On July 13, 2010, BIMA celebrated a milestone — 10 years of DoD biometrics. Who would have thought that what began as a simple way of using new technology could have such far-reaching policy and mission impacts on DoD and across the federal government in such a short time? We appreciate your interest in and support of DoD biometrics and welcome you to stick around to see what happens over the next 10 years. I’m sure it will be just as exciting as the last 10 years have been.
In this issue, you can share with us in a very moving ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. On behalf of BIMA, four current members of the military working at BIMA were invited to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. I’m sure you will find the story and photographs of interest.
BIMA also has facilitated easier access to training information and materials via the Internet. Read about the new training area, which is accessible from the BIMA website (www.biometrics.mil), is a centralized repository of biometricsrelated information, including articles, websites and other reference material that can be accessed anywhere, anytime by anyone with a Common Access Card. The project, created and led by BIMA B-3/5/7 LTC William “Bill” Buhrow and his team, is the first of its kind and will be instrumental as a biometrics information reference tool for warfighters and civilians in the field.
Finally, read more about the work BIMA is doing with the Air Force on installing the Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) registration station at 70 Air Force sites in the continental U.S. by October 2011. This ongoing collaboration has yielded the installation of various pilots as well as multiple final, approved policies over the past year. The next phase will be to get the pilots networked, using a network architecture that is already in place.
Dr. Myra S. Gray, SES
Director, Biometrics Identity Management Agency