LandWarNet 2010

USCYBERCOM Commander, Gen. Keith Alexander speaking

Spent last week traveling to and from Tampa, Florida and attending the LandWarNet 2010 conference at the Tampa Convention Center. As conferences go, I thought this was an exceptional one.  Big crowd (9000) this year, terrific speakers, and very informative track sessions.  Now the task is to assimilate all the information gained during three days of presentations.

A colleague and I covered down on seventeen sessions in two and a half days.  Of the seven plenary sessions, we attended five.  We heard the USCYBERCOM commander, Gen. Keith Alexander speak about the challenges to our country posed from within cyberspace domain and what USCYBERCOM is doing about them.  We listened as the Army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Pete Chiarelli addressed us via video teleconference about overcoming the challenges the Army imposes upon itself through its antiquated acquisition system.  Lieutenant General Jeff Sorenson touched on the same subject, updated us on the Army's global network enterprise construct strategy, and acted as the master of ceremonies.  We sat in on a Joint/Coalition panel but skipped the joint/industry panel, which focuses almost exclusively on acquisition issues, and the final plenary session addressed by Air Force Lt. Gen. William Lord.

A special treat was to hear Dr. Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM Corporation, speak to us about institutional transformation.  It was, in my opinion, probably the most relevant of all the plenary sessions to what the Army is facing as an institution at the present time (operations in the CENTCOM AOR excepted).  Two consequences for me, stemming from Dr. Gerstner's talk, will be, first, that I will have to read his book, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance," which treats of his tenure at head of IBM and how he undertook to transform that company.  The second consequence will be that, after reading the book, and reviewing my notes, I will probably want to rewrite the appendix I drafted for FM 6-02 Signal Operations (which we hope to have staffed out by the end of summer).

The real work of the conference was, for me, attending the Joint/Combined track, which consisted of six special briefings moderated by the CENTCOM J-6, Brig. Gen. Brian Donahue.  Those sessions, each one literally crammed with information, covered such topics as the the operational context in Afghanistan, Task Force 236, the Afghan Mission Network, the "revamped network operations framework, and challenges ahead.  All of which will make for me quite a bit of research when I get back to the office tomorrow.  It was a privilege for me to get to meet Brig. Gen. Donahue personally.

Columbia Restaurant interior

One of the highlights of the week--not related to the conference--was dining out Thursday night at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.  The picture to the right shows the interior of the restaurant where my party sat.  The food was great, the service terrific, and the ambiance all you could ask for.  We even got to see the Flamenco Dancers perform.  Felt like being in a John Wayne move, sort of.

Already, we're making plans to attend next years conference, to stay in or near Ybor city, go back to that restaurant and, most of all, to take Connie with me!

What Recruiting Taught Me

I was an Army recruiter for three years.  It was a sort of school of hard knocks.  I sure learned a lot.  The thing that has stuck with many longer than anything else is that the United States of America is being overrun by Category IVs.