Part V – Collateral Duties

Index to the Series:
Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII download Faith of My Fathers : “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

Military operations require many tasks, yet the luxury of bringing along the manpower “overhead” is not usually the case. To allow for that, the Navy gave the name of piling on assignments of “Collateral Duties” (yes, pretty close to the term “collateral damage”).

The particular purpose in bringing up this topic is general education for both potential employers, as well as ex-service members. Civilian employers don’t usually understand this concept, and service members don’t think to bring it up, since these collateral duties just become second nature, and they fail to highlight that they have, in many cases, significant experience in other professional areas, which would be excellent complimenting skills to their intended employment.

The range and scope of these extra assignments cover a broad swath of professional areas. Many are assigned to the service member because it needs to get done, and, in some cases, they have no experience in the area at all. They may be formal schools available, but not always accessible, the experience level of people who have held these duties, in addition to the main job they have had, is usually quite extensive in the “roll up your sleeves and go for it” arena. In almost every case, there is an instruction in a binder on the shelf that covers the requirements of the job, required reports, appropriate forms, and who to contact in the command structure for assistance.

A key feature of these collateral duties are that they serve the needs of the entire unit, not just the division or department the service member is assigned. A resulting management issue that arises is the unit commanders issue direction to an officer, or enlisted member several steps down the chain of command in many cases. As a junior officer (see duties listed below), I regularly interacted with the captain and executive officer, being tasked directly by them, and reporting back, around my department head. I was blessed with a good command climate, where this worked pretty well, with few conflicts in my tasking, and those were easily worked out. I mention this, because it was my first experience operating in a matrix style management scheme, which gave me an appreciation of the requirements to keep my direct boss informed of the direction I had received, and also to report status of jobs regularly to him, so he could answer the CO and XO, as well.

On my first assignment as an Ensign (O-1), I had a long list of collateral things to do. Besides being assigned to manage the Operations Specialists and Electronics Technicians, I had my shipboard watch assignments for underway and import conditions. Those were the top level, expected portions of the “position description.â” From here the list begins. I’ll list it just for illustrative purposes, as best I can recall:

Helicopter Control Officer
Landing Signal Officer
Legal Officer
Public Affairs Officer
Cruise Book Officer (published to document a 6 month overseas deployment, much like a yearbook from high school)
Alternate Communications Management Security Custodian
Collateral Duty Intelligence Officer (CDIO)
Intelligence Photography Officer
Intelligence Publication Custodian
Top Secret Material Custodian
Secret Material Custodian
Registered Mail Custodian
Navy Wide Exam Custodian

I know there were a few more, but those ones did require a significant amount of time to complete.

In other assignments, I was a Safety Officer, Electrical Safety Officer, Heat Stress and Hearing Protection Officer, Command Managed Equal Opportunity Officer, Classified Material Security Officer, and Physical Security Officer. There are laundry lists of many other “jobs” I either escaped, or I never was in a position to have to hold them. The number of added areas of responsibility was much longer for junior officers when I left the service. I knew I had plenty to do, and their lists by the mid-90s were much longer.

As you can see from the list of additional requirements I worked, they cover a rather eclectic span of disciplines. An experienced officer or senior enlisted person who comes to apply for a job with you will have a similar list of duties they fulfilled, while having their primary duties. Take a few minutes to ask them what collateral assignments they had, you may well find skills and knowledge in their backgrounds they would never have been able to fit one their resumes.

Part IV – “Point Papers”

Index to the Series:
Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII download Faith of My Fathers : “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

Communications skills. For all the words we have, and the many languages available, many problems seem to boil down to problems with getting our point across.

One thing I was called upon to do regularly when I was in the middle and upper ranks was to write “Point Papers.” Not all the people I worked with had to do this, but it was s particular skill exercised when in staff assignments, large and small.

What is a point paper? A point paper is a single sheet of paper, used to encapsulate complex issues and what the best course of action was for the purpose of communicating this to executive level leadership. It generally consists of three sections:

1) Background
2) Discussion
3) Recommendation(s)

Once completed, the document was usually reviewed by several other people in the chain of command and then corrections or changes were made before presentation to the commander. The goal at this final presentation was usually to be in and out in about 5 minutes, having skillfully communicated the essential points of the issue, and a supporting the best course of action to be taken. Sometimes the requirement was to present more than one alternative plan, but at other times, to present what was best from your research.

