Alumni and Friends of VMI:
Cyber Corps Numbers: 583
Spotted In the USA Today on July 22:
From the Across the USA Section - Virginia: King George
- The King George County Planning Commission has approvied a plan
for a $20 million private military school. Plans call for a
Christian-based coed boarding school that will include ninth
through 12th grades. The proposed Virginia Naval Academy will be
built along the Rappahannock River near the U.S. 301 bridge.
Letter From A USMA Grad: Glenn Jones '76
shared the following letter with me. As Glenn told me, the letter
does a nice job articulating some of the things plebe systems (or
rat lines for that matter) seek to achieve.
Forwarded with permission of the author, Bo Friesen USMA 83 (15
Jun 99)
I'd like to chime in with my two cents on the 4th Class System,
as I experienced it. My plebe year was during 79-80 and, although
it was probably not as draconian as that of the more senior
members of this forum, it appears to be considerably different
from what exists today.
As I went through it, I did not understand how cutting a pie into
nine equal pieces would help an officer lead soldiers into
battle. The myriad of disjointed memorizations, ludicrous tasks
and perpetual panic mode seemed to have very little to do with
the profession of arms. I maintained this attitude throughout my
upper class years and I was definitely not a flame, although
fairly stern and consistent. I kept this perspective as a junior
officer ... right up to the moment I commanded a cavalry troop in
the gulf war.
One night, at around 0100, we conducted a passage of lines to
assault an airfield. We had gone almost 60 hours without sleep
and it was raining with a vengeance (yes, rain in the desert ...
lots of it). Our own artillery was falling short and landing
amongst us, one of my platoon leaders was heading off in a
tangent to the direction he should have been following, the
squadron main body was drifting too far north, my driver was
heading straight for a ravine, a tank in my 4th platoon threw a
track, we found ourselves in the middle of one of our own DPICM
minefields, the objective was spotted on our right flank (instead
of in front of us, where it should have been), almost no maps
existed for our area of operations, my boss was perpetually
screaming for me to change to his frequency (an impossibility
with the wonderfully designed, single-transmitter command tanks),
a half dozen spot reports were coming in from my troops (all
critical), my intel NCO had a critical update, my XO had a
critical update, my ops NCO had a critical update, my 1SG had a
critical update, my gunner had spotted dismounts, the
regimentalcommander was forward with us adding his own personal
guidance, visibility was almost zero, there was a suspected use
of chemical weapons, regimental S-2 reported 500 heavily armed
Republican Guards on our objective (later determined to be a
squad of American engineers), and I had a moderate to severe case
of dysentery. (... a run-on sentence, I know, but then again it
was a run-on night.)
It was during this little slice of heaven (of all places) that
the 4thClass System was lluminated to me in all its glory. Its
goal was not harassment, ridicule or punishment. Its goal was to
train the neural network to deal with an overwhelming amount of
disjointed information, quickly process that information,
categorize it, and make rapid, sound decisions. At that moment, I
would have gladly given a month's pay to the genius who devised
the 4th Class System. It provided me with a priceless gift to
sort the significant from the insignificant and do my job in a
much better fashion. From my perspective, THAT is the rationale
behind the system. It trains your brain in a non-lethal
environment to sort through the mess, bring some order to it and
continue functioning.
It is an extremely nasty world out there, and part of the
academy's mission is to train graduates to survive and excel in
that world. We are not doing the graduates any favors by
sugar-coating things and putting a happy face on everything.
There is still plenty of unadulterated evil, brute force and
chaos to go around. Pretending it isn't there will not make it go
away. I sincerely hope that there are enough qualified people to
deal with the future chaos and brute force quickly and
effectively enough to protect our interests and keep it off our
shores. Don't dismiss the 4th Class System as an archaic
anachronism. I have found it to be one of the most valuable
training programs I have ever undergone.
Just my 2 cents ...
