69th MORS SYMPOSIUM

COL Mike McGinnis

By the time you read this, it will be nearly time to pack your bags for the 69th MORSS. This year's Symposium promises to be one of the best ever! The Symposium will be held at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD from 12-14 June 2001. In the spirit of our site host, this year's theme is "Sailing into the New Millennium." Early registration ended 6 April 2001. All registration forms, security requests, contract hotels and additional information can by obtained on the MORS website at http://www.mors.org (69th MORSS Direct Link http://www.mors.org/69morss/69thMORSS.htm). Deadline for applications, personal security and disclosure forms is 4 May 2001. Some 11th hour updates on key events for the Symposium are provided below.

Working Groups/Composite Groups

Working Group Coordinator, Mr Pat McKenna, along with his Deputy Coordinators Mr Jack Keane and LTC George Stone have done a great job organizing 3 days of outstanding presentations across 33 Working Groups and 7 Composite Groups. Pat, Jack, George and the WG/CG chairs, co-chairs and technical advisors are the real superstars who deserve the credit for making our annual symposium a success. They are a very talented group of dedicated volunteers who lead by example and put in personal time to ensure each session is filled with high quality presentations.

Plenary

LTC Willie McFadden, Vice President for Finance and Management, has been busy with the additional duty of organizing the plenary session. The welcome address to the participants during the Plenary session on the morning of Tuesday, 12 June 2001 will be delivered by Vice Admiral John R. Ryan, Superintendent, United States Naval Academy. CAPT Alan Moser, our Deputy Program Chair, played a major role in securing our Keynote Speaker: Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Great KUDOS to Alan!!

Tutorials

Dr Rick Rosenthal has put together a first rate program of very interesting and applicable tutorials, across a wide range of topics, that will be of interest to MORS attendees. Dave Olwell will present a series of three tutorials on Reliability Leadership: Metrics (Tuesday), Graphical Approach (Wednesday); Case Studies (Thursday). Gerald G. Brown and Robert F. Dell will present a one day tutorial on “Optimizing Military Capital Budgeting” (Tuesday only). On Tuesday and Wednesday, Raymond R. Hill and James T. Moore will present a tutorial on “Tabu Search for Military Applications.” The same material will be presented both days.

Evening Activities

Two evening social events will take place during the Symposium. The mixer is Tuesday evening, 12 June, at Alumni Hall. Don't miss the Wednesday evening social that features an authentic Maryland Crabfest, and music, at Mike's Restaurant and Crab House. My mouth is already watering!!

Annapolis Activities and Guest Program

Maryland's historic capital city, Annapolis, is also home to the United States Naval Academy. Nestled along the shores of the Severn River, Annapolis' landscape is dotted with sailboat masts and historic homes, and punctuated by familiar landmarks such as the State House dome and St. Anne's steeple. If you are bringing a guest, Tracy McGinnis has arranged a fun-filled guest program that will take participants into and around the a beautiful, vibrant, friendly city of Annapolis. The guest program has much to offer: historic tours, great dining, shopping and relaxing walks along the waterfront.

Site Issues

The MORS office will open at USNA on 6 June. The USNA Site Support team has been super: Charles Mylander, Scott Poindexter, Tom Logue, Johanna Merchant, Tom Sanders and Tom Rogers. Thanks for a great effort. From Annapolis: Corrine Wallshein, Annapolis CVB and Annapolis Bus Company. A special thanks to John Willis from the Department of Systems Engineering at USMA for volunteering to oversee bus services during the Symposium.

Full speed ahead!! Lock in your plans now to attend the 69th MORSS at the beautiful United States Naval Academy from 12-14 June 2001!!! If you have questions about the Symposium, please contact the dedicated MORS staff ¾ Brian Engler, Natalie Strawn Kelly, Cynthia Kee, Corrina Ross-Witkowski and Jarvey Nelson at (703) 751-7290 or visit the MORS website at http://www.mors.org/. See you there!!

