MistyCastle

Archive for the ‘Career News’ Category

This fall has been filled with an awful lot of travel. I just got back from my second trip to Atlanta and Rhonda has been to San Antonio, TX and Suffolk, VA. Fortunately, it has been rather uneventful with planes more or less departing and arriving on time. My trips were business related and to the same place. One of our vendors completed two sets of antennas and part of the process is going down to their facility and witnessing some performance tests. This is what we call a Production Acceptance Test.

The only downside to the whole thing is the testing is quite boring. Satellite antennas have to be pretty sensitive since the transmitter is way out in space. The way they test them is by measuring the amount of noise from a dead space (cold sky) and a major source of noise like the sun or the moon. Our vendor prefers the moon. So, they move the antenna back and forth taking measurements for hours on end and after a thorough application of math come up with these performance figure based on a ration of noise to temperature. The sky has to be clear and sometimes you end up working at night.

The good thing is they are a nice bunch of people and take good care of us while we are there. The next bunch won’t be done until sometime in February so I’ll get a bit of a break on the travel for awhile.

I am working a new program these days. The program I was assigned to has finished up. It happened a little earlier than we expected but it is good to finally have it finished. The company has been real good about finding positions for everyone. Most of the people joined an expanding program over at one of our other buildings where they are getting ready to work on modernizing some of our ballistic missile early warning systems. Most of those systems were built back in the 70’s and are in serious need of updating. I was looking at joining them but was offered a position with the RAIDRS program in the same building I am currently working in. Read the rest of this entry »

A large part of my time at work is spent supporting one particular program; IMPCS. Mostly, this has revolved around preparing the necessary documents supporting the security certification and accreditation of the system. I’ve recently had a shift in my duties at work. One of the key engineers moved on to another opportunity in Virginia leaving a void in the systems and network administration of the lab. I was asked to take over that responsibility.

This is a good thing as it allows me to get back into “hands-on” mode working with and configuring equipment. I still have my other “documentation” responsibilities but I am fortunate to have a junior engineer that is coming rapidly up to speed and taking a large share of that workload from me.

I had an opportunity to provide some immediate assistance by developing a solution for the software developers to write and test their code using “virtual computers” so they are able to do most of their work right at their desks instead of having to go back and forth to the lab. This will help productivity quite a bit as we have recently taken back the software development piece of the project from Northrup Grumman and hired a bunch of programmers; more that can work comfortably in the lab.

I reached the end of my six-month “temp-to-hire” contract with ITT this week. As it happens my co-worker resigned last week to pursue another opportunity so there was little question about whether ITT would hire me or not. Overall, it has worked in my favor. This makes me the senior engineer and it will allow me to influence the environment more than I could earlier.

ITT has a nice benefit package and I ended up with a nice salary. Plus, I managed to wrangle an extra week of vacation out of them. I officially start on Monday. I will be plenty busy for awhile as I take on responsibility for more of the projects we have in the plant.

Our primary product is the design and manufacturing of systems that manage, control, and otherwise support the Defense Satellite Communication System. Here is a spiffy brochure if you want to see more.

I have survived my first week back in the professional world. It feels good to be back. Officially, my job title is Information Security Engineer, which sounds more impressive than the actual work. There are three of us in the Information Assurance section and our job is to ensure that the systems being built for the military (by our company) meet all the security requirements levied by the Department of Defense. Needless to say this is a fairly involved process.

Since the bulk of our projects revolve around military commuications satellites and the control systems that support them, the security implementations tend to be pretty rigorous. We have to meet a variety of standards ranging from cryptographic certifications by the National Security Agency (NSA) to more routine Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) requirements. The bottom line is that it constitutes a rather large volume of paperwork. We prepare the certification packages for the systems which are ultimately certified by the government.

As I mentioned the bulk of the work centers around the Defense Communications Satellite Systems (DSCS), pronounced “discus”. You might be surprised to learn that the Army manages a large part of DSCS. The DSCS system consists of five primary and six residual satellites in geosynchronous orbit, ground control stations, and user terminals. The DSCS satellite constellation was designed to support long-haul communications between major military commands. DSCS was used
extensively throughout Operation Desert Shield/Storm and serves as the primary communications link for U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Access to the DSCS satellites is tightly controlled. DSCS provides communications services for the following networks:
• Global Command and Control System
• Global Combat Support System
• Defense Switched Network
• Jam Resistant Secure Communications Networks
• Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment Networks
• Mobile Subscriber Equipment
• White House Communications Agency
• Navy Flagship Command and Control Networks
• Ground Mobile Forces and Afloat communications

The two major projects we are working right now are KaSTARS systems for the Army and TMCS for the Navy. This is all new stuff to me (the satellite part) so I have lots to learn.

My patience and trust in God has been rewarded. I found out this afternoon that I’ve been selected for the ITT position.

I get to start work on Monday, March 7th. The job title is Information Security Engineer with a heavy emphasis on network engineering and systems adminstration. I’ll actually be working for the Commmunications Systems Group which is part of the Systems Division.

The company website is here. More details as they become available….

I have been honored to be asked to work at Messenger International full time. After working on a volunteer project that the Lord brought to mind, helping to promote Lisa Bevere’s new Bible study curriculum, Kissed The Girls And Made Them Cry, and helping to get the Christmas cards out for the ministry, I am a full fledged employee. Wow! How awesome is that?! I have been asked to come on board to clean up the data as we migrate to a new software program this summer.

I cannot express how much I appreciate the opportunity to serve the Lord in this way. I have prayed that the gospel would go out to all the corners of the earth for years and here I am supporting a family that takes it out on a regular basis to all the corners of the Earth!

I have been struck by the freedom God brings through the materials He has asked John and Lisa to write over the years. It has been personal for me from the time that I read
The Bait of Satan almost 10 years ago to the new materials I am reading now. I have been healed as I read Kissed The Girls and have been able to share perspectives with Kristina that have truly made her think about the choices she makes. I highly recommend any of their books, tapes, or DVDs. You might check them out at MessengerInternational.org.

I so enjoy going to work, it’s like coming home after school. You hear the laughter, feel the love of your family, and feel so accepted. You can almost smell cookies baking! That would all be great but I also get to talk openly about what the Lord is doing in my life and be part of what God is doing in all our lives as well as what God is laying on the hearts of John and Lisa. It is just awesome to be there and be part of what God is doing! I have been changed and challenged to live at a higher level! God is so good! Oh, and did I mention that the drive to work is parallel along the Front Range? After about 15 minutes straight North on the Interstate, I have to turn and head right into the mountains to get to the most beautiful office building. My office looks out onto the mountains (the foothills start just across the street!) and gets sun almost all day, is that cool or what?! God is so good!