Bo Friesen
USMA 83
The Jerry Brown Connection: Our last update mentioned that Jerry Brown (mayor of Oakland) was pushing for an Oakland Military Academy. Chuck Steenburgh '86 of VMI's PIO reminded me of the following... There's a story BEHIND the Jerry Brown move. The current city manager of Oakland, Robert C. Bobb, used to be city manager of Richmond, has a son who went to VMI ('97), and was a member of the VMI Board of Visitors until recently (when he left Richmond for Oakland, a year or two ago).
Various Job Opportunities:
Can you post the attached job description to your weekly
newsletter? The company I work for has a healthy work environment
and is pretty low stress (in my opinion) with alot of retired
military types (mainly Navy and USCG). Best of all its located
three blocks from "Old Town" Alexandria. We are looking
for a "Few Good Men (or Women)" and hope someone in the
VMI community would be interested or know somebody that might be
interested in the position.
Thanks,
John M. Gillespie '88
Senior Analyst/Engineer
PCCI, Inc.
Senior Analyst Job Description
Senior Analyst supports PCCI's contract with the Office of
Pipeline Safety, Research and Special Programs Administration,
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Specifically, Senior
Analyst supports work tasks issued by the Office of Pipeline
Safety under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) Implementation and
Monitoring subarea of work in the contract. Senior Analyst
reviews onshore pipeline facility response plans developed and
maintained by pipeline operators in the United States. Plan
review work involves doing comprehensive evaluations of new
response plans, periodically updated plans and partial revisions
to existing plans to assess compliance with federal regulations
under OPA. Prepares standardized written plan review checklists,
reports, and correspondence with specific findings,
recommendations and conclusions for review and processing by the
Office of Pipeline Safety. Senior Analyst uses reference
documents, written guidance and policies, checklists, and
automated applications, including database management systems to
accomplish, manage and report results of plan reviews.
Checks plan reviews done by Junior Analysts/Engineers for quality
and technical soundness of finding and recommendations. Works
with the Junior Analyst/Engineer to correct all discovered
deficiencies and resolve all issues associated with the plan
review. When required, work with the contract Program Manager to
interpret requirements, revise guidance and policies, etc., to
resolve issues and problems.
Performs periodic analysis of the plan review program information
maintained in database management systems, electronic files and
paper files to support program data needs of the Office of
Pipeline Safety. Analyses may include collecting additional
information not stored and managed in the existing databases or
other media files and forming new associations between
information to produce data. Present analysis information and
data in electronic and printed media, e.g., spreadsheets, graphic
charts, and database tables, as required to meet analysis
presentation and report requirements.
Requirements For The Position
A Master's Degree (M.S., M.A, or equivalent) in a field of study
directly related to the environmental sciences with focus on the
prevention and mitigation of spills and releases of contaminants
into the environment. A minimum of 8 years of progressively
increasing responsibility in directly related discipline and/or
projects. At least 3 of the 8 years must involve extensive and
indepth experience in a specific field directly related to oil
and hazardous materials spill/release prevention and mitigation.
A Bachelor's Degree and 4 years of intensive study or directly
related experience may substitute for a Master's Degree.
Individual must be able to work with minimal daily supervision,
be meticulous and conscientious, and has excellent organizing,
communication and people skills. Must be able to work with short
task deadlines. Very desirable that individual has the ability,
and some experience, to use/work with automated applications such
as word processors, spreadsheets, and database management systems
to produce work products.
Hi RB,
I enjoy getting the weekly updates. Keep up the good work.
I'm attaching two position openings both at my company. One head
of
marketing/business development and another for a junior
analyst/technical
writer.
W. V. Dunn
703/284-8357 Direct Line
vdunn@leadscorp.com
LEADS Corporation
1110 N. Glebe Road, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22201
Main # (703) 524-0099 Fax (703) 524-7747
http://leadscorp.com
The following text is a job announcement for a new position. It
is open
internally until close of business July 15th. To be eligible to
apply for
this position, you must have been performing competently in your
current
position for a minimum of 6 months. Applicants should submit a
written
statement of interest to both their team leader and to me listing
job-related skills and accomplishments. It should also describe
how their
current experience with LEADS and prior work experience and/or
education
qualifies them for the position.