69^th MORSS Keynote Speaker Announced

LTC Willie McFadden, USMA

The Military Operations Research Society is pleased to announce the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Vern Clark, USN, as the Keynote Speaker for the 69th MORS Symposium. ADM Clark is the 27th CNO and the first Navy Chief to speak at our MORS Symposium.

Admiral Clark commanded the USS Grand Rapids (PG 98), USS McCloy (FF 1038), and the Spruance (DD 963). He also commanded the Atlantic Fleet’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, Destroyer Squadron Seventeen, and Destroyer Squadron Five. After receiving flag rank, Admiral Clark directed Plans and Policy (J5) and Financial Management and Analysis (J8) for the US Transportation Command and subsequently, commanded the Carl Vincent Battle Group, the Second Fleet, and the US Atlantic Fleet.

However, Admiral Clark’s operational experience is augmented with assignments as the Special Assistant to the Director of the Systems Analysis Division in the Office of the CNO, Director of Operations (J3), Head of the Cruiser-Destroyer Combat Systems Requirements Section, Director of the Joint Staff.

In Admiral Clark’s operational and staff officer assignments, he has used operations research and analysis. As a user and producer of analysis products during his career, the CNO brings knowledge, experience, and depth to focus our Society towards meeting the future analytic needs of the military community. Our Society welcomes the insights and guidance the CNO will provide the practioners of our profession.

Special Sessions

Ted Smyth

Ted Smyth, JHU/APL, LTC Willie McFadden, USA, USMA, and Jay Wilmeth, LOGICON, have put together an interesting and informative program of Special Sessions.

On Tuesday, 12 June 2001, due to the efforts of Denis Clements, GRCI, and his Prize Committee, MORS will once again recognize and present the Barchi and Rist Prizes and the authors will brief their award-winning accomplishments during a dedicated Prize Session. These prizes recognize outstanding technical achievements. The Barchi Prize is selected annually from among the papers derived from each working group’s best presentation. Therefore, the Barchi Prize is often called “the Best of the Best.” The Rist Prize is selected from among papers submitted in an annual call for papers.

Jay Wilmeth and Bill Reed, Logicon, have once again planned a superlative Junior/Senior Analyst Special Session. Customarily, MORS offers two separate sessions, each on consecutive days. The idea is to accommodate those who enjoy visiting with and listening to leading senior analysts known to most of us, while enabling our more junior analysts to focus on their concerns with mid-level, well established MORSians, closely aligned with the analytical community of today.

The first session will be conducted on Tuesday, 12 June 2001, in an auditorium that will accommodate a relatively large number of participants. The session will be open to all to hear distinguished senior analysts discuss topics relating to this year’s theme in particular ¾ and to the world of operations research in general.

Session 2 is scheduled for Wednesday, 13 June 2001, and will follow a format that has been successful in the past. There will be a number of meeting locations separated along Service and Joint duty lines featuring mid-level experienced analysts who are familiar with the day-to-day problems and issues facing the OR community today. The sessions will feature two seniors who will address the concerns of the attendees. It is envisioned that the questions and discussions will focus on career paths within the Military OR world and other “Hot” topics important to junior analysts.

Also, on Tuesday, 12 June 2001, Ted Bennett, Naval Oceanographic Office and Gary McWilliams, Army Research Laboratory, have planned a Special Session on the topic of “Environmental Monitoring.” This session recognizes that the natural environment can be an indicator of future tensions. Changes in the environment can take the form of environmental degradation, fluctuations such as El Nino, and long-term changes such as global warming. Each of these changes could disrupt agriculture and fisheries and lead to civil unrest and mass migration. This session will focus on the environmental monitoring done by the US Departments of State and Defense, the type of indications provided by this monitoring activity, and some of the possible scenarios that are of concern to these agencies in predicting future tensions and developing subsequent responses to those tensions.

