Marines


MCAS Cherry Point News

 

Cherry Point, 2nd MAW Web sites move to Marines.mil

24 Mar 2010 | Lance Cpl. Brian Adam Jones

Cherry Point and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing have a new look, and a new home, online.

Official Web sites for Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and subordinate units are now part of http://www.marines.mil.

Until recently, Web sites for units throughout the Marine Corps were designed and produced on different systems and servers. The air station and 2nd MAW Web sites were formerly hosted at http://www.cherrypoint.usmc.mil and http://www.2maw.usmc.mil respectively.

The Marine Corps has encouraged all military installations to house their Web sites at http://www.marines.mil which better allows the unit sites to  adhere to directives pertaining to content and layout, said Mary B. Hill, Cherry Point’s joint webmaster. Cherry Point can now be found at http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascherrypoint and 2nd MAW can be found at http://www.marines.mil/unit/2ndmaw.

The new model puts the Web sites for all the units in Cherry Point under the same template. This allows the webmaster to oversee all of the content being uploaded and ensure it aligns with Marine Corps web standards.

 It also allows all of the units’ Web sites to have the same format for layout and design, which brings uniformity and continuity on an easily recognizable template.

“If you go to one of these pages, you’re going to know that it’s a Marine Corps Web site,” said Hill.

“The change was also important in order to preserve operational security,” Hill added. “Under the old model, units managed their own Web sites, and anyone with access to the server could virtually upload whatever they wanted. That system potentially jeopardized the safety and image of Marine Corps missions.”

As an example, Hill said a photo of Marines in an office may seem acceptable to a casual observer, but this photo could contain a classified map in the background. If there is no oversight over what content is allowed to be uploaded onto Web sites, it opens the floodgates to potentially perilous information being released. 

The risk this posed to Marine Corps operations was a paramount concern in the architecture of the new model.

Hill began the process of changing the Web sites under the same template in early December, and the sites were fully migrated by January.

Hill explained the move allowed her to create a cleaner, more streamlined Web presence. She said she was also able to add new functionality for Cherry Point units, such as a portal for squadron family readiness officers to upload unit photos, events and other information.

Hill said this new functionality works because of the type of software used for http://www.marines.mil. She added Staff Sgt. Christopher Flurry with Cherry Point’s Public Affairs Office assisted her in implementing aspects of the new technology.

“Staff Sgt. Flurry was instrumental in the move,” said Hill. “He made it possible for the family readiness officers to log on to the sites and upload documents directly to Marines and families.”

Sanders Hall, the webmaster for Marine Corps Installations East, said that it was a pleasure to work with Hill and other staff from Cherry Point during the transition.

“They were not afraid to ask questions and they worked tirelessly to complete their site migration in such a short time,” Hall said. 

Seemingly in concert with the Web site migration, Headquarters Marine Corps Division of Public Affairs Merit Awards Program announced the Cherry Point Web site as the Marine Corps’ best web-based publication, as published in Marine Administrative Message 149/10, Friday.

“I was thrilled that the Cherry Point Public Affairs Office was recognized for all of the hard work that they have completed over the last few months to complete their website migration,” Hall said.

“To have the air station recognized means that all of the hard work really paid off – not only for the Joint Public Affairs Office but for Cherry Point as a whole,” said Hill.


Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point