TEMPEST – LM requirement or not – first round of data

by Michael DeKort

As I stated before this all began with the 123s.  The data below is from Lockheed and CG personnel.  Some are internal and some between parties.  All are part of the public record. Note – none of the Lockheed personnel other that me in these emails has any TEMPEST background or communications background at all.  (That is evident given the huge difference in topical understanding between the CG experts and Lockheed’s)

As you can see Lockheed was very clearly trying to weasel out of their responsibilities very early on.  You can see they began to formulate their response as it became clear we blew the design etc. (I deleted the To: lines to give some of the personnel their privacy.  I also did not edit the text – including the grammatical/spelling errors)
———-
From: Sheridan, Robert J
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 10:06 AM
Subject: RE: 123- Tempest history needed – ASAP please

Air Station Elizabeth City Coast Guard rescues 2 near Cape Fear, N.C.

Frying Pan Shoals, N.C. – The Coast Guard rescued two people Sunday aboard a disabled sailboat 37 miles southeast of Cape Fear, N.C.

The Coast Guard received a mayday call at 6:01 a.m. from a crew member aboard the Audrey and received an electronic positioning indication radio beacon signal.

Coast Guard rescue helicopter crews from Air Station Elizabeth City and Air Facility Charleston, S.C., arrived on scene and established communication with the crew of the Audrey, who reported they had lost power and had torn sails.

A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach arrived on scene and towed the Audrey and crew up the Cape Fear River and transferred the tow to a boat crew from Coast Guard Station Oak Island, who is towing them to a local marina.

The Coast Guard urges boaters to be equipped with a 406 MHz EPIRB whenever they are on the water. The EPIRB provides information such as location, owner of the vessel and contact information which can assist rescuers if the vessel is in distress.

The triangulated position of the mayday call provided a search area that was approximately 40 miles different than the actual position, according to Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Hynson, a watchstander at the Fifth Coast Guard District command center.

“If it weren’t for the EPIRB, we would have been looking in a totally different area for them,” said Hynson.

Also, boaters should try to provide as much information about their boat, situation, and position as they can while making a mayday call, in order to reduce search areas and response times.

Have you Registered for the President’s Volunteer Service Award

America has a long and proud tradition of volunteer service. Now more than ever, volunteers are renewing their commitment to helping others and making new connections that bring us closer together as families, as neighbors, as communities, and as a Nation.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush issued a challenge to all Americans to make time to help their neighbors, communities, and Nation through service. He called on each person to dedicate at least 4,000 hours – or two years – to service over the course of their lives. He created the USA Freedom Corps to help all Americans answer his call to service and help foster a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility.

In 2003, President Bush created the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation to find ways to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are making in our Nation. The Council brings together leaders from the worlds of business, entertainment, sports, education, government, nonprofits, and the media.

The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation created the President’s Volunteer Service Award program as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service.

Recognizing and honoring volunteers sets a standard for service to others. It encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation and inspires others to make volunteering a central part of their lives. The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes individuals, families, and groups that have achieved a certain standard – measured by the number of hours served over a 12-month period or cumulative hours earned over the course of a lifetime.

To date, the President’s Council has partnered with more than 77 Leadership Organizations and more than 14,000 Certifying Organizations to bestow more than 400,000 awards to the Nation’s deserving volunteers.

Rear Admiral David Glenn – Social Media and Technology

by Different Anonymous

In thinking about social media and technology I was thinking about the difference about how civilian companies and the Coast Guard handle who is in charge of their IT equipment. The Coast Guard has Rear Admiral Glenn. Now do the math – Graduated Coast Guard Academy in 1977 – that’s 32 years ago. Typical graduates are 22 years old, so an fairly accurate estimate of his age is 54 years old.

Now he does have quite an extensive background of communications and CGC2, and I’m not questioning that. I typed in average age of IT specialists into Google and consistently found articles quoting the average age was mid 30’s, 20 years younger than Rear Admiral Glenn. Mid thirties in the officer world is O-3 and O-4.

Rank structure is a necessity for military life – but in the IT realm it seems counter intuitive. Those in the IT world who may be on the cutting edge of technology have a layer of O-5’s and O-6’s to convince the Coast Guard to change. It’s 10 times easier to conform, turn off the websites, and not explore the new possibilities of technology than it is to try the harder path. As Anon PA put it – the Coast Guard should be proactive rather than reactive.

Look at the Coast Guard promotion system for officers. Let’s say an officer is blessed enough to have consistent commands that are willing to allow them to take risks and explore technology. Say those risks pay off and they are written an Officer Evaluation Report (OER) that allows them to be deep selected or reordered to the top of the list. Best case scenario, they could promote 4 years faster. These are all big ifs, which doesn’t really lend to the Coast Guard having officers on the cutting edge of technology, which in turn leads to decisions like turning off twitter – because it’s a “social networking” read “dating” site.

For those of you that are paying attention – no, still no answer on the status of jump-drives or a new contract with a computer supplier.

Penobscot Bay Chamber names Thomas Molloy 2008 Person of the Year; Chaired Coast Guard City Committee

Thomas Molloy of Rockland was the man of the hour Saturday night as the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce held its 84th annual awards dinner at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

“Our award recipient is the chair of the Rockland Coast Guard City Designation committee. A city earns the distinction of being named a Coast Guard City by making special efforts to acknowledge the professional work of the Coast Guard men and women assigned to their area. This distinction helps illustrate the long-standing and enduring relationship between the city and the members of the Coast Guard family. The Rockland committee, under our award winner’s direction, succeeded in gaining this very special recognition for Rockland. In 2008, the City of Rockland was named the ninth Coast Guard City in the country.”

