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Hamre: Y2K won't stop DoD pay
The Year 2000 computer problem won't affect DoD's ability to pay service members, and troops don't need to do anything special to protect their personnel or medical records, Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre said last week.
Hamre said all DoD pay systems are already Y2K-compliant, and DoD will continue to test the systems in March and April to ensure they will work.
"It's more complicated than just, 'Will our computers properly calculate pay?'," Hamre said. "We have to get electrons over to the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department has to pass on those electrons to the banks. The banks have to spread it out all over. We have something like 800 banks we do business with on a day-to-day basis."
Hamre said DoD is working with all concerned to make sure pay will continue to flow.
He said personnel and medical computer systems are also Y2K-compliant.
Hamre said the Defense Department will be able to defend the United States and its vital interests in 2000 despite the millennium bug. He stood by his characterization from last October that DoD's Y2K problem will be more a "nuisance" than a crisis.
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