First Users of NMCI Brought Online

Electronic Data Systems Corp. announced last week the first step has been taken in making the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet project a reality.

On Sept. 7, the first end-user seat connection between the Washington Naval Air Facility in Camp Springs, Md., and network operations centers in Norfolk, Va. and San Diego was established.

The first e-mail was sent by Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class Ian Gehrmann, NAF Washington's sailor of the year, to a host of Navy recipients, including Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, Undersecretary of the Navy Susan Livingstone, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, Vice CNO Adm. William Fallon, and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Herdt.

The NMCI contract, an eight-year, $6.9 billion program to create an intranet connecting more than 400,000 sailors and Marines, was awarded to EDS of Plano, Texas, in October 2000.

The first connection was made the day after the Navy and Defense departments announced an agreement over how the system's performance would be tested. Congress has limited installation of the NMCI to 15 percent of the first increment orders and required a test of the program before the remainder would be funded.

"The accord between the Department of Defense and the Department of the Navy allows us to move the program ahead," said Rick Rosenberg, NMCI program director for EDS. "More importantly, it indicates the high level of confidence they have in the program. We can now begin collecting hard data to prove their faith in the program has not been misplaced."