The skills developed in being able to get good at writing point papers involve being able to absorb the available information on an issue, determine the genesis of the situation, communicate what state it is in now, then evaluate the best way to tackle the situation for success, and to condense this to the point a senior manager knows what is required in order to make the right decision and get back to the other tasks at hand. In many cases, there was usually a time constraint on the person doing the research and writing, due to the operational needs at hand. A good point paper writer is a quick study and has an eye for significant detail, a great analytical mind, as well as the ability to be brief.

Need someone like that? Scan resumes for assignment to major staff position in any service, then ask if they’ve had the pleasure of drafting point papers.

Part III – Operations 24/7/365

Index to the Series:
Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII download Faith of My Fathers : “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

In this part, which is actually a continuation of the story in Part II, since it relates to how I found out this is a desirable skill in the outside world.

Not only did Cantor-Fitzgerald like what they saw in the pilot they hired, after he had a few weeks on the job he noticed something was lacking in the understanding of the shift workers. The computer center needed to run 24/7/365 to support the world-wide operations. It seemed the day shift was pretty well staffed up, but the “after hours” shifts really didn’t handle casualties well. If the systems burped, they pretty much got out the paper and put their feet up, waiting for the day shift to show up and get things back into operation again. This guy saw that as pretty inefficient for a major corporation, with satellite offices around the planet.

He called me and asked for me to find him some chiefs (Chief Petty Officers (E-7 to E-9)) to be hired as after hours shift supervisors. He’s the key: he didn’t need them to understand computers, as much as he needed someone who knew how to keep things rolling, to be able to work through casualties, so that the “system” was available to the users. Certainly computer knowledge was desirable, but not essential, to the requirement.

Who better than a bunch of experienced ship engineering senior enlisted people to manage the tasking? This isn’t to say that others don’t acquire the skills, but the entire careers of “snipes” (that’s the polite term for the people who spent days on end below decks ensuring the rest of us had water, air conditioning, converted power, sewage services, compressed air, heat, ventilation, firefighting capabilities, and a variety of other things that seem so inconsequential, right up until the time they go dead, to paraphrase a like from “Top Gun”) is spent making things operate around the clock, and fixing breakdowns fast.

While I spent most of my career “above decks” (polite way of saying the non-snipes), I had a tour 21 months as an Engineer Officer. It corrected my prejudicial views of the engineers and I found out just how hard they work. I had been in operations and in charge of communications and tactical information management prior to that assignment. I thought those areas were 24/7, but that was mostly only while at sea. The engineers never take a day off, even in port, therefore, the people with a ship engineering background get my vote for the most experienced in making it happen day in and day out, night, day, snow, sleet, hail, in hurricanes and glass like seas, in port, out to sea or even in a dry docked condition.

As a result of this working environment, there is a certain set of thought processes that develop around these conditions. In addition to the mental process, the Navy has refined methods to train to handle the proper normal operation of large and expensive equipment, as well as how to quickly respond to casualties, to keep the equipment damage to a minimum, and to ensure personnel safety. That entire system, the “Engineering Operating Sequencing Systemâ” (EOSS) has its roots in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and is still in use today. The ships had been poorly maintained due to lack of funds and operations were basically run off hand written notes and word of mouth stories. We lost many people and spent a lot of taxpayer money on the repairs as a result of the poor “process control.”

The EOSS success spawned a corollary in the “upper deck” world, named “Combat Systems Operational Sequencing System” (CSOSS) in the late 80’s, which became widely deployed on ships by the mid-90s. As the upper deck equipment became far more sophisticated and equipped with compressors, power converters, heat exchanging units up in topside spaces, the resulting costs of casualties was excessive. I saw one report from a ship’s captain that said the expected “wear and tear” breakdowns seemed to almost disappear. He couldn’t quantify the cost savings, he just knew his equipment was operational most all the time, and he could only attribute that to the only significant change in how business was done, and that was the implementation of CSOSS.

Do you someone who needs a operations supervisor for a 24/7 shop? Go find a retired “snipe” and just see how much better things go. If the applicant is an AEGIS trained fire controlman or electronics technician, don’t hold it against them, but they are a good choice as well.

Back in Dec, the story emerged from Iraq about a little Iraqi girl, who sat in an intersection, clutching a stuffed toy (a present from the US, distributed by our Marines in the area). When the convoy stopped and the Gunny Sargent got out to talk to her, she pointed to a mine. Matt at Black Five was the one who posted the story.

