Historical Venue and World Famous Cuisine at the 70^th MORSS

Dr. Steven E. Pilnick, Naval Postgraduate School, 70^th MORSS Program Chair, spilnick@nps.navy.mil

At the 70^th MORS Symposium, the Wednesday night dinner activity will feature both a remarkable venue and world famous cuisine — Kansas City style barbeque. The venue will be the Steamboat Arabia Museum, and dinner is being catered by Kansas City Masterpiece Barbeque and Grill!

Located in the historic River Market area of Kansas City, Missouri, the Steamboat Arabia Museum houses the world’s largest collection of pre-civil war cargo, which was recovered during the recent excavation of a sunken frontier steamboat from a farm field on the banks of the Missouri River. When the Steamboat Arabia sank in 1856, it settled into a cocoon of river silt in a way that kept its 200 tons of cargo intact. The excavation in 1988 was like the opening of a huge time capsule. The museum that houses this incredible collection also features the fascinating story about the excavation as well as a working demonstration laboratory in which much of the ongoing preservation and conservation activities are taking place. There is a terrific story about the Steamboat Arabia that can be read at the museum’s website, http://www.1856.com.

According to the experts, when it comes to lip-smackin', finger-lickin', chin-dribblin', literally rib-stickin' barbecue, Kansas City holds its own. The Carolinas can rightfully claim to be the cradle of American barbecue and Texas is by far the brisket capital of the world. But Kansas City brings it all together with more than 90 barbecue joints - from little bitty eateries to full-blown, nothing-but-barbecue restaurants. You can read more about Kansas City style barbeque at http://www.experiencekc.com/barbeque.html.

Our MORS Wednesday night dinner event will feature the Kansas City Masterpiece Combo served buffet style, and a guided tour of the Steamboat Arabia Museum. Don’t miss either.

Special Sessions at the 70^th MORSS

Sue Iwanski, SPA, 70^th MORSS Special Sessions Coordinator

Bob Clemence, RAND, 70^th MORSS Assistant Special Sessions Coordinator

After September 11^th, it became obvious where we needed to focus our Special Sessions for the 70^th MORSS. LTC George Stone III, US Army, who chaired the MORS mini-symposium on Homeland Security last March, was quick to volunteer to chair a session on Homeland Security which was described in detail in the last issue of PHALANX. At this session on Tuesday, June 18^th at 1530, invited panel speakers will present their perspectives on Homeland Security and how the MORS community can contribute.

On Wednesday, June 19^th at 1530, Bob Clemence, RAND, will chair a session on Countering Terrorism. Terrorists have targeted the United States more than any other country. Several reasons for this phenomenon suggest that this attraction will continue. The geographic diversity of America's commercial interests abroad and the presence of its military bases in foreign countries provide a plethora of readily available targets. Any blow against the United States has enormous symbolic value, given its preeminent political, military and economic stature. Lastly, any attack on an American target assures publicity and worldwide media exposure. While earlier terrorist acts against the United States did not threaten its basic way of life, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September 2001 with their catastrophic consequences in loss of life, in property and in commerce have propelled terrorism to the forefront of American security concerns. This session will host a panel discussion on the changing nature of terrorism and its implications for US strategy.

Transformation will be the theme for Thursday, June 20^th at 1530. Bob Clemence is chairing a session on Transforming US Forces For The Future. Accelerating the transformation of the US military forces is a major theme of the new administration's defense strategy. Military transformation is distinctly different from modernization. While modernization replaces or upgrades existing materiel inventories, transformation evolves and deploys new combat capabilities that provide revolutionary advantages over adversaries. The Department of Defense has articulated an ambitious transformation vision in Joint Vision 2020 and all military service branches have established transformation roadmaps and activities, including wargames, battle labs/concept development efforts and experimentation. This session will host a panel discussion of the transformation activities of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps. The aim of the discussion will be to identify the objectives and desired capabilities of transformation, the current service schedules, inter-service dependencies and co-ordination, as well as the tradeoffs each is making to accelerate the process.

In addition to our special themes, we have our sessions that our regular Symposium attendees look forward to each year. Denis Clements will chair the Prize Paper session on Tuesday where the Barchi and Rist prize winners will present their award-winning work. The Junior/Senior Analyst program will take place for the thirteenth consecutive year on Tuesday and Wednesday at 1530.

Jay Wilmeth, Northrop Grumman IT, is organizing the Junior/Senior Analyst Session in two parts. Please see his article in this issue of PHALANX for more information.

Mike Garrambone, Veridian, and Eugene Visco, FS are organizing the Heritage Session for Thursday at 1530. This session traditionally focuses on identifying the history of military operations analysis particularly relevant to the specific symposium. The tradition will continue at the 70^th MORSS.

