MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI , Japan -- Brand new computers have arrived and are in the midst of being deployed to units all over the base.
More than 1,000 Dell computers have been leased by the Marcorsycom for the Station in a new method of buying equipment for the military that may be the blue print for the rest of the Pacific military installations across the region.
"We are the first ones to lease computers in the Pacific, and all of the other bases are looking at us as the example," said Kim Oxendine, Customary Technical Representative for the Station.
According to Oxendine, leasing the computers will benefit users in the long run when expected problems arise and the computers are able to be fixed right away.
"As our service members already know, the computers we have now are dreadfully slow, and we were in dire need of new ones," she said, "but what service members here might not know is that these new computers have the new Navy Marine Corps Intranet configuration already installed in them, which is something that we couldn't do with the old computers."
Although the new computers are in, old rules still apply. Users will not be allowed to install any of their own personal programs on the computers.
"If there is a program that the user might like to have installed all the they have to do is call us and we will see if the program is on the USMC approved software list," she said.
Oxendine added that without the hard work of many, the operation would not have gone smoothly.
"The Information Systems Management Office and information system coordinators were a big help in this whole project," said Oxendine.