Thanks
Anita
Position title: Analyst/Technical Writer
Job Reference number: 99.7.12.JA
Status: Full-time:
Salary range/benefits: Negotiable
Estimated start date: Immediately
Location of the position: Plaza One, Crystal City, VA (No
company paid relocation)
Travel required? No travel required
Requirements:
Minimum Education (including specialization if required):
* BA/BS in Technical Communication, English, Information Science,
related fields, or equivalent.
Years experience (including specific area if required):
* 2-3 years technical writing or editing experience
2-3 other requirements, (i.e., excellent closing skills; working
knowledge
of FAR; working knowledge of PowerPoint) Please indicate
importance of
requirement as one of the following: a) Must have; b) Preferred;
c) would
be a plus
* (b) Working knowledge of FrameMaker, able to create and
maintain templates and styles and adequately use the table of
contents and auto-numbering features.
* (a) Able to produce documentation that is concise and accurate;
also
consistent in language, format, and grammar.
* (a) Experience using templates, styles, tables of contents, and
auto-numbering in Microsoft Word.
* (a) Experience producing user guides for software or hardware.
* (a) Able to take technical language and translate to language
understandable by a general audience.
* (b) Able to manage multiple tasks/projects on a tight schedule.
* (a) Able to work in a team environment and adapt to a variety
of
personalities.
* (a) Committed to producing quality documents.
* (b) Knowledge of system Life Cycle Management documentation
* (b) Familiarity with Federal contracting
* (a) High energy and solid interpersonal skills
* (a) Understand and apply principles of effective customer
service
Job Responsibilities:
List 3-4 SPECIFIC job responsibilities (i.e., answers 8-line
telephone
system; develop new business areas with 25 current contractors;
produce
contracts on WordPerfect utilizing templates; enter payroll and
billing
information utilizing Deltek system)
* Attend project staff meetings and document decisions, action
items,
and issues
* Produce and manage LCM documentation for computer systems.
* Assist in the production of analysis, white papers, and
presentations.
* Conduct research using the Internet
The following text is a job announcement for a new position. It
is open
internally until close of business July 21st. To be eligible to
apply for
this position, you must have been performing competently in your
current
position for a minimum of 6 months. Applicants should submit a
written
statement of interest to both their team leader and to me listing
job-related skills and accomplishments. It should also describe
how their
current experience with LEADS and prior work experience and/or
education
qualifies them for the position.
Thanks
Anita
Position title: Director of Business
Development
Job Reference number: 99.7.16.DBD
Status: Full-time
Salary range/benefits: Negotiable
Estimated start date: ASAP
Location of the position: Arlington VA (No company paid
relocation)
Travel required? If yes, what %? 25%
Requirements:
* Minimum Education (including specialization if required):
Bachelor degree
* Years experience (including specific area if required):
* 10 years in government professional services contracting
* 5 years in business development
* 5 years in a relevant technical area
* 2 years in outside sales
* Experience in creating marketing concepts and collateral
materials
* Demonstrated experience in obtaining new contracts
* Demonstrated experience in account expansion
* Proposal development and management experience
* Solid experience in:
* Telephone prospecting
* In-person presentations
* Closing
* High energy
* Excellent interpersonal skills
* Must be well organized, capable of setting priorities
* Must have good analytical and writing skills.
* Understand and apply principles of effective customer service.
Job Responsibilities:
* Will support LEADS' federal government sector business
development initiatives for professional services
* Work with LEADS' managers to develop marketing concepts
* Work with LEADS' managers to design collateral materials
* Perform market research to identify potential customers
* Perform initial prospecting
* Qualify leads
* Coach prospects through the procurement process
* Close sales
* Coordinate start-up of new projects
* Manage and develop competitive proposals
Speaking of Job Leads: Looking for someone with some connections with US Air. If you are, drop me an e-mail. Thanks.
Cyber Corps Hits The Beach: The Cyber Corps will be heading to the beach later this coming week and will be back in a couple weeks.
Yours in the Spirit,
RB Lane '75
Last Updated: October 11, 2009
Site Created by: Richard L. Neff II, '90 - Network Technologies Group