Keeping the RFO hummmmmming! Robbie Melancon, an information technology administration specialist, keeps the RFO's computer support systems humming behind the scenes. LA-RFO Photo by George Marcec. Back to Features

IM (Information Management) doesn't know "IMpossible"
By Dave Harris, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office


NEW ORLEANS, LA …Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is... As usual, should you or any member of your I.M. Force be captured or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your existence. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim. 

Who can forget those IMmortal words?   

But for Louisiana Recovery Field Office IM mission manager, Betty Prater, “impossible” isn’t in her vocabulary. 

The Army Corps of Engineers’ Information Management team - IM – is reminiscent of Peter Graves’ TV series – Mission Impossible, featuring the I.M. Force – recreated in the movie by Tom Cruise.

Betty’s tapes don’t self-destruct. She and her team do an incremental backup of the server nightly, perform a full backup weekly, and the tapes are stored offsite – something the silver screen’s IM Force should have thought of. 

She’ll tell you in no uncertain terms not to rely on your computer’s “C:” drive for important information. Put it on the RFO data server and preserve it for posterity. It will not self-destruct in five seconds. You will not be able to disavow any knowledge of its existence. 

Only once here did she have to restore information to someone’s computer from the backup from the night before.  

Betty, a native of Natchez, Miss., and lead technician from New Orleans District, said she got interested in computers when she staffed a message center in the Air Force sorting out classified top secret, secret and confidential message traffic from unclassified.  

From maintaining a word processor, she started tinkering in an Air Force computer organization with the DOS-based 286 computers that were considered by some users to be virtually limitless in their capacity with 20-meg hard drives. 

“I’ve always curiosity about machines,” she said. “I’m always opening things up – anything. Even at home, if my VCR didn’t work, I’d open it up. I just have an interest in tearing things apart. If there’s a problem with my car, some things I do myself. I try to fix it myself. I’ve changed outlets in my house – I’m almost too safe. I turn all the power off in my house first.” 

The IM team’s mission here: “Make sure everybody has everything they need,” she said. “But only the people who need access to the data base get it. If you need only to see debris or demolition tickets, you may get read-only access. People have the rights they need and only the rights the need. We’re here to help with computer, printer, Blackberry or e-mail problems, even phone problems. We’re only a phone call away.” 

When someone says a computer technician needs to remember a lot of steps, Betty disagrees. “I don’t remember things. If you do it long enough you automatically know the solution by looking at it. I make it easy as much as I can by writing scripts. If there are a lot of steps, I write a batch file.” 

If you look up “patience” in the dictionary, you’ll see her picture there. 

“We have a lot of reemployed annuitants who have been retired a very long time, and some of them, when they worked, never touched a computer,” she said. I show them how to hold first one key while they press the other, so they can learn how to do control-ALT-delete. I’ll write down passwords for them. They’re not used to a mouse. I’ve been in the computer field a long time, and I know patience - unless they’re not trying. Then I might get a little impatient. I try to find the easiest way with the fewer moves.  

“Some people can’t remember a whole lot of steps, and so I’ll create an icon and say ‘click on this icon to do this thing.’ You’ve got to help them. They came down here to help our citizens, so I help them.” 

She said the difference between the RFO and a district is seeking funding from FEMA.

“I go get approval from FEMA before I fix certain things. Sometimes this is irritating. I call and get a quote, and then I send the quote to FEMA.”  

Betty said she thrives on being busy. “When it’s busy here - time goes by faster when we help a lot of people, especially during moves – someone’s IP address is no longer working, and I get them a new IP address. I like helping people. I love a challenge.  

“Give me something that’s hard. I like to figure it out. I like to be the first one to resolve it.” 

Does she ever get stumped? 

“There’s always a workaround.” 

She’s always on the lookout for improper use of computers. Investigations, reviewed in advance by the Office of Counsel “to make sure it’s legal” have turned up – not here – such things as pornography and copying movies. 

“One guy left a triple-X DVD in his DVD drive,” she said. Culprits are appropriately disciplined. People will try to erase their history, but Betty finds a way.

On that note, Betty said it’s a policy here to leave the computer’s history alone. “Don’t erase it.” 

Folks will tell her what she can or cannot do on “my” computer. 

She has a ready answer. “It’s not yours. You’re allowed to use it.” 

The joke’s been around for years. The computer says, “Press any key.” 

“Yes, people still ask me where the ‘any’ key is,” Betty said with a smile.