As a result of this unusual occurance being promulgated about the blogosphere, many reporters contact Matt for more info. He indicated he had to delay passing on any specifics, unitl the permission came from the unit where the story began. Only one editorialist had enough respect to respect the word of a retired Army Officer, and waited patiently to get the story, and to get it right.

Tim Chavez wrote and editorial on the time when a little girl had the courage to save lives of the Marines, all because some people had a heart to help a new nation in the midst of their suffering how ever they could. In this case, it was all some people could do, and they did it. They sent stuffed toys to the Marines to hand out.

Tim gets it right: Love wins over hate. Take the time to read his editorial yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Do you think you can’t help? Can you find a Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us nearby and part with maybe $15 or $20 of your wages to make a differnet world? If you can do that, you can help in the commission of random acts of kindness.

Got to this link at Black Five and Matt has posted an address of the Marine responsible for receiving the toys. In the meantime, understand that Staff Sgt Tranchitella has plenty of warrior “stuff” to keep up with in his life, just to make sure he comes home in one piece. This type of activity falls under the “collateral duties” arena, which is code for “there’s more to do than people to do it, so here’s more for you.” In this case, I’m sure the Marines glady trade some of their personal time to handle the flow of toys. Make a difference in history and part with a few $$$$!

When it comes to “out of the box” thinking (a polite way of saying it can be completely stupid, and completely unhindered by fact, or even a degree of maturity, in this case), take a moment to see what Deb of Marine Corps Mom found coming from a mind of mush at UMass….

It got her attention and she needed a little stress relief, so she chose to express her opinion in return. Fair is fair, right? If you want to see some articulate writing, portraying a level of understanding, compassion and selflessness of thought, as well as a grip on the state of world affairs, now take the time to peruse her letter, complete with young Naughton’s meager effort to justify his pitiful behavior.

Scary as it is, it seems to be the fundamental MO of the liberal, victimized mindset. If you can’t stand up and defend your position (because you know it’s rotten to the core from the start), hide in the shadows and wait until you can, in the darkness, take what you want. If you deserve it, I ask why don’t you do it in the light? Because you know someone with take exception and bring justice to your life….

Anyhow, she did a fine job of communicating an essential message about life, liberty, the freedom of choice and why this is important.

Part II – Auditing skills

Index to the Series:
Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII download Faith of My Fathers : “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

In Part I, I discussed how an interview for a Navy A-6 pilot helped educate a civilian headhunter on how the military develops initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills. In this part, I discuss the development of auditing skills from the military experience.

I worked for a few months as an executive recruiter. While I was terribly ineffective then, and looked at it as a failed experiment, I essentially paid for an education. I learned several things while there.

I was tasked to find people for the computer center of a firm you may have heard of, Cantor-Fitzgerald. The reason I had sort of an in to work at this was because a few of my professional friends had been Naval Aviators and had had one of their friends hired there. It seemed he was doing so well, they wanted more people like him. This man got in the door because one of his old commanders was now on the board at Cantor-Fitzgerald. This old commander did what you would expect, when this other pilot was being downsized, his old boss went to bat for him and convinced this firm to hire him. The retiring pilot was a “recipient” of the “peace dividend” at the close of the Cold War. He had been an F-14 pilot by trade, with no college level training in either computers or business, but given that he was a bright individual, they took a chance on him.

He was put in charge of the computer center in the World Trade Center office The operation had to run 24/7/365, because they had offices in London and Hong Kong. With in a few days of arriving, he was tasked to audit the operating budget of his center. He announced he had found a few million dollars surplus in the books. The management was amazed, as this man didn’t have a certificate of degree that said he knew anything about this. How did he do this? Simple, the military gave him the skills.

As officers, and sometimes senior enlisted personnel, are called upon on a regular basis to validate the resources entrusted to the people in uniform, for good reason. It helps identify theft and inappropriate use, but also enables tracking of the proper resourcing of different things. The process is pretty direct: What has come in, what has gone out and what’s still present. It’s not rocket science. By taking a systems view, you can apply this technique to just about anything where you need to make sure things are being handled properly.

In my career, I counted postal money orders, stamps, gas masks, small arms, ammunition (small to very large), classified documents, communications codes, dollars in various accounts and probably a few other things I lost track of.

