What's Brewin: A better way to track supplies

As the old saying goes, generals win battles and logisticians win wars. That definitely applies to the Defense Department's In-Transit Visibility program, which tracks shipments of containers to Afghanistan and Iraq using active RFID technology.

The active tags -- which are battery powered and have a range of about 300 feet vs. 30 feet for the passive tags used to identify smaller items -- help Defense track and manage shipments globally and store an inventory list of the cargo inside the containers.

The technology has eliminated supply-chain problems encountered in the Gulf War when the only way to determine what was inside a container, which typically was one of thousands in a supply depot, was to open it.

Although mostly successful, tracking supplies with active RFID has had its problems. To monitor the tags, Defense must install so-called interrogator sites that house an RFID reader that tracks trucks' containers as they pass by the site. The interrogators are often in austere or hostile environments.

The sites also must be connected to a network that feeds the information back to stateside databases -- another challenge, because it is hard to find an RJ45 Ethernet jack in the middle of the desert. In addition, the system does not provide real-time in-transit visibility. It identifies where a container was when it last passed through an interrogator site, not where it is presently.

ARINC, based in Annapolis, Md., is best known for the global telecommunications networks it operates to support commercial airlines and air traffic control agencies. It has developed what it believes is truly a real-time, in-transit visibility system that already serves commercial customers and that the Army Logistics Innovation Agency is evaluating.

Jim Potter, program manager for global asset tracking at ARINC, said the company, in collaboration with Impeva Labs from Mountain View, Calif., has developed an in-transit visibility system that eliminates the interrogators with a gizmo from Impeva, which incorporates a Global Positioning System receiver and various wireless communication systems. The GPS receiver determines the location of the container, which is then transmitted on a lowest cost routing basis via a cellular telephone modem, satellite modem, or even a Wi-Fi connection to a device management center, he said.

Sensors installed on the container can track whether a door has been opened, and the system can indicate whether the vehicle hauling the container has made an unauthorized stop, such as a driver unloading a bunch of TVs or turkeys to some folks who didn't order them.

Impeva's GPS device also serves as the hub of a mesh network based on the short-range 802.15.4 wireless personal area networking standard, which operates in the same global 2.4 gigahertz low-frequency band as Wi-Fi. Potter said this means that multiple containers on a ship, a supply depot or in a convoy equipped with the low-cost tags can communicate with a central unit on one container equipped with the GPS receiver and wireless modem. This central unit then can transmit the location and status of multiple containers -- including whether systems on refrigerated containers are operational.

ARINC has a five year, $20 million contract awarded in 2006 from the Logistics Innovation Agency to develop and demonstrate the system, which Potter says uses the same satellite system and cellular modems operating a global standard that AT&T and most worldwide cellular carriers use. And the company has successfully tested the system on supply routes into Afghanistan.

The Logistics Innovation Agency, alas, will not talk to me unless I consent in writing to let them review and "amend" my copy, which is against Government Executive and Nextgov policy. But, I found a presentation floating around on the Web from William Jarrett, who runs the agency's Next-Generation Wireless Communications for Logistics project, which definitely depicts the ARINC prototypes as the new way to provide in-transit visibility throughout Defense.

Another Candidate for Interagency Program Office

I'm picking up signals that William Lang, a West Point grad and former White House physician, is a strong candidate to head the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments' interagency program office, which will oversee the sharing of electronic health records between the two agencies.

Lang -- who now works for an outfit called Global Medical Guardians, a Norwood N.J.-based firm specializing in private emergency medicine, disaster and nuclear response -- definitely has the IT qualifications for the job, including a stint working on the Composite Health Care System II, the predecessor to the current Military Health System electronic health record system, called the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application.

Lang, I'm told, is such a serious candidate for the job that he is in the process of being vetted.

Some Suggestions for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

My colleague Jill R. Aitoro reported last week that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, one of my favorite "awareness" events. It's right up there with National Dairy Goat Awareness Week, which Ronald Reagan proclaimed in 1988.

Greg Garcia, assistant secretary of the Homeland Security Department's Office of Cybersecurity and Telecommunication, said, "There's no room for complacency; there's no excuse for ignorance," about cybersecurity. I agree.

So, I sure wish the loose-lipped contractors who repeatedly reveal the location of the MHS' clinical data repository in public presentations would stop doing so. That depository contains -- in one spot -- the health records of 9.2 million active-duty and retired military personnel and their families, and I can't think of a more sensitive cyber target. I know where the CDR is located, but have never revealed its location in print at the request of MHS. Do I get an awareness month award?

Garcia also might want to take a look at how PowerPoint presentations of an often-sensitive nature from every agency of the government leak onto the Internet, and do something about it. Of course, if he succeeded, that would make my job harder.

The Check Is Not Even Near the Mailbox

I have some veteran buddies at The George Washington University, a neighbor of Government Executive and Nextgov in the tony Washington area called Foggy Bottom. They are frustrated with the inept way GWU handles (or rather, does not handle) processing of their VA educational benefits.

The university has about 300 students who are veterans, most of whom go to school at the Foggy Bottom campus. But the GWU veteran liaison office is located on the Virginia campus, and is, I'm told, quite unresponsive when it comes to responding to calls or e-mails for help.

Wade Spann, a GWU student and veteran who sustained a traumatic brain injury in Iraq, told the independent student newspaper GW Hatchet that he is so frustrated with the university's treatment of veterans, he wished he had opted to enroll at next-door-neighbor Georgetown University.

"Right now I wouldn't recommend [GWU] to any of my veteran friends," said Spann, who helped a friend get into Georgetown. "They have open arms for veterans [at Georgetown], while here it's not so much. We're going to try to change that through the administration and through the community," Spann told the Hatchet.

Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the VFW wants to help student veterans at GWU resolve their problems with the university. Davis said veterans attending school in Washington might think they are "small fish in a big pond, but as far as we are concerned, they are big fish."

Michelle Sherrard, a GWU spokeswoman, said, "We are aware that there has been a slight delay in the processing of veterans benefits payments. The university is working to address these issues and is working with veterans on an individual basis concerning payment of tuition, as needed."

That delay may not be so slight because after GWU finally processes the VA paperwork, it will take VA some time to do its thing. I have a hunch the GWU vets will not see a dime of their hard-earned benefits until December.