Workshop reports from the Special Meetings held during the 2001-2002 MORS year will be given. Analyzing Effects-Based Operations and Operations Research Methods for Information Operations: A Battlespace of the 21^st Century will be discussed in a session on Tuesday at 1530. Analysis of Urban Warfare and Tackling the Space Community's Analytical Challenges will be discussed in a session on Wednesday at 1530. These sessions provide an opportunity for those who could not attend the meetings to hear a summary of the activities and findings from that meeting.

Junior/Senior Analyst Special Session

For the 70^th MORSS
Jay Wilmeth, Northrop Grumman Information Technologies, jwilmeth@logicon.com

The Junior/Senior Analyst program will take place for the thirteenth consecutive year at the 70^th MORS Symposium at the US Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Historically, this event conducted during Special Session periods of the annual symposium has been very successful and has drawn both junior and mid-level audiences. 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.

We expect that the first session will be scheduled for the Tuesday afternoon Special Session time slot 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 and to the world of operations research in general. After introductory remarks from each of the seniors, the balance of the period will feature a moderator-led Q&A session from the floor. This session was enormously successful last year at the Naval Academy. We hope to duplicate or surpass it this year.

Session two, presently scheduled for the Wednesday afternoon Special Session time slot in smaller classrooms, will be dedicated exclusively to the junior analyst. We define junior analyst as one who is relatively new to the military operations research world and will benefit from the wisdom provided by those more seasoned analysts who have “been around.” It will follow a format that has been successful in the past. There will be at least four meeting rooms 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, each of whom 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. It is at this second session that junior analysts will have the opportunity to meet with those more experienced analysts who are currently making significant contributions to military analysis and national security issues. We emphasize that, while all are welcome, the focus will be on the junior analyst during the Wednesday sessions. If last year was any indication, the sessions should feature no-holds-barred discussions and lively interchanges.

A complete list of senior analysts participating in both sessions will be published in an upcoming issue of the PHALANX. Questions about the program may be directed to Mr Jay Wilmeth, the program chair:

Mr Jay Wilmeth

Northrop Grumman Information Technologies

2100 Washington Blvd., Arlington, VA 22204

Voice: 703-312-2366

Email: jwilmeth@logicon.com

MORSS Bits and Bytes

Lee Dick, 70^th MORSS IT Deputy Chair, LeeDick@office21solutions.com

Each year we have taken another step in the digitization of MORSS. Last year we picked two working groups, 14 and 27, to serve as pilots for distribution of CDs at the beginning of the session. Presentations from each were collected the week before the symposium, converted to portable document format (pdf), and stored on a CD. Fifty copies for each WG were made over the weekend and were available in the classroom at the beginning of the first session. While feedback received after the Symposium was overwhelmingly in favor of continuing this type of product, several issues emerged. First, to do this on a CG/WG wide basis would be very difficult due to the late nature of receipt of the presentations. Then, the cost and time required to make sufficient quantities of CDs for all WGs is not insignificant. Finally, given the time demands on the MORS staff the week preceding the Symposium, it would be extremely tasking to ensure each presentation is accompanied with an APPROVED disclosure form, which stated that the presentation is unclassified and approved for public release.

After the 69^th MORS Symposium, a call was sent out to all the CG/WGs to submit unclassified presentations for a composite CD. The intent was to complete this project in about a month's time, but summer travel and vacations delayed the collection process. After three months we finally settled on a set of 96 presentations to put on the CD. The CDs were made and are available in the MORS office.

Drawing on our experiences of the past, we are looking forward to improved IT support and products for the 70^th MORSS. Among the lessons learned, foremost was the need for standardization and following established procedures. So what should you, as a presenter, plan for this year? First, all classrooms will have:

§ A VCR and TV

§ An LCD projector connected to a Pentium PC with a floppy 3.5 inch disk drive and a CD ROM drive. Note: Only UNCLASSIFIED presentations may be presented using the LCD/PC.

§ An overhead projector to use with transparencies for classified presentations and as a backup for the unclassified presentations.

We encourage you to bring presentations written onto CDs in both PowerPoint and pdf along with your disclosure form that has been submitted to the MORS office. Note that final approval for release of your presentation does not occur until the MORS office has reviewed it. However, the procedure will make crosschecking much easier. Zip drives or other media devices may not be available and should not be counted upon. As a final note, personal laptop computers will not be allowed in the classrooms. Ensure any additional AV requests are highlighted on your abstract Form 109A or 109B when you submit your abstract.

The purpose of asking presenters to include both PowerPoint and pdf as well as the disclosure form is to facilitate the process of developing a CD of the unclassified, cleared presentations after the Symposium. All presenters who desire to be represented on the composite CD will be asked to leave their CDs with the WG chair. The intent is to collect all the presentations, validate releasibility and distribute them on a CD several months after the Symposium. Having your presentation available in pdf will save a considerable amount of production effort and time.

Due to cost, security concerns and the difficulties of certifying releasibility ahead of time, MORS is not planning to produce digital products in advance of this Symposium. However, we would be interested in hearing your opinions and recommendations. So please make the effort to fill out and turn in your feedback at the end of the symposium.