On Wednesday, 13 June 2001, Sue Iwanski, SPA, will chair a Special Session on the topic of “Effects Based Operations.” This session is highlighting one of the primary issues discussed during the recent “Advancing C4ISR Assessment “ Special Meeting ¾ namely, that that there is a desire to move beyond traditional Attrition Based analysis to Effects Based analysis. This session will provide insight into some of the current work being done in this area and will feature a paper entitled “Exploratory Analysis for Assessing Effects Based Operations” that will be presented by Dr Paul Davis. This paper begins by noting a spectrum of interpretations for what effects based operations can be, primarily to identify distinctions. It then discusses how quantitative and otherwise logical analysis can address issues arising in the different cases. Another paper entitled “On Effects Based Operations in Wargames.” will be presented by Lee W. Wagenthals and Alexander H. Levis, both of George Mason University. Their paper addresses a methodology for developing alternative courses of action that has been extended to address Effects Based Operations by including state space analysis tools that enable the determination of courses of action that will yield the highest probabilities possible for achieving the desired effects.

Also, on Wednesday, 13 June 2001, Jack Marriott, TASC, Eugene Visco, FS, and CAPT Lee Dick, USN, will host a series of events that address the “Heritage of MORS.”

Eugene Visco, FS, will host a session with presentations by three operations analysts who were active in the field 35 years ago. The time is chosen because the 69^th Symposium recognizes that 35 years ago the institution known as MORS was legally constituted ¾ that is, it became a legal not-for-profit corporation.

This session will feature Dr. Ralph E. Beatty (confirmed), the 21^st member of the Navy’s original Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Research Group (the Group formed by Phil Morse, is seen by the Center for Naval Analyses as its progenitor, making CNA the oldest continuous military operations research organization in the US); Dr Joseph H. Engel (confirmed), who joined the Navy’s Operations Evaluation Group (the name taken by the wartime Operations Research Group in 1945), in 1949 and became its second Director in 1962; and E.B. Vandiver, FS (confirmed), Director of the Center for Army Analysis, who, 35 years ago was a young analyst at the Combat Operations Research Group and who spent time in Vietnam during the war studying infantry operations. The discussion of these three major contributors to military operations analysis in the latter half of the 20th century should be dynamic, enjoyable, exciting, and very much worth your while.

In addition, CAPT Lee Dick, USN, will present a Special PHALANX 35th Anniversary Heritage Special Session and will help us celebrate 35 years of PHALANX through a multi media history. Upon the conclusion of CAPT Dick’s presentation, copies of the PHALANX 35th Anniversary CD will be available for purchase ¾ a MORS monograph that is sure to become the mainbrace of every military analyst’s library!

Wednesday’s Special Session will also feature a report of the April 2001 Education and Professional Development Colloquium that was conducted by Dr Andy Loerch, George Mason University.

On Thursday, 14 June 2001, the 69th MORSS Special Sessions will conclude with Special Meetings’ Reports on the following topics: “Advancing C4ISR Assessment,” chaired by Dr Cy Staniec, Logicon; “Homeland Security” chaired by LTC George Stone, USA, OSD (PAE); and “WMD: Understanding the Problem” chaired by LTC Bruce Bowman, USA, and LTC Jerry Glasow, USA.

PE Facility Hours

MORS Conference guests are welcome to use all of the below listed Physical Education facilities during their visit. Summer hours of operation are listed below for each facility.

· Lejeune Hall (0745-1900). Swimming Pool (Pool use limited to noon time swim hours 145-1345).

· Halsey Field House (0745-1900). Aerobic room (“the Bubble”) containing 60+ pieces of aerobic equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes and ergo meters and limited nautilus equipment. Weight Room containing various free weights, benches and presses and nautilus equipment. Indoor Track. Multi-Purpose Gym consisting of two basketball courts which can be modified to make volleyball or badminton courts. Six squash courts.

· Macdonough Hall (0745-1900). Weight/Aerobic Room containing free weights, benches and presses on the weight room portion and ellipticals, ergometers and treadmills on the aerobic side. Nine Racquetball Courts. Two Basketball Courts. Two Volleyball Courts.