And The Award Goes To...

Chris' Dad was one this years 2009 Copernicus Award winners! From the AFCEA website... "Recipients are selected based on their sustained superior performance in a C4I/IT-related job. The selections are made each year by Navy judges who review applications from the departments of the Navy and Coast Guard, including active duty and civilians. AFCEA presents the awards at their annual Western Conference held in San Diego each winter."

2009 COPERNICUS WINNER

Mr. Clifford L. Henry
Naval Communications Security Material System
Mr. Henry is the Principal Assistant for Communications Security (COMSEC) Operations. As a key member of the Joint Service COMSEC standardization initiative, he researched, developed, and implemented a solution to a long-standing problem involving the transfer of electronic COMSEC keys from local management device/key processor accounts to non-automated accounts. This capability made an immediate impact on the Warfighter by enabling the COMSEC account to transfer accountability for keying material to coalition partners and COMSEC users without electronic capability. There will no longer be a need to embed the Warfighter with Coalition Units for key transfer/keying operations in hostile environments. In addition, COMSEC accounts in all services will not have to act as a surrogate for another account in order to receive electronic key. This new capability will be fielded to NATO countries when the International Electronic Key Management System is deployed. Mr. Henry was recognized by the National Security Agency for developing and implementing the concept. Mr. Henry developed the Navy Transaction Clearing House (TCH), resulting in the total automation of COMSEC accounting transactions, a necessary step in the Navy’s transition to the Tri-Service Common Tier 1 (CT-1). The TCH eliminated the use of record messages for the submission of electronic transaction reports in use for more than 20 years. It also enabled taking off line the COMSEC Automated Reporting System Front End Processor, saving $500,000 in replacement and maintenance costs. The TCH dramatically reduced the labor-intensive manual entry of SF-153 Accounting Reports from more than 300 per day to 83 and was the single most important tool for account managers to accustom themselves to the new CT-1 paradigm. This initiative saved more than 1,000 man-hours per month.


Chris' Dad travels a lot for his job sometimes taking him away for long stints at a time. Now, every now and then he does gets to go to Hawaii. But how many times can a person really enjoy the same volcanoes, knowing that he is so far away from his family? But he does it faithfully. I guess it helps knowing that these two cuties are here waiting to see Meepaw. No, not Chris and I... although we are pretty darn cute!

These cuties....


They L O V E their Meepaw. And we love our Dad. Good Job!