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
DPSC
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
DISMS
In 1986 Allan Rosen hired me away from the Directorate of Clothing & Textiles to work in DISMS in the Directorate of Subsistence. Perhaps I need to explain what DISMS is. Or was. And please, don’t take this all as gospel; this is mostly from memory from over 30 years ago and some of it … Continue reading DISMS
The PACE Test
By early 1980 I had become seriously dissatisfied with working at Channel. View fullsize We had a new manager, and he and I did not see eye to eye, although it was probably more my fault than his. He admitted to me that when he learned he was being given the Harrisburg store, he was … Continue reading The PACE Test