Why soldiers are afraid of Ada

[world!srctran@uunet.uu.net (Gregory Aharonian)]

   The July 7, 1993 issue of the Boston Globe had an article about worries
and anger inside the military under President Clinton.  One statement has a
major bearing on Ada.

		"A 1990 survey by the Army Research Institute
		found that 25 percent to 33 percent of service
		personnel feared they would not be able to find
		work in the civilian sector if necessaary, and
		expressed concerns about their long term
		prospects inside the army.
		By 1992, the anxiety rate had almost doubled,
		with 62 percent of enlisted soldiers and 43 percent
		of officers questioned saying they were very
		worried about their long-term prospects for
		their military careers."  [page 14]

And what worried these people?  Currently there are 50 to 100 times more
private sector C/C++ jobs than there are Ada jobs, as any sampling of
help wanted ads in metropolitan newspapers will reveal.  Thus there is not
much of a market for Ada skills, especially when companies are inundated
with resumes from many highly qualified applicants with the exact language
skills they request in the ads, reducing chances of soldiers arguing "Haven't
used C/C++, but Ada is better and I am a quick learner".

	Given these worries of soldiers, and marketplace job realities,
it is quite easy to see why the Ada Mandate is being ignored so much inside
the DoD.  Soldiers are optimizing their long term prospects at little cost
to their short term careers, comforted by the contradictory statements
coming out of the Pentagon brass about Ada.

-- 
**************************************************************************
 Greg Aharonian
 Source Translation & Optimization
 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178