Councilor Thomas Molloy

77 Pleasant Street
Rockland, ME 04841

City Councilor since November 2007
Former Mayor
Serving 6th term on City Council
Graduate of University of Maine (M.Ed.)
Retired educator

Committees/Commissions/Boards/Associations:
Chair, Rockland Coast Guard City Designation Committee
Member, Bob Gagnon Cancer Fund
Member, ASA Korea
Member, Knox County Retired Teachers Association
Legislative Liaison MRTA (Knox County)
State Committeeman
Member, State Platform Committee
Member, St. Bernard’s Parish

No on site Contracting Officer when Coast Gaurd Sunk Billions

NSC Bertholf

by Different Anonymous

Point by point:

• SCIF, think we all understand each other on this. I consider it moot at this point.
• LM reminds me of used car salespeople. Slick, smile on their face, and selling you a load of crap. Shielded cables were definitely part of the issue and rework. They definitely thought you could have one part of the system without the other, and that’s why TEMPEST is an issue.
• At some point I got pissed off about the money aspect of this contract, and chose to not rile myself up anymore. I can’t confirm or deny this, but it doesn’t surprise me.
• Collateral system degradation: LM decided everything should talk to each other. Unfortunately they weren’t very good at the whole integration part. They bought the radar, paid no attention to EADS techs, installed it however they wanted, and the thing still doesn’t talk correctly to the system. Probably not direct fallout from TEMPEST, just general incompetence on that one.

As for the camera system, it’s supposed to aid the “optimally manned” concept. When the NSC moors in it’s homeport, eventually the cutter is supposed to go to a caretaker status. This way the two people on the boat at night can just watch cameras instead of making rounds. At this point, it’s not mission critical, because no one has fully accepted that scenario as a reality. Watchstanders still do rounds of the ship every hour, just like a legacy asset. Time will only tell if the system is even needed in the long run and if it will get corrected.

• INSURV discrepancies – 5000 sounds like a lot, but the size of each discrepancy can vary. It can be as big as an ammo hoist redesign, or it can be as little as re-labeling a compartment. Are there still redesigns to be done? Yes. The stern launch and doors aren’t working as they’re expected. The launch and doors are definitely a start from having nothing, but they still need to be tweaked. I wish I had a list of all 5000 deficiencies and you could see some are larger/more important than others.
• Ship was accepted. Could have released the whole DD-250 with the discrepancies that made it conditional… definitely would have been more transparent.
• Once again, I stay away from the whole money thing. MLC, ESU, NESU are all Coast Guard Personnel, so consider them paid for.

Here’s the thing, the PRO, aka the CG personnel who oversaw the shipyard, was understaffed for such an undertaking. The lack of personnel on site made for a lack of supervision. They also didn’t have a contracting officer on site, so if it was noticed that a change needed to be made, all the paperwork would go to a magical place in DC. A board would convene (at their convenience) and decide whether that change needed to be made or not and most often, those board members hadn’t been to the ship. The lack of authority the CG had while it was being built was astounding. If a yardworker was discovered sleeping on the job, all that could be done is report it to their supervisor (sometimes also sleeping on the job). It wasn’t until the CG took ownership could that sleeping person be kicked off the boat.

This is a problem that could easily be solved by more onsite personnel, with more authority. Unfortunately, another lesson learned too late, and so there is a whole lot of oversight going on now. Yes, this is probably much like FRAM where the CG pays them to do it wrong, and pays them to do it right the second time.

• One thing I have failed to mention is there is an entire C4ISR setup that is virtually identical to the NSC built in New Jersey. It is my understanding that once TEMPEST became an acknowledged issue, they started the rebuild their, did appropriate testing to see if the rebuild was correct, before doing the re-installation. By doing this, the new system should be pretty close to what is needed.
• All the poor workmanship and bad decisions aside I think there are three main items that the CG should take away from this adventure.

1. Write a better contract. The definition of TEMPEST certified shouldn’t be debatable. Poor workmanship shouldn’t be paid for the first time, and then better workmanship the second. Penalties should exist. Contractors shouldn’t have the ability to walk all over the CG and get away with it.
2. Have more supervision onsite, and give those people authority. If some of these issues were identified, addressed, and fixed while the ship was in Pascagoula it would have saved time, money, and effort that is going into the ship now. More over, it would give the CG a leg to stand on with regards to quality assurance.
3. Enough said.

Perhaps it’s the accountability that scares Coast Guard Leadership

by Different Annonymous

I wish it wouldn’t send people up in arms, but have them look at their practices with a more critical eye. The blogging world shouldn’t be scary, perhaps it’s the accountability and answering the hard questions directly that is. The one encouraging thing I have seen this week is the D1 PAO responding directly to CG Blog about the Patriot case today. He explained the whole story, and did it in simple and straight forward terms. Cleared up any sense that the Coast Guard was doing something wrong in this case – which was the overwhelming public opinion. He informed the public about CG policy on underwater photography – and why that was an unusual request. I hope this trend keeps up.