By Tom Inglesby

We have all heard horror stories about Pentagon waste and government expenses going through the roof. As we approach the turn of the century, with technology the leading cause of success among businesses, it is more than a little scary to hear the DoD, upon which we depend for our national survival, has "antiquated" non-integrated computer systems. As one who worked with, albeit not on, a DoD computer system at a contractor facility in the late '70s, I had assumed the beast had been replaced years ago. Maybe not.

In 1978, this company's data entry was 1,402 punch cards, coded by one person — the only one in the company who knew how, so you better hope she didn't get sick — in a room in the back of Product Support. In the three years I worked for this aerospace giant, a new computer system — IBM mainframe, of course — was being installed. And being installed. And ... you get the picture. Meanwhile, the key punch operator toiled away, stuck in the corner, threatening to retire and being rewarded with an occasional raise to prevent that calamity. Certainly, with the speed at which technology advanced, coupled with the speed the Reagan administration spent money on Defense appropriations, the DoD must have had the latest computers and systems in place during the '80s. Maybe not.

Why not? After all, government has been known to operate under the slogan, "If it ain't broke, break it — then we can buy more." So why didn't they make upgrading computer systems at least as high a priority as buying B-1s and B-2s? For the billion dollars-plus of one of those, think of the computer system DoD could have right now. It's a shame we can't trade in a few retired, considered-obsolete fighters or bombers on a working computer system. Lots of countries would jump at the chance to have a fleet of three or four B-1s, even though they can't afford the fuel costs for a flight a year. But are these also the countries that can supply the best computer technology? Maybe not.

Then again, the problem might not be technology. It may be people-ology. The government, in its massive effort to remain insolvent, has been doing Band-Aid repairs to many of its systems. This makes work for contractors who, in turn, make contributions to senators and representatives and presidents, and job offers to retiring generals and admirals and ... well, the circle remains unbroken. Granted, some of the systems that have been in place for years, if not decades, are loaded with critical data that, given the current state of FORTRAN and COBOL programmers — which is to say, very limited in availability — can't be transferred to newer systems economically. Perhaps not even uneconomically, which is the government way, anyway. Someone out there want to write a program to move a gazillion bytes of data from a mainframe to a PC-LAN and make it work? Maybe not.

It's the equivalent of painting yourself into a corner with a hungry bear. If you think too much about how you'd hate to ruin the paint job, the bear — who doesn't care about your paint, just your taste — will make the go/no-go decision for you. Our government must refocus on saving our economic hide and not worry so much about saving face. Admit it, our systems are screwed up and have to be replaced. Now, some of you will accept that this statement covers ALL government systems, not just computers, but let's limit this diatribe to computers.

Here is a great suggestion — one that will get me lynched, fired or both in reverse order — on how we can save the world or at least the government. It's based upon the recent "Volunteer Summit" and the spirit of cooperation generated in previous national efforts such as World War II and the "man on the moon in our lifetime" space program. I'm sure you see the pattern already: The computer hardware and software industry offers to provide the latest system technology, at cost (talk about scaring Congress), for all required government systems to be updated. Then a cadre of system integrators, experienced in government requirements, marches into the various offices and establishes the beachhead necessary to replace antiquated systems with modern functional resources for all agencies, departments and entities. Technology professionals in every discipline work together and put the pieces in place to provide government with the best, the latest, the most awesome computer systems available. At cost. Maybe even for free.

Maybe not.

Still, wouldn't that be a great science fiction script? Harder to believe than "Independence Day," though. I suspect most of us may believe that space aliens are more likely to show up than in volunteerism saving the day.

Then again, maybe not.

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