The awards recognize IM/IT projects, teams and individuals that help transform the Navy and Marine Corps through information technology.

The Navy released the names of the winners and a description of the work they did to be honored:

David Green, senior level chief technology advisor, Headquarters Marine Corps/C4: for his visionary leadership and support in the development of an enterprise architecture five-year strategic plan and in overseeing the new Marine Corps IT Procurement Request/Review Approval System, which facilitates enterprise level visibility of Marine Corps procurement requests. In 2011 the system facilitated the review of more than 6,800 IT procurement requests totaling more than $1.1 billion, achieving a cost avoidance of more than $150 million.

Peter Kelley, USMC Information Assurance (IA) Manager, Total Force Information Technology System (TFITS): for his outstanding performance in managing the IA program for the USMC TFITS Program Office portfolio, which includes 62 projects sponsored by seven USMC organizations and more than 600 software releases annually with possible IA impact. Through his efforts, the program office achieved 100 percent compliance with the DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process and dramatically improved its percentage of fully accredited projects. Kelley managed the improvement of the Federal Information Security Management Act from 24 percent compliance in early 2011 to 84 percent compliance as of August 2011.

CWO2 Rafael Masalbaladejo, USMC Network Operations and Systems Officer: for his exceptional skills in designing and implementing a private internet protocol address solution for the Defense Switched Network Voice over Internet Protocol network for Forward Operating Base (FOB) Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. The successful design led to the use of this same plan and execution strategy by two other FOBs in Afghanistan.

Deborah Olson, program manager, Marine Corps Enterprise Services: for her superior management skills, consolidating infrastructure supporting legacy and virtual application services and data environments with a common validation and inclusion process. That consolidation reduces costs, improves access to enterprise information and provides a collaborative sharing environment. Olson also delivered the first Marine Corps instance of a validated and accredited cloud computing environment through the achievement of Marine Corps Enterprise Information Technology Services Initial Operating Capability in July 2011.

Center for Information Dominance (CID) Information Systems Technician of the Future (IToF) Team: for developing a DON $134 million fully resourced and implemented phased IT/IA workforce strategic training solution that expertly balanced complex training requirements, captured and realigned enduring assets, and secured funding to further DoD/DON IM/IT strategic goals. Team CID designed and deployed an expandable virtual lab network infrastructure accepted as the Navy enterprise solution that provided cost savings in hardware, technical refresh, and lifecycle maintenance support estimated at $6.2 million across the Five-Year Defense Plan.

Center for SEAL and Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman (CENSEALSWCC) IM/IT Team: for significantly increasing the commanders’ knowledge management (KM) capability by providing the ability to extract timely and accurate data on the operational characteristics of their units and individuals within their units, enhancing organizational efficiency and operational effectiveness by improving the commanders’ employment of their units’ human capital. Additionally, leveraging an existing enterprise IM/IT system saved time and money, improved the KM of Naval Special Warfare commanders, increased mission effectiveness and improved electronic records management.

N2N6 Enterprise Electromagnetic Environmental Effects and Spectrum Management Team:for its efforts on the Electromagnetic Spectrum Usage Roadmap, which will ensure warfighter access to critical electromagnetic spectrum resources, and the National Broadband Plan, which established an enterprise process to assess the technical, operational and financial impacts and feasibility of reallocating military and federal radio frequencies. The team’s effort has ensured that Navy capabilities for training were not compromised, resulting in a minimum initial cost avoidance of more than $2.3 billion to develop new off shore training ranges and a minimum annual recurring cost avoidance of more than $300 million to train Naval forces farther off shore to mitigate the impact of lost spectrum and increased interference to commercial wireless service providers.

Naval Network Enterprise Pacific (NNE Pacific) ITCS(Seal) Dan Healy Communications Center: for outstanding achievement in planning, leading and executing the successful transition of pacific region Naval and joint telecommunications and information technology services to the ITCS (Seal) Dan Healy Communications Center, orchestrating and executing the largest and most complex theater-wide communications shift ever undertaken in the U.S. Navy’s history. The new ITCS (Seal) Dan Healy Communications Center, which provides automated real-time situational awareness and dynamic, agile management of Pacific C4I networks, will be better positioned to meet Pacific theater conflict plans and operational plans well into the future.

Navy Enterprise (DON) Enterprise Software Licensing Initiative Software Asset Management and Tools (ESL AM&T) IPT: for the exceptional efforts of a diverse group of Navy and Marine Corps military and civilian personnel, who collaborated and delivered four options for implementation of a net-centric enterprise solution for IT asset management that could save the DON 10 percent to 30 percent per annum within its IT asset spending.

Navy Reserve Force Navy Operational Support Center NNWF Team: for the team’s superior leadership, technical acumen and perseverance in guiding multiple organizations to provide Navy Reserve Wi-Fi access to Navy Reserve Sailors at the operational level. The NNWF project is the first DoD/DON approved wide scale deployment of commercial Wi-Fi to operational sites for the purpose of completing mission- and readiness-related tasking. The solution provides secure and reliable access to Navy selected reserve members for fewer dollars than other alternatives.