The assignment to the process to count what ever needs auditing was usually handed out by the Executive Officer, either via a formal assignment on the collateral duties list, or when you got grabbed to just get it done. I don’t recall any officers I served with being exempted. If you were the custodian of something, you didn’t get a hand in the accounting, other than make sure the auditors had the records and access to the things to be checked, but there was plenty of other stuff you didn’t own, so you would always get a turn eventually.

That’s a long discussion about how leadership positions in the service get their hands dirty with auditing, which is a baseline skill that becomes subconscious, and therefore not mentioned in resumes or interviews (“you mean everyone doesn’t do that?” sort of thought). This skill is certainly a “force multiplier” for the potential employer and will be, almost without exception, be a capability the interviewee has.

The side moral to the story: A large civilian firm took a chance and found out they got a lot more than they expected, and then asked for more help. As a side note about what happened to this downsized pilot, he was promoted in 5 weeks to managing director of the computer center. Not bad for a stick and rudder guy the taxpayer didn’t want anymore.

Part I – Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills

Index to the Series:
Part I: Initiative, marketing, sales, project planning and program management skills
Part II: Auditing Skills
Part III: Operations 24/7/365
Part IV: “Point Papers”
Part V: Collateral Duties
Part VI: The “Git ‘er done!” Factor
Part VII: “Total Care”
Part VIII: Communications in the Workplace
Part IX: “Give a smart person with potential a chance”
Part X: Process Engineering, Continuous Improvement, Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, or what ever you call it. The bottom line title: Making “it” better
Part XI: The Military’s Supply System
Part XII download Faith of My Fathers : “Red Blood or Red Ink”
Part XIII: Constructive Plagiarism

I had the occasion to sit in on a pre-job interview between a professional recruiter (“headhunter”) and a Navy pilot about to leave the service. I had worked a few doors down from the headhunter for a few months and the Lieutenant had worked for me for six months before I left the Navy, so I knew both of these people at a professional level. The headhunter was a very successful recruiter in the sales and marketing fields. He had grown up in a mostly Navy town, his father having been a labor lawyer. The pilot was an ROTC graduate, who flew A-6 Intruders and wore a Silver Star from the first Gulf War. He had attended a local college with a long and outstanding history, earning an Executive MBA during his off hours.

I had mentioned to the recruiter that one of my associates was leaving the service and would be looking for a job, and he agreed to look at the pilot’s resume. I had him send it over and a few weeks later, the headhunter told me the Lieutenant was coming over for a pre-interview that afternoon and invited me to sit in. I joked, having no clue as to what I was really saying, that I could be the translator. I ended up doing exactly that, but what struck me was the inability of two very capable and intelligent people to communicate, as they had both lived very different lives.

The pilot arrived and the recruiter got down to business. The first few questions about qualifications and some information on the client and position he was being looked at for, as well as a overview of the company’s product line went easily. One of the first questions was “How can you explain to a small, innovative company that you will be able to help them, since you have worked for a large monolithic organization?” That rocked me back on my heels. I know the recruiter didn’t think he was being offensive, but it quickly came to me he had little clue, despite living in one of the largest ports that Navy has for all his life, except a few years being away at college.

The pilot seemed to have a little problem getting out of the starting blocks, not because he was unintelligent, but his life experience kept him from easily discerning the recruiter’s lack of understanding of the military. After a few moments of silence, I asked the pilot to explain how he had been given the task to figure out just how the navy would use modeling and simulation to approve testing requirements for major systems procurement. He then told the story of how someone, armed with only a modicum of detailed technical understanding of computer simulation capabilities did the homework to find out what could be done and how, drafted the concept, briefed it to three levels of leadership, got it approved and wrote the instruction. The recruiter seemed to have a new appreciation for what “junior officers” got to do and I made it a point to let the recruiter know this was common.

The result of that conversation allowed me to realize myself, and then communicate an inherently understood situation. Here’s how I summarized it to them: If a successful senior enlisted person or officer is sitting in front of you, it is almost a certainty that person has done the following: 1) Come up with and idea (innovation) 2) Communicated that idea to their boss (marketing) 3) Figure out how to implement it (program development) and, as a result of opening their mouths in the first place, been assigned to make it happen (program management).

Many people with military experience just take all of this for granted, never realizing they have practiced all of those skills, as well as an entire gamut of supporting skills, such as budgeting and “human resources,” along the way. I sealed the deal when I asked the recruiter if those skills would be valuable to a small, innovative company and he quickly agreed that’s what this company was looking for.

