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When the 16th Corps Support Group (CSG), 3d Corps Support Command, from Hanau, Germany, deployed to support Operation Iraqi Freedom in October 2005, its Combat Service Support Automation Management Office (CSSAMO) fell in on a logistics Standard Army Management Information Systems (STAMIS) infrastructure that did not take full advantage of modern Army networking capabilities. Within the first 6 months, we modernized the unit's logistics automation operations in order to give the commander access to more accurate and timely maintenance and supply data on which to base his decisions.
Legacy Systems
Soon after arriving in Iraq, we discovered that the units under our task organization were transmitting their logistics and supply data by floppy disk or email. They were doing so despite the potential of the systems at their disposal-the Unit Level Logistics System-Ground (ULLS-G), Standard Army Maintenance System (SAMS) -1 and-2, and Standard Army Retail Supply System (SARSS)-to transfer data by file transfer protocol (FTP). They did not use FTP because most locations, especially the motor pools, had no network connectivity and very few locations had operators who had experience with the FTP process. This lack of FTP capability had profound negative consequences.
ULLS-G, SAMS-1 and -2, and SARSS are somewhat antiquated in that, other than FTP, the only way to transfer data between them is by floppy disk. Unfortunately, these systems will not read data from universal serial bus (USB) flash memory drives. The units that were using email exported the data to floppy disk, copied the data from the floppy into an email, and sent it. The recipient reversed the process.
When data are transferred between ULLS-G and SAMS-I, ULLS-G provides SAMS-I with direct support (DS) maintenance requests and the status of organizational work orders. SAMS-1 also provides ULLS-G with the status of the unit's open work orders. The use of FTP eliminates the need to use unreliable floppy disks, a fact that cannot be overemphasized. When using FTP, information flows in both directions during the same session.
Floppy Disk Pitfalls
When a floppy disk is used for data transfer, ULLS-G writes data to the floppy disk, the operator carries the disk to the SAMS-1 location, and S AMS-I reads the disk and writes status information to it. The ULLS-G operator carries...