Recruiting Command released the warrant officer board schedule for FY16 last week (minus Sept for some reason). As of right now, there are two boards that will look at 255A/N (although I expect that Sept will as well once it gets released).
When there is a problem with the network, time matters. We need to be able to quickly move from device to device in order to identify and rectify the problem. In order for this to occur, we have to know where to go to next, and how to get there.
The Army Warrant Officer is a highly trained and specialized technical expert in their particular field. This has been true since its creation on July 9, 1918, but what a warrant officer is today has changed. Today we are no longer expected to just be the crusty old guy in the corner that drinks coffee and magically fixes things (although that is still true), we are also expected to be part “officer” as well. That means that we are leaders, we are staff officers, we are planners, and still, we are experts. This is a tall task to fill and requires that we continually replenish our ranks with only the most qualified and talented individuals available.
For anyone who doesn’t regularly check the MILPER message site you may have missed three separate messages that were released last week that directly affect signal warrants and our Soldiers. As you probably know, the Army is in the process of manning its new Cyber Branch. The officers got their chance to cross over earlier this year and it looks like the same is finally true for the warrants and Soldiers.
One year ago today (June 1) is the one year anniversary for Signal Chief. What started out as a side project of mine to help educate Net Techs on the stuff that I see every rotation (in the hopes that they would be able to fix it before they go here) has kind of blown up. And while there is still a lot more that I would like to do with the site, I am pretty damn happy with where it is right now.
“The Linkway attached to the STT for the JNN is has a high BER from the RHN because the PVCs weren’t built correctly.” How many times have we said something like this to the Commander only to watch their eyes glaze over, get pissed off, and walk away mumbling something about “FIX IT”? Signal folks have a language of their own that few people outside of their own group are able to speak or understand. We understand the language of “geek”, but when we walk outside and talk to the people around us, they don’t understand it because they only speak “grunt”.
Let me give you a scenario. You are having some problems on the network that are spread across several devices. You go into the log file of each device and see a bunch of messages with a mix-match of various times that mean absolutely nothing to you. In short, you have no idea what is going on with your network.
Congrats to all of the NCO’s who were selected to join the warrant officer ranks.
As I’ve stated in previous posts, an accurate network diagram can be really important when it comes to troubleshooting and managing the network. In order for a diagram to be of use to us, we have to maintain it which means that we update it every time the network changes. Another important part of a network diagram, is that it uses recognized symbols to depict what it is trying to show. ADRP 1-02 (Terms and Military Symbols) does a great job of providing us with standardized symbols for units of various sizes, terrain features, and even many pieces of equipment, but almost nothing to symbolize current day military communications equipment.
We have all learned an important lesson in life the hard way. When it comes to working on the router or switch, there is often a couple of commands that you discovered after beating your head against the wall for a while that if you had known about them earlier, would have made your life so much easier. These are those commands for me.