Cleared folks - hold that a bit closer? No need to make yourself a target. . .
Or family members, as well?
Don't work in that biz do you? They know what they can talk about. It's all ancient history once they can, too.
Those of us who worked on contracts helping them all out, do too.
Bird Colonels and Navy Commanders get all sorts of cranky when the General or Admiral's pet project is being held up by a telecom problem.
Heh. And I can say that because they were cranky over an unsecured line. To my house sometimes.
Telecom touches everything. Telecom equipment vendors support teams, *really* touch everything.
And sometimes you just have to call the manufacturer's support line.
Some of the funniest calls I took were listening to people stumble through explaining their equipment problem while trying not to explain what they were using it for. I usually knew by which line they called in on. Big customers got their own 800 numbers.
The best way to handle it was to say something like, "I don't need to know but I suspect you have X problem if this circuit isn't working, if the gear is still doing what it was during the original installation. So I understand your urgency level, Colonel."
After the Colonel stopped hollering at people in the background... The X problem was a hint at what we knew it was being used for without saying it outright.
"Can you have the techs confirm for me that they set a master clock source when they moved the system from fiber transport to microwave? That'll probably clear it right up. Only one end. The others should be in Slave mode. LEDs went green? That's a good sign. Can you have them put some data across that circuit? Already getting it. Great. Is Sargent X still there? I thought I heard him in the background. If he is, tell him this problem is referenced in chapter 6 of the manual, and if he needs me to write up a tech tip for the guys, I can. He wasn't shown that specifically during the install, and the field engineer he usually works with is standing here next to my desk asking me to confirm that with you. Have him email me if he needs that document. Okay thanks, have a nice day, sir."
Support line fun. Before that, field engineering. Water way under the bridge for me.
DOE sites had the most guns visible. DoD came in a distant second place. I know for sure that wasn't a secret!
The best was the "declassified circuit diagram" faxed to us from White Sands one day. Someone drew it with a fat sharpie and tossed it in the fax machine so we could figure out what they screwed up. Looked like something someone would hang on their fridge from their six year old, but it got the job done. LOL. Range Safety folks were a lot happier once that circuit came back up.
Or so I hear...
We promised to destroy the crayola diagram. Haha. Boss and I joked whether we should take it outside and burn it in the VPs office later, just for fun.
Secret squirrels and their contractors were always nice professional folks to help out. We always helped them not say things they couldn't say.
