I woke up today with what can only be described as a bombardment of e-mails from PR folks who had clients panting to give me their views on the U.S. Strategic Command lifting its ban on thumb drives and other flash media, a notion they picked up from stories in Inside Defense, Wired and Government Computer News, which based its story on the Wired and Inside Defense reports.
But, as it turned out, STRATCOM did not repeal its November 2008 ban. Instead, it decided to permit use of flash media only as a "last resort for operational mission requirements," according to Vice Adm. Carl Mauney, STRATCOM deputy commander.
Navy Cmdr. Steve Curry and Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Allen at the STRATCOM public affairs shop both deserve kudos for turning around a query I submitted on Thursday and providing me with a factual statement overnight that debunked many assumptions about flash media that flooded my inbox this morning.
As Joe Friday, the famed Los Angeles Police Department detective, said in the 1950s, "Just the facts, ma'am."
COMMENTS
A year ago I attended a seminar where dozens of Power Point presentations were made by senior DOD officials, and top level departments of all service branches. All of the presentations were contained on thumb drives.
William K. Streiff 02/22/10 05:28 pm ET
Smart move. When will Big Army ever learn the negative impact on operations of not access to thumb drives from a remote location?
Move to do away with use of thumb drives was stupid in the first place.
7.5 years until retirement from Department of the Army and counting every second, minute, month of every year.
Rita Turner 02/22/10 10:14 am ET