There were other questions, but one led me to ask the pilot to describe his first job. He had been assigned as the Line Division Officer. He had 90 people working for him as a “nugget” in a medium bomber equipped squadron. He was the only officer, and only had a single E-7 to help out at the khaki level. That got the recruiter’s attention as well. The discussion came to issues of monetary dealings. I asked the pilot how much his OPTAR was as a 23 year old division officer. “About $1M” he said. I took over and explained to the recruiter that that meant the pilot was responsible for managing the expenditure of that money in a single fiscal year. In addition he had had to plan the next year’s budget by estimating the resources needed, then at the end of the year, reconcile the end of year accounting for the Supply Department. This allowed the recruiter to see an entirely different picture of the professional experience of the man who sat across the table from him. If you think about it, unless the interviewer has some understanding of the military leadership requirements, none of this is a factor in their hiring decision making, and, from the other side, “we” forget that things like this are top level jobs on the outside (project manager, marketing, sales, etc), so we don’t even try to weave them into the conversation or resume. Additionally, they are such secondary skills to us, we just think of them as inherent tasks required to get things done.

So much for a world view of “a big, monolithic organization” (implied: inflexible, employing a bunch of automatons). More to come..stay tuned for Part II!

In the process of reorganizing the links to blogs, and giving each an appropriate amount of honoring of their “lineages,” I stopped by one I hadn’t been to in a few weeks and was rewarded with a personal testimony about the transformation of a former military member and veteran, from a stand on the side lines kind of personality to being a leader of a group established to get involved and let the troops know they are appreciated. A counter to the counter-culture, as it were, in this age of where the tearing down any authority, or governmental protective agency, is standard fare, as I discussed in two posts in the last few days ago. Part I and Part IA are here.

Please get a cup of coffee, a coke, or a bottle of water and follow this link to read Smash’s story, and also realize it just takes us, one at a time, to connect with like minded people, to become a voice for a cause. You won’t be disappointed.

This is a real stream of consciousness issue with me. I sort of have no clue where it will lead, but it can be somewhat coherent (well, at least from my point of view). Possibly you may agree with me, and if you do or you don’t there is a link below each post for comments, so feel free to take advantage to voice your opinion. For several years, I’ve thought about the influences we have had on at least two generations, and how that relates to events of today.

One recurring thought has been how the differences in how “authority figures” have been portrayed. My perception, and it’s certainly not from rigorous application of statistical methods, is that we have been through a long period where the leadership and authority positions have been directly or indirectly portrayed as, at the least, inept, and at the worst, just overtly criminal. This “attitude” is promulgated by TV shows, commercials, and movies.

Simply put, take something like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Wildly popular, still much a part of the current cultural memory, but it said 1) It’s OK to blow off authority and 2) the authorities, in particular, the principal, were oppressive, and stupid as well, and therefore the object of ridicule and disdain. Movies like “Spy Kids,” “War Games,” and so many others provide us with a regular feed of the message that people in government are lazy and uncommitted to doing their job. Since this is the perceived case, then the follow on message is it’s OK to go around them, or, better yet, take things into your own hands, as kids, teenagers, and young adults are immanently more knowledgeable and experienced. They then take on dangerous tasks, and win, showing that the stupid “authorities” would never have been able to solve the problem, or better yet,, they were so corrupted, they were actually hiding the bad guys.

Then come Michael Moore, trying to feed us some story about how the President really knew about all that went into the current war, and he invaded Iraq just for the oil. There are many sources that can factually refute portions of what “Fahrenheit 911” said, to include showing how images were graphically manipulated, then presented as the reality.

I have pointed out a few examples to support my conjecture, but there is “The Simpsons,” “South Park,” and many others. In music, rappers want to kill police, as well as many others around them and Green Day gets a Grammy for “American Idiot.”

So, what does this several decades long assault on authority and basic decent interpersonal behavior get us? We elect a president and a substantial portion of the country wants to deny he is the president. School children disrupt classes, denying learning opportunities to those who want to learn, and parents come down on the school administrators. The rule of one offended becomes the loudest voice, regardless of how wrong they may be. Lawyers are eager to jump in and take on the authorities.

Maybe I’m off base, but the lack of basic civility we experience today seems to be the natural outgrowth of the message that those in authority deserve to be mistrusted, and are all out to take advantage of us for their own gain, regardless of the cost.

