There is likely a near limitless number of ways that military information tech could be improved and streamlined, due to the usual tendency for large bureaucracies to have stale systems and the increased opaqueness that the military operates under...and also, the relative lack of programmers in the recruiting pool...but it's encouraging (and surprising!) to see that at least a few Army higher-ups care enough about technical details to award medals.
Also, couldn't help but think of Grace Hopper, who was received a special promotion to Rear Admiral, post-retirement, because of her work on computing. I didn't realize until re-reading her Wikipedia entry how much of her work and leadership (serving as director of the Navy's programming languages group) occurred after her retirement at age 60:
I'm not sure how things are like now (I got out in '09), but things were definitely opaque and bureaucratic when I was in. It was intensely frustrating as well, because the tools I had to use were horribly inefficient. That's why I was so happy when the BMO turned a blind eye to what I had done, because the important thing was that I was getting results. It's good to have enlightened leadership.
Also, couldn't help but think of Grace Hopper, who was received a special promotion to Rear Admiral, post-retirement, because of her work on computing. I didn't realize until re-reading her Wikipedia entry how much of her work and leadership (serving as director of the Navy's programming languages group) occurred after her retirement at age 60:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper#Retirement