Roll Call

Like the refrain of Chilean singer Patricio Manns’ anthem to regime change, “Los Caidos (The Fallen),” recent weeks have comprised a litany of decision-makers who are gone:

Like the refrain of Chilean singer Patricio Manns’ anthem to regime change, “Los Caidos (The Fallen),” recent weeks have comprised a litany of decision-makers who are gone:

• Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, who elevated the visibility of GPS within the department of Defense (DoD) and infused the Space-Based PNT Executive Committee (ExCom) with initiative and leadership

• John Grimes, assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration (ASD/NII) and the DoD’s CIO, charged under a 2008 revised DoD directive (4650.05) with overseeing PNT policy and all aspects of GPS for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)

• Vice Admiral Thomas J. Barrett, USCG (Ret.), deputy secretary of transportation, co-chair of the PNT ExCom

• Department of Transportation (DoT) Acting Under Secretary Tyler Duvall

• Paul Brubaker, administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), which is co-authoring the national PNT Architecture project and is responsible for oversight of the Nationwide Differential GPS System and other crucial research; also RITA deputy administrator, Cheryl McQueary

• Ed Morris, director of the U.S. Commerce Office of Space Commercialization, which hosts the PNT National Coordination Office (NCO) charged with carrying out the ExCom’s decisions. Morris recently signed on with ITT Space Systems (see article in Industry View, page 52)

• John Negroponte, deputy secretary of state, whose agency leads international consultations and negotiations with other nations on space-based PNT issues — a role of growing importance as GNSS systems proliferate

• Paul Schneider, deputy secretary of homeland security, and Robert Jamison, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under secretary for National Protection and Programs Directorate (DHS is charged with detecting and mitigating domestic interference to GPS and providing a back-up plan in case interruptions in GPS service).