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IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2003

DOD Starts Secure Internet Registration And Voting Demonstration For 2004 Election

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), in conjunction with several states and counties, has begun conducting a large Internet registration and voting demonstration for the 2004 election. This Congressionally mandated project is called SERVE, which stands for Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment.

Thousands of absentee uniformed services personnel, their dependents, and overseas U.S. citizens will have the opportunity to register to vote and cast their ballots from any Windows-based computer with Internet access, anywhere in the world. County election officials will use the SERVE system to receive voter registration applications, provide ballots to voters, and accept voted ballots. These officials will use their existing election administration systems to process registrations and ballots.

“Security is everyone’s first question about Internet voting, so we made security the driving factor in the SERVE system design,” said FVAP Director Polli Brunelli. “We are working closely with state and local election officials to ensure that the integrity of the electoral process is maintained.” States currently expected to participate in SERVE are Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

The SERVE project is the latest in a series of technology initiatives undertaken by FVAP as part of its mission to improve access to the polls for uniformed services personnel and overseas American citizens. A small-scale proof of concept pilot, Voting Over the Internet, was successfully conducted for the 2000 election. In that experiment, 84 citizens located in 21 states and 11 countries returned ballots to jurisdictions in Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. This was the first time that binding votes were cast over the Internet for federal, state and local offices. The new SERVE system will build on the knowledge and experience FVAP gained in this groundbreaking and highly successful project.

Brunelli said that all eligible absentee uniformed services personnel and U.S. citizens overseas are encouraged to use SERVE to register and vote in 2004 by logging on to www.SERVEUSA.gov.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program is an element of the Department of Defense. Additional information on FVAP is available at www.fvap.gov.

This from today's Stars and Stripes. CAPT Miller and CAPT Henderson were COs when I was on the JUNEAU.

Former Sasebo skippers now command carriers

By Greg Tyler and Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Tuesday, June 10, 2003

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The USS Kitty Hawk skipper fondly recalls his Sasebo tour as an amphibious assault ship skipper.

“Turbo” — Kitty Hawk boss Capt. Tom Parker — still likes to stay in touch via e-mail with former Sasebo commanders “Fozzie” and “Harv.”

Friends occasionally tease Capt. John Miller — who commands the aircraft carrier USS Constellation — about similarities to the Muppets character Fozzie Bear. And Harvard graduate Harv, Capt. Ronald Henderson, commands the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.

Among the Navy’s 12 active carriers, their ships are the only three powered by fossil fuel. And each is commanded by an officer who commanded an amphibious ship in Sasebo.

Coincidence? Not really.

Miller and Henderson formerly commanded the USS Juneau; Parker steered the USS Belleau Wood and USS Essex. Miller was the first to move to a carrier command. He also tutored Parker, the newest carrier commander of the three, from September 2002 through January 2003 on the Constellation.

It is a coincidence, Parker explained, that none of the three opted for acquiring the qualifications required to command a nuclear-powered carrier. “I’m sure that Harv and Fozzie would agree,” the Virginia Military Institute graduate quipped. “There’s nothing as cool as a conventional carrier.”

In part, Parker attributes some of his professional growth to the high operational tempo among Sasebo’s amphibious force ships.

“The hallmark of the FDNF (Forward Deployed Naval Force) is that we operate anywhere from 180 to 215 days a year underway. You get to be really good at what you do, because you are constantly doing it at sea,” he said.

Forward deployed ships have to be at “a higher state of readiness,” he added. “What the Kitty Hawk did in the Gulf will become the model for what other carriers do in the future. The Kitty Hawk went through a major surge to get out there, fight for three or four months, then come back. You have to be ready.”

Miller, too, credited the operational tempo. “Sasebo is a great place to have deep draft command. The ships homeported there are extremely busy and spend a great deal of time at sea, so experience comes quickly,” he said.

“Deep draft” refers to a ship’s underwater depth. Carriers have deep drafts — and maneuvering them takes practiced skill.

“Both of the ships in Sasebo that are O6 commands,” or skippered by someone of captain’s rank, “are ‘deep draft’ ships, meaning the people who command them are eligible for, and tracking toward, carrier command,” Miller said.

Affectionately known as “America’s Flagship,” the Constellation weighs 88,000 tons, carries 72 combat and support aircraft and is home to 5,000 sailors and Marines.

“Ninety percent of command is about people,” Miller said. “In that regard, this job is very much the same as command of the Juneau. But this job is bigger in scope … more people, bigger ship, more missions.

“The fundamentals of good seamanship and airmanship remain the same, but there are more balls to keep in the air here,” he added. “Carriers are also a little less personal — sort of like the difference between small town living and big city living.”

Henderson, who followed Miller as Juneau commander, said, “By U.S. law, the COs of aircraft carriers must be naval aviators or naval flight officers. To gain large-ship command experience, a potential carrier CO serves as the captain of a smaller yet still large deck.” Sasebo is homeport for two such ships, the Juneau and the Essex.

Amphibious warfare exercises also provide essential carrier training. “Working with embarked Marine forces,” Henderson explained, “is good experience for the carrier challenge of working as a team with an embarked air wing.”

The main difference is “the sheer size and depth of responsibility that comes with command of an aircraft carrier,” he said. “The difference is not one of character, but of magnitude.”