Humph Day Highlights & Goodnight Saigon

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Cyber shortage. Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “Despite recognizing the need to recruit, retain and properly train cybersecurity experts for many years, the federal government still is facing a critical shortage of cybersecurity talent. The primary reason, according to a new report by Booz Allen Hamilton, is the federal government’s lack of a coordinated strategy to help agencies attract and recruit the cybersecurity talent needed to defend the nation’s critical infrastructure.” Read the Booz Allen report.

2. The Silicon Road. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “The Department of Defense is opening a new office in an unexpected location – Silicon Valley. The office opening may come as a surprise – Silicon Valley and the U.S. Government haven’t exactly been on friendly terms since Edward Snowden’s classified data dump on NSA activities – including ones that involved tapping into data from some key California companies. The new office was announced during a recent visit to Silicon Valley by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. The fall of Saigon. AP’s Amy Taxin reports, “In the chaotic final days before the Vietnam she knew collapsed in 1975, Bang Van Pham was rushed onto a U.S. military plane with her newborn son, headed to a land she had learned about in school but never seen. Weeks later at a refugee camp in Southern California, they were reunited with her two other children who were sent abroad with relatives and her husband, the son of a rice farmer turned lawmaker, who stayed behind with his constituents until communist troops stormed Saigon.” See also, “Flight Attendant On Saigon Evacuation: You Wanted ‘To Help Every Child,’” “Vietnam Is Focus of TV Programs During Fall of Saigon Anniversary” and “Fall of Saigon memories, 40 years later.”

2. ISIS trains in Logar, Afghanistan. The Long War Journal’s Bill Roggio reports, “The Ustad Yasir camp is run by the Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas Front and it is located in Logar province in eastern Afghanistan. The group was named after Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas, an al Qaeda emir in Kunar province who was killed by the US military in an airstrike on April 14, 2011. . . . The Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas Front is led by Sa’ad Emarati, a former commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan who defected to the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province last year along with other disaffected Taliban commanders from Afghanistan and Iraq.” See also, “ISIS promotes training camp in Logar” and “Security forces regain control over Imam Shah district in Kunduz.”

3. Dogfights: A-10 v F-16. DoD Buzz’s Kris Osborn reports, “The House Armed Services Committee inserted $683 million into the 2016 defense bill to stop the Air Force from retiring the A-10 Warthog. However, Air Force leaders said the service will have to mothball F-16s and delay the deployment of theF-35 in response to the move by the committee.” See also, “Keeping A-10 means F-35 delays, F-16 cuts.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. Electro-optical ship defense. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Navy researchers are ready to launch a program to develop an electro-optical shipboard defense system to protect surface warships from anti-ship missiles, fast attack craft, fast inshore attack craft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Officials of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Miss., have issued a presolicitation (N00173-15-R-SE04) for the Combined EO/IR Surveillance and Response System (CESARS) program. A formal solicitation could be released as early as next week.”

2. DARPA’s seeking seeker. Also from Military & Aerospace Electronics, “U.S. military researchers will brief industry May 11 on an upcoming project to develop a small, lightweight, and affordable seeker prototype that provides navigation and precision terminal homing for smart weapons. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va. will conduct industry-day briefings for the Seeker Cost Transformation (SECTR) program from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. eastern time on 11 May 2015 at the DARPA Conference Center, 675 N. Randolph St., in Arlington, Va.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Cyber threat growing like cancer. Breaking Defense’s Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. reports, “Four days after Defense Secretary Ash Carter launched the Pentagon’s new cyber strategy, experts and officials offered a grim picture of the global threat. The threat is metastasizing in ways that will require new kinds of defenses — even while many US companies and government agencies lag on basic cybersecurity measures. ‘The Chinese in particular are cleaning us out’ by exploiting well-known vulnerabilities it would be easy to patch’ . . . .”

2. Rethinking cyber systems. Homeland News Wire reports, “Recent cyberattacks and intrusions by hackers, operating alone or backed by nation-states, have prompted the Pentagon and DHS to reaffirm their commitment to upholding the reliability and integrity of America’s cyber network and the systems connected to it. Americans rely on the connected Web to deliver critical services such as water and electricity, and should the Web be breached by bad actors, the consequences could threaten national security.”

3. Cybersecurity to watch. Venture Beat contributor Glenn Solomon reports, “The RSA show this past week in San Francisco was quite a gathering. Having attended RSA every year for the past 10, I’d say this was the biggest and busiest show yet. This is not surprising, given all the activity lately in the cyber-security and cyber-crime areas. Based on the many meetings I had during the show with cyber security company founders and executives, here are four of the most compelling themes . . . .”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. See Bernie run. “Hillary Clinton has her first 2016 challenger: Bernie Sanders. The Vermont Senator will announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday. Sanders, 73, is the longest-serving Independent member of Congress. According to Vermont Public Radio, Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, will release a short statement and subsequently hold a campaign kickoff event.”

2. Boehner’s beso. “The Internet is simultaneously fascinated and a little grossed-out by (especially partisans) House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) peck on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) cheek Tuesday at a Rose Garden ceremony for the recently passed “doc fix” bill. Here’s the kiss . . . .”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “With a $42 billion defense budget, is Japan a hawk in dove’s clothing?Reuters contributor William Johnson argues, “Today, Japan’s cloak of pacifism has been reduced to little more than a fig leaf. The Japanese are developing capabilities that allow it to fight any adversary. The fig leaf will soon be gone.”

2. “The world looks like it’s getting worse. Here’s why it’s not.” Reuters contributor John Stackhouse argues, “Although the outcomes of the Iraq and Afghan wars remain uncertain, the United States remains the global cop. It also endures as the preferred quarterback for humanitarian operations, from Haiti to the Ebola zone. And its corporations continue to expand despite attempts by the European Union and China, among others, to curtail them.”

3. “Putting Libya back together again.” The Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “Libya’s civil war represents a challenge to the international order – by being a failed state that has become a launch pad for terrorists and refugees to the West. But it is also a challenge to the notion that every war is winnable. . . . In such a situation, a negotiator’s patient task is to channel the mutual cry for relief into a common hope and a shared vision.”

THE FUNNIES

1. Globe trotter.

2. Rebels.

3. I love YOU.

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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.