Thursday, July 24, 2003
The Wireless Marine
Posted by Janak Parekh in "NEWS" @ 01:30 PM
It's good to see that, unlike air marshals, someone's finding their handhelds useful. :)
"To get their far-from-common job done, the Marines need to do some rather mundane things, like tracking supplies and equipment. Every tank, munition, first-aid kit, and food ration must be accounted for at all times and often in the heat of battle. To do this, the Marines rely on some highly mobile wireless technology. This technology has already been field-tested in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, helping to ensure that troops always have what they need. The Marines are the most mobile of the armed forces. Some units stay at sea for months on end; others can mobilize quickly from bases in the U.S. and overseas. Either way, Marines travel with all the gear they need for combat. "When a unit deploys, it takes everything it needs for 60 days," says Captain Gary Clement, a project officer at the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia."
It appears they're using Symbol handhelds that once ran DOS, then Windows CE, and now Pocket PC. Presumably, these are the rugged, robust kind, unlike our end-user devices which need soft resets more frequently. ;)
(Obligatory warning: let's avoid the political aspects of this discussion...)
"To get their far-from-common job done, the Marines need to do some rather mundane things, like tracking supplies and equipment. Every tank, munition, first-aid kit, and food ration must be accounted for at all times and often in the heat of battle. To do this, the Marines rely on some highly mobile wireless technology. This technology has already been field-tested in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, helping to ensure that troops always have what they need. The Marines are the most mobile of the armed forces. Some units stay at sea for months on end; others can mobilize quickly from bases in the U.S. and overseas. Either way, Marines travel with all the gear they need for combat. "When a unit deploys, it takes everything it needs for 60 days," says Captain Gary Clement, a project officer at the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia."
It appears they're using Symbol handhelds that once ran DOS, then Windows CE, and now Pocket PC. Presumably, these are the rugged, robust kind, unlike our end-user devices which need soft resets more frequently. ;)
(Obligatory warning: let's avoid the political aspects of this discussion...)
