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How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

vivin.net

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Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#21

Post by vivin »

AYBABTME wrote: post #13

In 2009-2010, I was an infantry officer working in Kandahar (Afghanistan) Airfield's brigade HQ; a canadian HQ then. My job was to receive all the reports from the ground and fan that info out thorough the HQ and our higher ups/sides. The HQ was processing things like medical evacuations, support fire missions, contact reports. The way it was done was very inefficient, frustratingly so. For instance, a medical missio…

That's a great story and quite inspiring too! It's great that you took the initiative. That's what the military teaches us to do anyway. I think it's amazing what you did because your improvements had real impact and I'm pretty sure you actually ended up saving lives. Great job.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#22

Post by vivin »

chrissnell wrote: post #8

Good on you. Sounds like you had great leadership. I've met a lot of smart Soldiers during my time in the Army. SSGs with PhDs, Specialists in law school, etc. It helps being in a branch that has a higher ASVAB requirement but there are smart guys in all of the branches. The military (especially the reserve forces) needs the skills that talented civilians like the folks here on HN have. The military also has a lot to…

Thanks! Yeah, I was definitely helped out by my leadership. They all kinda knew I was good with computers and so I was kind of the unofficial "tech support" for the company as well.

I also know a few of my friends who were in signals who came out of the military to get some pretty good jobs. Another good thing is that the Army encourages you to take courses online while you are deployed or even when you are serving. So you can get credits which you can transfer to a university when you try to get a real degree.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#23

Post by ryanmarsh »

In 2004 my airborne infantry unit deployed to Iraq. To make a long story short I helped us purchase a commercial off the shelf satellite internet system, get it shipped, set up, and configured for the unit. I got an ARCOM as well. I really was just trying to help my unit keep in touch with home. Laughably my command thought I was undercover CID, how else would a dumb grunt be so smart? What my command didn't know was that before I joined in 2003 at the age of 23 I already had 6 years (I started working while in High School) of professional software development, systems/network admin work under my belt.

When we got back I was useless physically as I had to rehab after a surgery. The XO stuck me in the arms room and I also tried to help our (typical) overworked admin NCO with normal company business.

Here's where it gets interesting. The admin NCO was a super bright guy with zero programming background. In fact it turns out he was just one of man bright NCO's with no programming experience who had held that job at one time or another. Guess how he kept track of the company's business? In a custom Microsoft Access application with plenty of home spun Visual Basic. The funny thing is he didn't write the app, oh no, some NCO years before him had written it and like some odd cultural tradition handed down for generations every NCO after him just progressively enhanced it to suit their needs. There was an old Access book on the shelf in that office and each admin NCO had picked it up, learned what they needed too, and carried on. Said admin NCO is now a doctor.

As a consultant I've come across similar stories in different industries of people picking up VBA and building custom things with no programming background. They always warm my heart.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#24

Post by MrZongle2 »

chrisBob wrote: post #4

Not bad for a motorpool guy. The place that I remember really needing some programmers was on the MI (military intelligence) side. They spend all of their time looking for patterns in data, and in 2009 it was still mostly done by hand. Plus that is where most of the smart Soldiers end up.

Plus that is where most of the smart Soldiers end up.

Sometimes. :D I say this as a former 98C who has seen the dumbest people in MI units.

But you're right about the need for programming support: during the Gulf War I discovered that the '386 (possibly '286) that we'd been using primarily as a Wing Commander Entertainment Console in one of our comms huts also had a copy of DBase III on it. Figured out how to create a table and query it, and applied it to my job. Didn't get a medal out of it, but it opened my eyes to the usefulness and power of databases.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#25

Post by [deleted] »

fleitz wrote: post #14
vivin wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how things are like now (I got out in '09), but things were definitely opaque and bureaucratic when I was in. It was intensely frustrating as well, because the tools I had to use were horribly inefficient. That's why I was so happy when the BMO turned a blind eye to what I had done, because the important thing was that I was getting results. It's good to have enlightened leadership.

Opaque and bureaucratic? Perhaps you did not have time to use Grace Hopper's language COBOL to truly understand opaque bureaucracies.

[deleted]

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#27

Post by vivin »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #23

In 2004 my airborne infantry unit deployed to Iraq. To make a long story short I helped us purchase a commercial off the shelf satellite internet system, get it shipped, set up, and configured for the unit. I got an ARCOM as well. I really was just trying to help my unit keep in touch with home. Laughably my command thought I was undercover CID, how else would a dumb grunt be so smart? What my command didn't know was…

The Army environment is ripe for improvisation. Especially if you're dealing with a lot of manual process that can be automated. Your story is definitely heart-warming. It shows what bright individuals can do, even if they don't have professional training.

I recall the off-the-shelf satellite systems! We had one too (I was stationed on Camp Liberty) and an Iraqi engineer dude would show up to help us set it up. It only worked about 70-75% of the time and once we had a serious rainstorm that damaged the dish. It took us a while to get us a replacement.

Eventually I was able to find a PDF manual for the system and was able to do some of my own troubleshooting when issues came up.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#28

Post by dugmartin »

It is good to hear a positive story about command leadership. I have never been in the military but have friends that were mid-level NCOs and staff level officers. Unfortunately the stories I've heard from them are pretty sad. Crappy software delivered late with the cycle continuing because the retiring NCOs and officers know if they don't make waves they can get a good post-retirement job at the contractor delivering the software.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#30

Post by fleitz »

sp332 wrote: post #19
_3u10 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried to hire programmers? Now imagine you're not offering stock, and are offering well below market rates, but at least they'll have meals made for them.

Offer to do their laundry. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7817895

I think the army does that too, however, I'm not sure.
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