Thirsty Thursday

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Recruiting notes. Contributor Jillian Hamilton explains, “Recruiting and hiring is technically about filling open positions. But, it makes no sense to ignore the candidate experience. Bad candidate experiences can make it harder to attract top talent, can give the organization bad publicity, can cause a new hire start off on the wrong foot, and can make a candidate turn down the job. Don’t leave your candidate experience to chance. Instead, take the initiative to check your candidate experience and find ways to improve it.”

2. Discrimination notes. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “On June 30, 2014, the Secretary announced that DOL is updating its enforcement protocols and nondiscrimination guidance to reflect that DOL provides the full protection of the federal nondiscrimination laws that it enforces to individuals with claims of gender identity and transgender status discrimination. . . . For most recruiters and hiring managers the policy should have no effect. But you should be aware of ‘sex stereotyping’—applying specifically masculine or feminine properties to a job description or requiring them in a hire.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. Delta Force heroics. AP’s Julie Pace reports, “President Barack Obama sent special operations troops to Syria this summer on a secret mission to rescue American hostages, including journalist James Foley, held by Islamic State extremists, but they did not find them . . . . nearly every branch of the military was involved and that the special forces on the ground were supported from the air by fixed wing, rotary and surveillance aircraft.” See also from Reuters, “U.S. military failed in rescue attempt for journalist Foley.”

2. Ebola flashpoint. Reuters’ Clair MacDougall and James Harding Giahyue report, “Police in the Liberian capital fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a stone-throwing crowd trying to break an Ebola quarantine imposed on their neighbourhood, as the death toll from the epidemic in West Africa hit 1,350. . . . Liberian authorities introduced a nationwide curfew on Tuesday and put the West Point neighbourhood under quarantine to curb the spread of the disease.”

3. F-16 stress tests and life support. DoDBuzz.Com’s Brendan McGarry reports, “The [USAF] is in the early phases of a so-called Service Life Extension Program, or SLEP, to extend the combat life of about 300 F-16s by a decade or so. Indeed, with the upgrades, some aircraft are expected to still be flying in the 2030s—long after the Air Force’s fifth-generation F-35A Joint Strike Fighter is scheduled to enter service in 2016. The F-16 has been undergoing durability testing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth, Texas, where many of the planes are based, to determine what modifications are needed to increase the aircraft’s service life from 8,000 flying hours to as many as 12,000 flying hours.”

4. Air Guard—modernize or sustain. DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta reports, “A March report by the Pentagon warned that ‘many support equipment items critical to daily operations are rapidly nearing the end of their expected lives and are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain economically.’ Air Guard assets are an average of 25 years old. The tough choice between modernizing its equipment and sustaining capability is one the active is struggling with as well.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Joint Enterprise Licensing Agreements. FederalTimes.Com’s Michael Hardy explains, “When the Defense Department wanted to make Microsoft products available to multiple organizations, it settled on a joint enterprise license agreement to do it. . . . JELA applies to several organizations blending their requirements into one contract. Microsoft’s JELA serves the Army, Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency. The licensing arrangement is an emerging procurement method in which different branches of the Defense Department combine their IT buying power, and needs, to gain better pricing from vendors.”

2. NASA’s commercial crew capability contract. AviationWeek.Com’s Guy Norris reports, “Almost five years after beginning its search for a U.S.-developed spacecraft to carry humans into orbit, NASA is poised to award at least one contract to its industry partners in the Commercial Crew Program. The three contenders—Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada Corp.—could hear as soon as the end of August which of their proposed vehicles has been selected for a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract to fly to the International Space Station.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Digitized battlefields and recruiting. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The increase of inexpensive, quality cameras in the hands of armed groups has coincided with the evolution of these groups in the [Middle East]. In Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, as well as restive areas in North Africa, they curate a variety of social media accounts for propaganda purposes. Twitter is often used to announce the deaths of fighters and update followers with victories in battle. Instagram is now the medium for mobile images of war. YouTube and LiveLeak are becoming increasingly important tools when staking out a strong social media presence.”

2. Talking cars. Wired.Com’s Jordan Golson reports, “Every year, we see cars get smarter and more capable of driving themselves. Even some down-market models are now loaded with cameras and radars so they can watch the road for themselves. . . . Federal regulators have been in favor of these systems, even requiring that all new cars have rearview cameras by 2018. But a new report shows they would like to see the automakers go further, by allowing cars not just to detect one another, but to communicate. That’s the goal of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication . . . .”

3. Unmanned & unmanned. AviationWeek.Com’s Graham Warwick reports, “Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army have demonstrated the autonomous deployment of an unmanned ground vehicle by an unmanned aircraft. The test, at Fort Benning in Georgia, involved the Lockheed/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopter airlifting Lockheed’s Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) vehicle into position to conduct an autonomous resupply and reconnaissance mission. Both the SMSS and the K-Max communicated with a remote operations center beyond-line-of-sight via satellite communications during the exercise. A Lockheed Gyrocam electro-optical/infrared sensor on the SMSS operated throughout the mission, including inflight.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. Sticks ‘n’ Stones: “North Korea on Wednesday called US Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a ‘hideous lantern jaw.’ North Korea has unleashed a slew of crude insults against leaders in Washington and Seoul this year, calling President Barack Obama a monkey and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute. . . . An editorial released by KCNA on the same day, written in Korean, used racist language to refer to Obama, describing the US president as ‘a wicked black monkey’ and a ‘crossbreed with unclear blood.’ The article said Obama ‘should live as a monkey in an African natural zoo licking the breadcrumbs thrown by spectators.’”

2. A Romney run: “Republican voters are ready for a Mitt Romney ‘I told you so’ campaign for president in 2016, as a new poll puts him far ahead of his GOP rivals and shows that he’s the favorite of ‘Born Again voters,’ key to winning early primaries and caucuses. ‘Should Mitt Romney decide to run, he would be the man to beat,’ pollster John Zogby said . . . . Romney’s lead over potential GOP rivals is due in part to his widely-known name. He has run for president twice and was the governor of Massachusetts. But he added that Romney, who has said he is not running in 2016, also continues to hold the respect of most in the GOP. As a result, he leads among men, women, moderates and conservatives.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “Gen. Allen: Destroy the Islamic State Now.” DefenseOne.Com contributor Gen (Ret.) John Allen argues, “IS must be destroyed and we must move quickly to pressure its entire ‘nervous system,’ break it up, and destroy its pieces. . . . The execution of James Foley is an act we should not forgive nor should we forget, it embodies and brings home to us all what this group represents. The Islamic State is an entity beyond the pale of humanity and it must be eradicated. If we delay now, we will pay later.”

2. “The Islamic State buys itself a day of horror, little else, by killing James Foley.” Reuters contributor Jack Shafer argues, “For its troubles, the Islamic State has gotten a sliver of what it wants today. The story dominates the news. . . . And yet, video-beheading seems to be a strategy to nowhere.”

THE FUNNIES

1. Attention getter.

2. Let’s get ‘em.

3. Fanaticism.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.