NNWC/FCC/PEO-EIS/SPAWAR C2 Information Management Team [for command and control of NMCI through the Continuity of Services Contract (COSC)]: for outstanding contributions on an information management project that resulted in the development and implementation of command and control (C2) processes for NMCI. The effort resulted in the integration of government and vendor processes at key flow points; common understanding of data and information by C2 personnel; increased transparency in network status; and the integration of the “Operational Layer” and “Global Tactical” for network actions supporting the warfighter and the network operator.

Task Force NIMBLE MATRIX (TFNM) (HBSS Acceleration) Team: for its innovative approach to meeting the Chief of Naval Operation’s mandate to field the Host Based Security System (HBSS) to afloat SIPR networks and deploying HBSS to 348 U.S. Navy and Military Sealift Command platforms in an unprecedented timeline of less than eight months. The team ultimately provided training to 762 fleet operational and support personnel.

Video:

The Department of Defense will host its first Twitter Town Hall on Monday at 3:30 p.m. EST.

The event will feature Pentagon Press Secretary George Little taking questions under the hashtag #AskDoD.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief Information Officer Luke McCormack will be the next CIO at the Department of Justice, his office confirmed to FedScoop.

McCormack has been ICE CIO for the past seven years and previously served as acting executive director of the Infrastructure Services Division in the Office of Information Technology at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He replaces Vance Hitch who was DOJ CIO for more than a decade. Hitch retired this past summer and is expected to take a private sector job soon.

McCormack is scheduled to speak at FedScoop’s 2nd Annual MobileGov Summit on February 23 at the Hotel Monaco in Washington, DC.

McCormack’s bio:

Luke McCormack has been the ICE chief information officer (CIO) since 2005. As the agency’s top technology administrator, Mr. McCormack brings significant management expertise from a career in both government and the private sector.

Mr. McCormack has more than 18 years of service in the federal government. Before joining ICE, Mr. McCormack served as acting executive director of the Infrastructure Services Division in the Office of Information Technology at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In addition, he gained diverse experience in the private sector with MCI, Ford Aerospace and smaller minority-owned firms.

Since joining ICE, he has restructured the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to ensure that it is aligned with the overall ICE mission, current operational priorities, core business processes and emerging information technology needs. He continually seeks opportunities to partner with other organizations within ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies to provide support to operations and strategic initiatives.

Mr. McCormack holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, along with key certifications from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, Customs Leadership Institute and the National Defense University.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Mr. McCormack has two sons and resides in Virginia.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Aaron Diamant)

A Lego world record? You had us at hello. It’s hard not to love this story out of the Marine Corps where where Capt. Kyle Ugone was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most completed Lego sets in a private collection with 1,091 (full story. For comparison’s sake, we once tried to build a Lego castle when we were 9 and got about three fourths the way done before the north tower collapsed. We gave up …

In other awesome news out of the Marine Corps, a drill sergeant won big on “The Price is Right” …

DARPA wants to improve security of embedded computer systems …

Forget that groundhog. These folks can predict weather slightly better …

Super Bowl travel tips …

Call with education grantmakers …

Highlighting energy initiatives in manufacturing …

Issa lauds House passage of H.R. 3835 …

Colbert NASA PSA

Startup America Hangout

Super Bowl Troop Thank You

From the posting:

The Principal Deputy has management responsibility for all enterprise planning and analysis, strategic integration, operational systems integration, fiscal integration and manpower integration.  Enterprise Planning and Analysis – the incumbent directs, coordinates and monitors the development of AMC’s operational plans including the Enterprise Resource Planning Systems.

Conducts broad overall reviews of Army IT missions, functions and activities for the CIO/G-6, providing advice and direction to AMC fields elements and organizations engaged in the development and implementation of their own IT plans, programs, and objectives to ensure they are in consonance with AMCCIO policy and objectives.

Strategic Integration – the incumbent provides staff oversight and functional direction for strategic integration policies and programs to AMC’s field activities assuring optimum use of resources to achieve command, control, communications, computers and information management objectives through appropriate delegation.

Operational Systems Integration – manages Business Program Reengineering efforts to analyze complex process management concerns exhibiting adverse trends and provide recommended innovative automated corrective actions and solutions.

Manpower Integration – Provides program direction and management oversight of the development, implementation, identification, validation and tracking processes for both military and civilian G-6 positions.

Evaluates staffing needs to ensure an effective and economical position structure within the G-6 and validates the official Table of Distribution and Allowances (TDA) prior to submission.  Collaborate with other principal staff to develop Command strategy, mission, goals and objectives, philosophy of management, policies and procedures for AMC business processes.

The 1297 Magna Carta being encased is one of only four remaining originals.

The White House will hold a Google+ Hangout on the Startup America initiative Thursday at 5:30 p.m. EST featuring Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Startup America Chairman Steve Case and Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling.

Watch the Hangout live at WhiteHouse.gov/live, youtube.com/whitehouse or the White House Google+ page and submit questions prior to the event here.

List of Opportunities