’s featured image:

Pfc. John Beckett, assigned to Company B, 1st Special Troops Battalion, Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division–Baghdad, surfs the Internet at an Internet cafe that opened in September at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation facility on Forward Operating Base Falcon, Iraq. Beckett, a multichannel transmission systems operator from Buffalo, New York, says the new Internet cafe is a convenience for him because he does not own a personal computer.

The October issue of SIGNAL magazine is now available. You can read available web articles by visiting SIGNAL Online’s Table of Contents

Direct Hit Quotes for October:

“What we don’t want to do is give commanders history lessons.”—Col. Chuck Mehle II, USA, commander, Joint Transformation Command for Intelligence, JFCOM, in “Laboratory Integrates Intelligence.”

“It’s not blind jamming. We call it smart or responsive jamming. It’s responsive because we know the threat, and we respond to this specific threat.”—Valery Rousset, director, Thales C4ISR marketing and capability development, command and intelligence unit, in “Jammers Transmit Battlefield Flexibility.”

Featured Photo:

Petty Officer 3rd Class Georganna Bowden, assigned to the “Chargers” of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 14, gives the signal for a clear deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington during an ammunition onload with the Military Sealift Command dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Alan Shepard. The George Washington is training with Carrier Air-Wing 5 during a transit to Japan where the ship will replace the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk as the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier.

Direct Hit Quotes for September:

“The whole point of being joint is joining things that are different, not similar.” — Maj. Gen. David A. Fastabend, USA, director of strategy, plans and policy, G-3/5/7, U.S. Army, in Leaders Call for Balance in the Force.

“Cyberdefense works best and most efficiently if it is centralized, multinational and multi-organizational.” — Lt. Gen. Ulrich Wolf, GA, director, NATO Communications and Information Systems Services Agency in Unified Services Strengthen Network Service, Defense

Featured photo:

Aerial transporters Staff Sgt. Chris Droegemueller (r-l) and Staff Sgt. Jason Tripler assist C-17 loadmasters Staff Sgt. Kevin Alexander and Staff Sgt. Donald Jones in delivering the second wave of humanitarian aid to the Republic of Georgia last month. The delivery was a joint-service effort between U.S. Army Europe, U.S. Air Forces Europe and the Air Mobility Command. The airmen are assigned to the 86th Contingency Response Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the 6th Air Lift Squadron, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.

This month’s Direct Hit Quotes:

“We can’t control the weather, but we can do a lot more to control the information and communications technology systems we use globally.” — Howard Schmidt, member of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism international advisory board, in Countries Collaborate to Counter Cybercrime

“If people travel in a hostile cyberenvironment—and China and Russia are two—I warn them not to take the same PDAs and phones they use when they are home.” — Dr. Joel F. Brenner, national counterintelligence executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in The Corporate Cyberspace Menace You Don’t Know

Featured Photo:

U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, take a knee and scan for enemy personnel while waiting to conduct a joint clearing operation in a group of small villages south of Salman Pak, Iraq.

From July’s SIGNAL Today, some interesting quotes from the July issue of SIGNAL Magazine.

“Solving IEDs in some ways will be as difficult as solving the problem of bullets. Bullets have been in use for centuries, and we still have not completely solved that [weapon] as a wartime threat.”—Dr. Robert L. Keesee, deputy director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO),
in Improvised Explosive Devices a Multifaceted Threat

“There are already lots of networks out there. What you need to do is connect the ones that exist.”—David Aylward, director, ComCare Alliance, in First Responders, Hospitals Need More Bandwidth

“This is tough work. But it is relevant, it is vital, and most importantly, it is what we need to do to make a positive, lasting difference for the people of Iraq.”—Col. Karlton Johnson, USAF, J-6, Multinational Security Transition Command–Iraq (MNSTC-I), in Dependable Communications Systems Boost Iraqi Systems

Also from SIGNAL Today this month, our featured image of the month:

U.S. Army Pfc. Aaron Livas, from Argyle, Wis., assigned to Team Iraqi Security Forces, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La., provides security at a possible improvised explosive device site in Baghdad.

From June’s SIGNAL Today, some interesting quotes from the June issue of SIGNAL Magazine.

“Going through one wall is not that bad, but a building is basically an RF hall of mirrors. You’ve got signals bouncing all over the place.” — Dr. Edward J. Baranoski, Visibuilding program manager,
in Sensor Technology Opens New Horizons

“The Web is worse than the wild, wild West in terms of what’s out there. At the rate things are going, we may lose the ability to have a networked world unless we develop tools for much better security.”— Dave Bishop, chief technology officer and chief operating officer of LGS Innovations, in Innovators Imagine Communications Far Down the Road

“We truly see different types of attacks when we’re doing our research. Sometimes we’re really impressed with the sophistication that just indicates the talent on the other side.”— Yuval Ben-Itzak, chief technology officer, Finjan Incorporated, in Web 2 the Danger Zone

Also from SIGNAL Today this month, our featured image of the month:

U.S. Marine Maj. John Naylor, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Joe Dibenepetto and U.S. Marine Master Sgt. Mark Cain work on sending data links of radar information to U.S. aircraft at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.

From the first AFCEA Solutions Series on Information Sharing: