There was a fellow that I worked with back in my days in the Subsistence Directorate and later on when I was in what was then called the Office of Telecommunications and Information Systems (OTIS) well over 30 years ago. He was what I would call a bullshit artist (BSA) and management loved him. It … Continue reading I Decide to Diet
DPSC
Tom and Pete
The recent death of a baseball great but a human sleaze got me thinking about that guy who… Hey, what was his name anyway? I wonder if Pat would know? I’ve been leaning on her a lot lately to remind me of the names of folks that I used to work with. It’s not that … Continue reading Tom and Pete
My Security Clearance
Mishandled security documents being all the rage these days, perhaps I ought to go through all the stuff that I carted home from work when I retired. You never know what I might find. Then again, maybe I don’t want to know. A few years ago I wrote about the time I was investigated for … Continue reading My Security Clearance
Memory Is a Funny Thing
I was trying to recall the name of a woman I used to work with and I was sure it was Sandra, but I couldn’t remember her last name. So I asked a couple people from my former place of work and none of them could recall a Sandra. Then a couple days later, it … Continue reading Memory Is a Funny Thing
Peace Is Our Profession
In the late 90’s the Deputy Director of the Directorate of Clothing and Textiles (C&T), Paul Zebrowski, developed a motto for the directorate. As you may recall, C&T is responsible for purchasing all the military uniforms and accessories for the armed forces, so Paul’s motto, “Keeping America’s Warfighter Dressed To Kill”, incorporated a nice play … Continue reading Peace Is Our Profession
The One Where I Opened My Big Mouth
I think one of the problems with DISMS is that it was conceived in the era just before the advent of personal computers, and consequently it was designed to be entirely a mainframe system. During this period when PCs were gradually entering the office space, the attitude of seasoned computer professionals towards them ranged anywhere … Continue reading The One Where I Opened My Big Mouth
P.I.G.S.
Before I continue with my DISMS tales, I need to flash back for a moment to my days in C&T. I started in C&T as an item manager (or to give its full title, an Inventory Management Specialist) working in the Navy Section, which meant that I decided when it was time to buy various … Continue reading P.I.G.S.
Irresistible Force Meet Immovable Object
A few months after I started in DISMS, my boss Allan Rosen left to set up another office, and what I thought had been my dream job turned into something considerably less. As I was to learn, there were no dream jobs at DPSC. I was given a series of temporary supervisors for some … Continue reading Irresistible Force Meet Immovable Object
Demon
One of the first things I did when I started in DISMS was to give them my Demon. Let me explain. Back in the mid-80s the hot program, or “killer app”, the application that convinced a lot of businesses and people that they needed to jump onto the personal computer bandwagon, was Lotus 1-2-3. (“Lotus” … Continue reading Demon
The One Where I Was Investigated
“I’ve been tasked with investigating whether you mishandled classified material.” The voice at the other end of the line belonged to an Army officer that I had never met or even heard of until he called me just then. He made an appointment to interrogate, I mean interview, me and ended the call. I immediately … Continue reading The One Where I Was Investigated