Josh Furrer

Central Command The Central Command was able to quickly deploy a secure communications system for the Afghan National Army and train Afghan nationals to operate it. Putting the equipment together was the easy part for Furrer ? developing a training system for people who had little computer experience and spoke little English was more difficult. Furrer first had all the manuals for the PacStar system and related equipment translated to Dari, the main Afghan language. Then he trained the trainers. To keep the project on track, Furrer held weekly conference calls with his team and his customer to discuss issues and identify unmet needs. Furrer's work also helped identify other business opportunities for PacStar, and the value of the original contract tripled in just more than a year. Some of the extra work included developing a remedial information technology training course to raise the skill level of the Afghan personnel.