Joint Base Charleston, S.C. –
Each day, ideas and programs are being offered to make Joint Base Charleston more "joint" with the Air Force and the Navy. Recently, the 628th Communications Squadron "cracked the code," in joint base information sharing.
2nd Lt. Htein Lin, 628th CS officer-in-charge of information assurance, and Senior Airman William George, 628th CS Knowledge Operations manager, developed a way for Navy personnel to obtain access onto the Enterprise Information Management site.
"EIM is a Service specific initiative," said Lin. "The challenge we had prior to this capability being available was users outside of the Air Force Network, our Navy tenant users, weren't able to access information that we [JB Charleston Air Force personnel] upload on the AF's EIM."
The process to get Navy personnel access to the EIM began in late January of this year. He and George began doing research when Lin was presented the idea of the sharing information.
George quickly coordinated with the EIM help desk and Enterprise Service Desk in order to investigate possible technical concepts of operation. His work revealed the possiblitiy to grant access for those residing outside AFNet [to the Navy personnel].
Lin and George had to test an individual from the Naval Weapons; Michael Mills from the Navy Munitions Command, before the project could be labeled a success.
"He was our test subject," said Lin. "He cooperated with us and his support was instrumental to the success of this project. He responded right away with any issues."
Mills provided George all the information needed to make a test account for EIM and view shared information.
"The main challenge was communicating through the Enterprise Service Desk," Lin added. "There was a time-delay with sending the correct information back and forth. There was no central point of contact with the ESD, so every time we called we talked to someone new and they just referenced our ticket."
"EIM is basically a set of processes, disciplines and practices used to manage the information created from an organization's data," said George.
After ESD received the information, they would then create a "non-Air Force Network user account" for the Navy individual.
Normally, tenant users on the Weapons Station operate on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.
"Our goal wasn't to merge the NMCI and AFNET, it was to allow NMCI users access to the EIM system that resided on the AFNet," said Lin.
EIM delivers information technology consulting, design, planning and implementation services for organizations looking to rapidly automate paper-based business process, streamline the management of complex case environments and transform information into new insight to optimize results.
"It's simply amazing that 2nd Lt. Htein Lin and Senior Airman William George, in working with our joint base partners in the Naval Munitions Command, were able to pull this off," said Lt. Col. David Joerres, 628th CS commander. "It's truly an honor and a privilege to daily watch the cyber warriors of the 628th Communications Squadron as they blaze the joint basing trail while exceeding the expectations of our 22,000 customer base."
"They've successfully cracked the code and other joint bases are now following their lead," added Joerres.
To receive access to the EIM site, individuals must forward the following information to their Information Assurance Officer: Name, Rank, EDI-PI, Unit and Office Symbol, DSN phone number, DOD Information Assurance training certificate, Primary e-mail and their security clearance.
For those interested in getting EIM access should contact their AF counterpart's Information Assurance Officer.