The “reflective result” (that’s a new term I just thought of) is authority becomes calloused and distrustful of the youthful, and even well intentioned things are turned aside, which, in turn, fuels this fire, and none of it to our benefit.

As the son of a career federal civil servant, and as one who spent 20 years supported by and working with many federal civilians, yes, there are the lazy and stupid ones who help make for good jokes. In the grand scheme, and the far more likely case, they were (and still are) hard working people, who are prone to make the same mistakes and omissions as many of us do. We expect sometimes impossible performance, and knowledge that approaches omniscience, yet we would never want to be held to the same standards.

For most of my career, I didn’t work directly with the civil servants, but a few times I did. Several gave us more than our money’s worth, most al of them gave us a fair days work for a day’s pay, and a few were “skating” when they could, and only a handful were approaching the criminal aspect of performance.

Enough for one post. We’re in this together for many things, but it’s a “hot button” with me to see how it’s culturally Ok to be disrespectful of those who have been charged to help the next generations to grow and thrive.

Continued in Part I A.

I’m a computer game fan. I’ve played plenty of flight simulators and first person shooters over a few decades. The more realistic the simulation, the happier I am. I like as real as it can get.

Now, a “your tax dollars at work story.” In the Mid-90’s I was sent to a command where we were maintaining various computer programs, mostly all for Navy combatant (Crusiers, destroyers and frigates). We also had some tasking for development of new programs, but that wasn’t the main mission of the command. We had 60 military and 300 civil servants working there.

One of the projects that was in development, different from the vast array of ones being maintained was Battle Force Tactical Trainer (BFTT). The goal of this program was to allow ships, planes, submarines and shore bases to run realistic training scenarios. It was a unique project for its time, as the program manager had a the foresight to find out what other developed, or in development, programs were around that contained parts that could be woven together in order to save funds by not re-inventing the wheel, as it were. That was unusual at the time, as program managers for just about anything else being developed, jealously guarded their developments, and their funds, being afraid that they would have to admit a weakness in their organization, if they couldn’t do it themselves. I’m also convinced that they were scared that if they showed some of the working details, someone else may tell them (or worse yet show them) a better way, which would make them not look all knowledgeable.

Anyhow, BFTT was an ambitious project, in funding and schedule, and I watched, at close range, some incredible innovation to make it happen. The project has been absorbed at the joint level, so all services can share in the technology development, and subsequently, save lots of money (and that’s a good thing that has been done for us taxpayers, in the name of reason). The BFTT was essentially a central control system, that would interface with simulators and real equipment to present a coherent picture to operators, so their reactions would be properly developed. In this scheme, units could be connected via the Defense Simulation Internet (DSI) and live radio signals, while BFTT managed the responses of the many training modules, imbedded in various systems.

The way information was conveyed between units was via data “packets” which were in the Distributed Information System (DIS) format. The “packet” would define an entity in the battle space, to include the characteristics to allow the training systems portray it properly to the operators. An entity could be a .50 caliber machine gun bullet, a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier, or a SCUD missile. The idea was to put sufficient information in a format that a sensor display would show the operator what he may see if the entity would have been real.

Pretty innovative, and complex engineering went into this, all in the name of creating a virtual reality to train war fighters. Somehow, and I’m not sure how the connection came to be, the console game developers caught wind of the work the Department of Defense was doing in this “virtual reality” modeling. Since they were also trying to replicate the real world in their game consoles and computer games, they ended up at the DIS protocol meetings and became active players in helping design the standards for the DIS data packets.

This interaction between game developers and the military training simulating community has helped to provide us with the richness of the games we see in the Xbox, Play Stations and PCs today. The military training is superior as a result as well, resulting in tremendous reduction in training costs, and an increase in realism.

To take the synergism a bit further, after I completed the tour with the software development command, I reported to the Navy Operational Test Force, where the mission was to design and run test programs to make sure the top level procurement programs had in fact created systems that did what the military contracted them to do. As systems were becoming more complex, and budgets getting tighter, I walked into the early stages of the development of the use of modeling and simulation to verify equipment met the design specifications. The prior work of the BFTT and associated training programs became a building block to leverage from to help move more testing from the real world ranges to the internals of computers, at a quality to assure systems worked.

The next time you load up your simulation games, know some far sighted military and civil servants helped put your tax dollars to use to make your games really rock.