- Joined
- Oct 15, 2017
- Messages
- 7,075
Why in the name of all that is holy is DoDMERB not hard-wired to the service academy Candidate Information Portals (CIP), so that when someone at DoDMERB updates files, there is a system-wide update to all the CIPs?
It seems incredible to me that you would have staff for all the other SAs wait to get an update from DoDMERB and then physically key in the DB update on each of the CIPs. When you have it set up like this, you have the very real possibility for errors in the transfer of information.
WAIT A MINUTE. Why on Earth is there not ONE generic Service Academy CIP? You could eliminate AT LEAST HALF of the staff that you use right now for USAFA, USMA, USNA, USCGA, and USMMA.
Is it because the other branches don't want to put it all in the hands of the USAF? It seems silly, since all the medical stuff is already in their hands (and being handled pretty well from where I'm sitting).
I used to work in military intelligence so I am aware of the oxymoron there, but seriously this has come up in discussion before, right?
You see all sorts of posts on this forum from poor souls wondering why DoDMERB updated something but it doesn't show up in the CIP (or occasionally vice-versa). Then there are the posts in which they got a letter (via snail mail) but it doesn't show up anywhere online as even existing.
Why would any corporation (that's what I am going to call the military as a whole, because they are for all intents and purposes just like a corporation) in this day and age, have more than one secure database? It can't be a cyber warfare thing, because secure DBs are constantly backed up off site. The government has hot sites ready to move people to, to keep secure DBs up and running with a minimum of interruption after all manners of calamities, so I just don't get it.
Less is often more.
Surely I am being too simplistic here, and there is a good reason behind the inefficiency of having multiple databases and multiple SA information portals.
It seems incredible to me that you would have staff for all the other SAs wait to get an update from DoDMERB and then physically key in the DB update on each of the CIPs. When you have it set up like this, you have the very real possibility for errors in the transfer of information.
WAIT A MINUTE. Why on Earth is there not ONE generic Service Academy CIP? You could eliminate AT LEAST HALF of the staff that you use right now for USAFA, USMA, USNA, USCGA, and USMMA.
Is it because the other branches don't want to put it all in the hands of the USAF? It seems silly, since all the medical stuff is already in their hands (and being handled pretty well from where I'm sitting).
I used to work in military intelligence so I am aware of the oxymoron there, but seriously this has come up in discussion before, right?
You see all sorts of posts on this forum from poor souls wondering why DoDMERB updated something but it doesn't show up in the CIP (or occasionally vice-versa). Then there are the posts in which they got a letter (via snail mail) but it doesn't show up anywhere online as even existing.
Why would any corporation (that's what I am going to call the military as a whole, because they are for all intents and purposes just like a corporation) in this day and age, have more than one secure database? It can't be a cyber warfare thing, because secure DBs are constantly backed up off site. The government has hot sites ready to move people to, to keep secure DBs up and running with a minimum of interruption after all manners of calamities, so I just don't get it.
Less is often more.
Surely I am being too simplistic here, and there is a good reason behind the inefficiency of having multiple databases and multiple SA information portals.
You know what's going on here - and I will bet you it is the same fundamental reason why we can't have portable medical records. I will bet you that every SA has a differently-structure database with incompatible and non-overlapping fields that require human intervention to enter correctly. And just like health care, everyone involved recognizes that this is insane, but it would take untold human-hours (e.g. $$$$) to fix, which would save even more $$$$ in the long run - but then, decision-makers generally don't budget for the long run.