State of INFOCOM May 2014

As I started working on my report for this month, I realized Memorial Day was coming up soon.  I noticed as I was driving to and from work, I started seeing the Memorial Day sale signs at the car dealerships between my home and office.  I also was throwing out all the fliers I received in the mail for the various Memorial Day sales going on over the weekend.  Being a veteran and I have attended the Army’s Last Role Call for soldiers in my unit that were killed, I have decided not to buy anything during these Memorial Day sales.  I find myself torn, I don’t think we should be having sales during Memorial Day but those we are honoring gave their lives so we could have Memorial Day sales.  I wish my grandfather was still around so I could get this opinion.  When I was growing up he didn’t talk much about his service in World War II.  He served in the Navy aboard the USS Nashville, a light cruiser in the South Pacific and shipped out just months after my mother was born.  All his brothers served. One joined the Marines and served in the South Pacific, two were Army and fought in Europe, One also landed in Normandy on D-Day.  I remember he had a small book about the USS Nashville during WWII.  We he passed away I received that book.  I have it on a shelf next to the shadow box with the flag that was on his coffin, his medals he earned during his service and an old black and white photo of him as a young sailor.  By reading the book and internet research, I found the following information.  General MacArthur used The USS Nashville as his flagship on several occasions including his famous return to the Philippines and The USS Nashville earned 10 battle stars in WWII.  My Grandfather was a gunner’s mate 1st class and served on a Quad 40mm antiaircraft gun starboard side aft of the superstructure.  I think I found the reason why my grandfather didn’t like to talk about his service.  The USS Nashville on December 13 1944 was hit by a kamikaze off Negros Island.  The plane hit port amidships and killed 133 and wounded 190 sailors.  When I read that, I thought that was the other side of the ship were my grandfather was stationed.  He came that close to being one of those sailors that were killed.  My mother came that close to never knowing her father and I came that close to only knowing that black and white photo of that young sailor on the shadow box was my grandfather.  On Memorial Day I think of those soldiers from my unit that were killed and those 133 sailors that died, the children and grandchildren that will never get to know them.  I’m sure that are a lot of stories out there but I felt I should share part of mine with you on this Memorial Day.

INFOCOM is currently continuing to update manuals and other material in relation to the corps new Logo, Seal and Motto.  In order to speed up the process if you have some bandwidth and assist with some short term projects please get in touch with me at nfocom@sfi-sfmc.org and I can explain what we are working on.  We are also looking for a permanent ADOE staff position to fill.  Here’s the requirements for the position.

Candidates for the position of ADOE Editor should meet the following criteria:
(1) Have passed OTS (OCC is recommended);
(2) Have passed PD-100 and PD-201 from the SFMCA; and
(3) Be a member of STARFLEET in good standing.
If you wish to apply for the editor position please send me your information and experience to infocom@sfi-sfmc.org

In closing here are the pingdom stats for April 2014.
Uptime: 99.97%
Outages: 1
Downtime: 15m
Response time: 565 ms

Mark “Slayer” Anderson
Brigadier General, SFMC
COINFOCOM
Team Delta