>> TRAINING / IEDs
circulation has been well-received. Shortly before the academic year began, Shakarian and the cadets briefed the dean of the academic board and administrative personnel who supported this Academic Individual Advanced Development project.
Colonel John Graham, NSC director, said their contributions to cadet projects are remarkable. It is a complex process which legal, finance and other administrative members of the academy undertake to secure the necessary resources – from establishing a working relationship with a combat unit in Afghanistan to installing a dedicated computer network for classified research in an otherwise unclassified hall of classrooms.
Outreach to the army
Vicki Kiernan, a team lead budget analyst in the Directorate of Resource Management, attended one of the briefings and was amazed by what cadets can do to support the troops in current operations. “I cannot tell you how much that short briefing meant to me. The AIADs our cadets participate in have always impressed me. It touched me both as a finance manager and the mother of a soldier who served,” Kiernan said. Major Shakarian recently earned his doctorate degree from the University of Maryland where he garnered attention from projects like SCARE. He said this software will be integrated into the system’s senior capstone project and that there are other applications to cadet studies being discussed.
“Cadet education, research and outreach to the Army – this is really what the academy is all about. I feel we hit all three of these strongly in this project,” said Shakarian, a Class of 2002 graduate.
As a French and international relations major, Cadet
(left) Training in Counter IED have been on-going at West Point using the latest specific software that will prepare soldiers for work in the field. (above) An instructor goes through a typical IED scenario with cadets. He explains how a small stone on the ground could conceal an IED.
Wright might have otherwise missed an opportunity like this had it not been for Major Shakarian, his information technology instructor. “This was a good way to contribute to our units in the field, and this was something I normally wouldn’t have exposure to, if only for a short time,” Wright said.
Considering the sensitive nature of the project and the clandestine conditions they worked under, Cadet Andrew Oswald found this AIAD to be a lot different than the one he took part in last summer. “Normally, you’re asked to take pictures and show everyone what you did. Here we can’t really show anything. There’s a lot we would love to say about how successful it was – but we can’t,” Oswald said. “Still, it was rewarding being able to do something that will make a difference downrange.” n
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With impressive accuracy, the software can predict where an enemy’s improvised explosive device, or IED, depot is, based on previous attack locations and other intelligence...
globaldefencemedia.com | winter 2012_13
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