We thought it would be fun to do a 'search' on Adm. Raymond D. Falvey III, the man who supposedly wrote the revealing letter.
When we did, we found the following article in the Washington Post containing the following two names:
David Falvey
Adm. Raymond A. Archer III
Hmmm. Our first thought was, well somebody had used this article to simply create a hoax. And this is certainly a possibility. But the dates are wrong: The letter was supposedly written in 1998 and this article wasn't published until 2000. But...okay... even that could have been part of the ruse. Still we don't know that for certain. The Navy does not help itself when it treats honest inquiries with such off-handedness. In any event there are several questions that need to be answered:
1) Was the following article used to create and perpetrate a 'hoax' on unsuspecting 'news hounds' like John and ourselves?
2) Was the following article created after the fact to support the Navy's contention that the original letter was a hoax?
3) Is the whole thing a coincidence?
4) Is something else going on here....?
What do you think?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/fedpage/A60560-2000Nov26.html

Modernizing Defense Logistics
Agency Hires Firm to Replace Outdated Business Systems

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By Jimmy Chuang
States News Service
Monday, November 27, 2000; Page A19

The Department of Defense is scrapping the way it buys work materials, replacing an antiquated purchasing system with a Web-based alternative.

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has awarded a contract valued at up to $389.8 million to Andersen Consulting to lead a 16-company consortium to develop the system to track more than 4 million nonweapon items worldwide, from copying paper and office equipment to boots and helmets.

The Business Systems Modernization contract will link defense suppliers, government agencies and military customers. It will take the place of two systems that have been used for years--the Standard Automated Material Management System and the Defense Integrated Subsistence Management System.

"Although the Standard Automated Material Management System has served DLA and the military services well for many years, it has become an outmoded system based on old business practices and obsolete technology," said Mae DeVincentis, DLA's executive director of information systems and technology.

Additionally, DeVincentis said, it has become increasingly expensive to operate and maintain because of excessive down time, high operating costs, cumbersome system modification processes and poor performance.

The contract will give Andersen Consulting a chance to apply private-sector practices to the government.

"Their systems are 30 years old based on obsolete technology. The core intent is to get them off of that platform and get them into modernized technology," said Eric Stange, head of the Global Defense Industry Program at Andersen Consulting.

"Our partnership with Andersen Consulting was achieved by using an innovative contracting approach, in which software and services will be ordered in modular task orders off the GSA Federal Supply Schedules," added David Falvey, DLA's business systems modernization manager.

The consulting company will lead a bevy of subcontractors over the next five years, including Unisys, Preferred Systems Solutions, NCI Information Systems Inc., AmerInd, Manugistics, Lockheed Martin Corp., Litton TASC, Litton PRC, Integic Corp., Infosys International, Information Control Systems Corp., Data Networks Corp., Capitol Technology Inc. and American Management Systems.

DLA and Andersen Consulting have set up a team of 200 people to perform the work in Crystal City.

Andersen Consulting was selected from among six companies that were invited to bid last December. Its competitors were Computer Sciences Corp., Electronic Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Global Systems and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Rear Adm. Raymond A. Archer III, the DLA's vice director, said the final decision was made with an eye toward finding a company that had state-of-the-art commercial, not necessarily federal, expertise.

"We want commercial-thinking people to bring [the management] to us, not federal. They have so much confidence in themselves and their people and their processes," Archer said.

The Business Systems Modernization strategy will result in a new corporate computing structure in the next five years that will enable military procurement and logistics to reflect the best commercial business practices.

Archer said the contractor has to develop a system that is flexible enough to continue evolving over time. The plan also has to have a training component to reenergize military supply staff.

"How would they help us [continue to] modernize? Would they help us continue on training?" Archer said. "That will be something we'll learn from each other for the next two or three years."

© 2000 The Washington Post Company