Comments on: John Stanton: “US Army’s Human Terrain System Like Swine Flu”

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:47:34 +0000

…something tells me that articles on this blog do not translate very well into other languages…

By: Taj Muhammad

Taj Muhammad — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:21:45 +0000

i would like to tell you that i am working with a construction company in afghanistn. after this i would like to tell you please forward my email address to any responsible person for contracts in afghanistan i will be thank full of you

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:16:37 +0000

Is that what you call it? Serving? Great nation?

By: Sheepdog

Sheepdog — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:39:03 +0000

Thank you for the insight… I look forward to serving our great nation.

By: Robert B. Lewis

Robert B. Lewis — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:25:41 +0000

This is absolutely unacceptable. What is lacking at building 48 is a procurement management office. There’s alot more going on than just understanding IT. What usually happens is a retired General with an easy on the eyes Bearingpoint MBa/PMP shows up and sells the snow cone to the eskimo with a shock and awe power point presentation. Then someone else has to make the program work in the field. For an HTT to purchase its own BGAN terminal is evidence that not much happened after the initial proof of concept briefing. I have glanced over what I could find on Intelink-(U)about this program; according to the CONOP the program should not be underfunded or under resourced. BGAN terminals and Iridium secure satellite phones should have been purchased at the brigade level via a funding mechanism (charge #) and ordered from DITCO via GSA IDIQ. Thats the basic function of a GTM who has been thru the COR course; simple GS-12/13 stuff. I wrote an article today on our sounding board site (DOS) explaining how Intelink-(U)&(S),Inteldocs, Ugov.Gov email accounts and messenger combined with simple things like NIPR/SIPRnet accounts being created prior to arrival in theater can be combined to give customers a cloud appearance. Best of all these thing mentioned above have already been paid for by the taxpayer, the overburdened US tax payer who is about to flip the bill for FEDCARE Inc. One would think by now you could step off a helicopter in Iraq or Afghanistan and recieve unclassified and classified data. According to the HTT WP magine article the Taliban has forced local cellular providers to shut down operations after sunset. ENCOM; these are not dumb folks. We shouldnt be either. I am trying to get our folks to send a message just as a proof of concept; but no joy. How are we going to win this thing if we dont use all or our resources. The Taliban tells cellular companies to shut down or be blown up. We give a program millions more overburdened tax payer dollars and don’t even use it to its full potential. Okay time to wash dishes and go to bed.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/31/afghanistan.mcchrystal/index.html
http://www.bgansatellite.com/ http://www.iridium.com/products/product.php?linx=0001http://www.ditco.disa.mil/

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:56:32 +0000

Thanks very much Robert, much appreciated.

By: Robert B. Lewis

Robert B. Lewis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:39:37 +0000

ODNI stands for Office of the Director of National Intelligence. SBU stands for sensitive but unclassified. FOUO stands for official use only. BAE Systems’ employees complain about not having any contact with their employer while deployed. This probably needs to change. HTT members should be able to use military communications equipment/computers while assigned to military units. In the Washington Post article Karl is standing in front of a rack of radios. When HTT personnel are training at FT. Leavenworth military email accounts should be created for them. They should be given access to NIPR and SIPRnet. This does not cost a dime. Once these accounts are created the Ugov.gov and Intelink-(U)&(S)passport accounts can be created by the individual user. Inteldocs can be used to save information(100MB) at least. This is free as well. The user can log onto any internet computer and use intelink-(U)once the passport account is created.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082101926.html

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:19:19 +0000

Thanks you Robert, but for interested outsiders who wish to understand you, could you kindly spell out ODNI and SBU/FOUO?

Others may already know that a PRT is a provincial reconstruction team, and even more likely they already know that a HTT is a human terrain team.

By: Robert B. Lewis

Robert B. Lewis — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:09:57 +0000

I work for the US DOS as an Information Management Specialist. PRT comms is a difficult issue but I have addressed it here at the Department. First things first, get an Intelink-(U)passport account, then get a Ugov.gov email account. These accounts are internet based ODNI approved for SBU/FOUO and free. Before deploying an HTT member should obtain an Afghan.swa.army.mil NIPRnet account. Most PRT’s are well equipped with communications gear that DOS pays for anyway; no need for an HTT IT/Comms Department.

By: AnswerforSheepdog

AnswerforSheepdog — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:10:08 +0000

Yes. Let me assure you it is in disarray, but…there’s a longer answer.

As of 2 months ago there were no policies in place to force you to pay for training or be fined for ending your engagement early. If you feel useless and your team is trapped on base, completely disengaged from the local populace, it may not be worth risking your life for and it’s easy to get on a flight, either military or commercial.

Ultimately that is a decision you have to make for yourself. There is a need for cultural advising to the military, but you may have to break away from the team and the brigade level to do it. If you can find a niche and provide support, you may want to stay and be able to sleep at night without feeling like a sham. It’s worth it if you can help save lives, but that may not be possible. It depends on the level of respect you earn from the military and your personal ability to provide relevant information.

Good luck.

By: SheepDog

SheepDog — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:28:18 +0000

I will be joining the HTT soon. This question goes out to former members.
If I get to the theater of operations and decide that the program is indeed in disarray, is it easy to quit and come back stateside?

thanks in advance

SheepDog

By: Soldier

Soldier — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:31:56 +0000

Mike the Cat,

Let me guess, your a Social Science Degree holder who does not have one of these high-paying jobs?

PS – I have a real job, I don’t have time to run spellchecker!

By: Mike the Cat

Mike the Cat — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:51:59 +0000

Soldier,

Fer crissakes, use a spell-checker! I realize that’s a stop-gap measure… hold on as best you can until a brain-checker can be developed. There’s always hope.

By: former htt member

former htt member — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:58:59 +0000

the HTS IT director is a female whose husband is a retired 0-6 from West Point. It all goes hand in hand. While in Afghanistan we had to purchase our own SAT system, with our personal funds, our team chipped in, just to keep comms up with BLDG 48 and we NEVER had any responses from Fondecaro. He never returned our request for information.

By: DeHouser

DeHouser — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:49:09 +0000

The majority of academics I have encountered that pursued anthropology didn’t do so out of a love for a healthy bottom line. Indeed, there are many old jokes in the profession about working in anthropology or choosing something ‘profitable’ (pun fully intended). I admit being perplexed at your uncovering ‘professional jealousy’ in the writings on this blog, but then again, based on the tenor of your comments, I’m not entirely sure that you understand any of the issues at hand well enough to discuss them.