Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Emily Bennett | 240606-N-TY704-1651 PACIFIC OCEAN (June 6, 2024) Information Systems Technician Seaman...... read more read more
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In 2021, everything changed for Sailors aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as the ship installed a feature new to U.S. Navy ships.
At that time, Vinson was deploying again to the Western- Pacific after an extended maintenance period, and due to the ship’s operational tasking, lengthy periods at sea were awaiting them.
“The Wi-Fi made things better,” said Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Josiah Feeney. “That deployment, we weren’t able to make many ports. We were out to sea for a long time, so being able to communicate with friends, family, loved ones back home made things much more bearable.”
Wi-Fi, an essential quality-of-life resource for most people today, allows Vinson Sailors to check their bank accounts, talk to their families, keep up with current world events, and enjoy media on their phones while thousands of miles away from home.
Before adding Wi-Fi, Sailors could only use their workcenter computers to take care of personal matters or wait to reach a port with phone service or Wi-Fi connectivity.
In a Navy that’s ever-changing due to technological advances, leaps and bounds have been made in helping Sailors bridge communication gaps between them and the rest of the world.
“My first deployment, we had to use payphones,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ashley Mannix, Vinson’s combat systems information officer (CSIO). “The only way to talk to people was on the mess decks where they had the phones. Usually, you had to wait in line and there were rules with how long you could talk on the phone.”
Vinson’s first Wi-Fi system, O3B, was limited to the mess decks, the library, a few berthings, and various location around the ship. The mess decks flooded daily with people texting their loved ones and staying up-to-date.
Vinson now has a new Wi-Fi system and it’s known as CATNIP.
The ship installed CATNIP in the beginning of June, and it significantly expanded the reach of the Wi-Fi aboard, encompassing more than 60 routers across the ship.
Sailors assigned to Combat Systems Department, CS-3 division, or automated data processing (ADP) worked for hundreds of hours to implement this new system before the ship departed for Rim of the Pacific 2024.
According to Information Systems Technician Seaman Shane Wilder, Wi-Fi routers can take 20 minutes to six hours to install due to the tedious nature of lining wires up into an Ethernet cable. After crimping the wires in, the Ethernet cable connects to the bottom of the router, which blinks green when it works and red when it doesn’t.
“Red is never a good sign,” said Wilder. “The longest I’ve spent working on one router is six hours. I’ve done a lot of routers, and it still takes however long it takes to get the wires right.”
After installing the routers and setting up the system, ADP had another large task to complete. They had to create a specific username and password for each Sailor to regulate the daily bandwidth allowance.
“We’ve been creating accounts for days now,” said Information Systems Technician Kelli Howarth. “People knock on our door for their accounts every hour of the day. We started a new Wi-Fi help desk on top of our regular help desk.”
Howarth said installing the new Wi-Fi system was tedious, but once they get past the initial surge, the flow of traffic will ease.
“It will be mostly new check-ins and Sailors who need help with their accounts after this,” said Howarth. “It’s been hard work but I’m glad I am able to provide my shipmates with a way to connect to their families and friends even this far out to sea.”
Across the ship, Sailors are enjoying the connection.
“Even though we’re now back in normal operating procedure, hitting more ports and getting ready for deployment, having that improved Wi-Fi now has improved morale a lot for many Sailors,” said Feeney. “I see it as a really positive change. It’s awesome, I can talk to my wife and message back every day. She sends me pictures of my daughter, our first kid. It’s really great to be able to stay in touch with them.”
Mannix believes the Wi-Fi has come a long way thanks to ADP and the Navy and she sees it in the number of Sailors using the system.
“Since we’ve been back from deployment, all the ADP Sailors have brought Wi-Fi up to a point where we now see around 2500 users at least at any one time,” said Mannix. “The system we have now is certainly not plug and play, there’s tens of thousands of lines of code the ITs have created and many scripts to get Wi-Fi where it is now. As CSIO, it makes me proud to see our Sailors come to brainstorm and teach each other new skillsets not necessarily taught in any IT schools. We’re looking forward to continuing to improve the Wi-Fi system and making it where each user is getting exactly what they want from it.”
| Date Taken: | 07.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2024 15:11 |
| Story ID: | 479257 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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