As the world watched the war in Iraq unfold, we asked ourselves what we could do to help those who make up the Coalition forces. We also realized that a truly worthwhile contribution would need to last longer than the actual war, since the post-war period would likely be quite complicated and require Coalition involvement for a significant period of time.

As we thought about it, we realized that one of the greatest strengths people in military service draw upon is the support and backing of their families. We concluded that, since our technology is designed for ease of use by completely non-technical people and could be quickly deployed for a new community, we could therefore provide each service family with its own website and do so indefinitely – creating a resource that could be counted upon over time.

We believe that family websites can immediately enhance support for the troops by creating “virtual homes” on the Internet and thus provide around the clock that on-going connection to “back home” that anyone at a distance – whether in a front line position or not – values and needs so much:

• Families can use their websites to list details of happenings back home, create an ongoing web log of thoughts, diaries, display photographs (or albums of photographs), etc. – a whole spectrum of facilities they can choose from, each capable of being used to provide continued support and love.
• Even when troops are between points of Internet access, knowing their families have created a special place for them on the Internet will continue to remind them of home and provide something to look forward to – the next chance to see what’s changed on their family websites - as they carry out their arduous duty so far from home.
• Furthermore, the collection of all family websites is a powerful overall expression of solidarity – a body of support for our troops with each site effectively reinforcing every other site simply by existing for our troops.

Having reached these conclusions, we set about deploying our web server technology, testing the registration process and now we are working to let the families know the service exists and is ready for each of them as soon as they would like to use it.

This offer is made by NetExec, Inc., a technology company based in Seattle. NetExec was founded in the spring of 1998 by Catherine W. Turner and Robert Bismuth. Cathi and Robert, with the agreement of all involved in the company, made the executive decision to proceed with nxMili and make NetExec’s resources freely available to Coalition military families.

None of us has served directly in the military. However, we all have immediate family who have served in the military and fought in conflicts around the world. For example:

Robert’s father was a fighter pilot at the beginning of WWII. His country fell to the Nazi’s and he was immediately demobilized and lived under Nazi occupation. During the middle of the war, he was liberated by American Forces and immediately re-enlisted as a pilot. He first flew in the African campaign and then transitioned to heavy bombers, flying many missions over Europe while based in northern England.

When Robert took him to a squadron reunion a few years ago, they stood next to one of the bombers he had flown. Looking at the quite fragile machine, Robert asked him why he had returned to a very unfriendly sky again and again to fly more missions, knowing that each might easily be his last - Robert already knew that he had been machine-gunned while flying and after recovering had even returned to active service to fly again. His reply has stuck with Robert:

“You don’t understand. We were fighting to free Europe. If we failed, there was no future for anyone. We knew this and we just had to succeed, or to die trying. We had no other greater reason to live for.”

Robert’s father – along with many others - succeeded and can be proud of liberating so many people from such an oppressive regime. In his case, from oppression he had personally experienced.

Cathi’s father served in Korea with the First Marine Air Wing, Transportation Division, USMC as a General’s Aide.

Though his tour of duty did not include combat, his service did ensure stable communications for the troops and their commanders in theatre. He provided safe transport for them and other leadership officials including President Truman. Before returning to the US, he also participated in the construction of two Korean orphanages.

In addition to her father, Cathi’s uncles and brother all served in the USMC and her mother worked stateside in volunteer relief efforts supporting Korean orphans.

Yes it is truly free. We are making no charge for this service and for the use of our software and technology. The websites are free. They will also be available in perpetuity.

Furthermore, these websites are completely free from promotional banners, pop-up advertising or any other types of campaigns or exploitation. Family information, email addresses, etc. will not provided to any 3rd parties.

We are doing this for the families and the Coalition troops –  the American forces (US Air Force, US Army, US Coast Guard, US Marine Corps, US National Guard, and US Navy), the British Forces (Royal Air Force, British Army, Royal Marines, Royal Navy) and the Australian Forces (Royal Australian Air Force, Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy).   Military families from other Coalition forces are also welcome to apply for a website – so many have supported this cause that we have only been able to track the larger forces involved.

We do not and will not charge anyone from a military family for their website. Furthermore, we also will not let any person or organization use any family’s content for promotional or opportunistic purposes. We protect family content, which, of course, belongs entirely to the families.

We are making this a gift of technology and hosting service to all the service families. In doing that, we are absorbing any costs ourselves. Specifically, we are donating:

• The use of our software technology
• Our hosting services, and,
• Our personal time for ensuring the service is secure, trustworthy and always available.

This is for the families. We are not doing this to gain anything except the personal satisfaction of providing valuable service to the Coalition’s military families.

Yes, we will be monitoring the websites. We will randomly sample sites to ensure that they are genuinely created and maintained by service families. If we suspect otherwise, we will contact the individuals involved and, if necessary, take appropriate action. There are also feedback mechanisms on the websites and we will respond with appropriate action to any report of inappropriate use of websites or the facilities we provide.

We believe that being attentive to the websites is extremely important in order for us to provide a secure, dependable and consistent environment for the families.

On the Internet, security issues must always be taken into consideration. For nxMili, the concerns fall in two main categories: network/website security, and, physical security.

We handle network/website security by using multiple firewalls and locked down, secure servers that maintain extremely high security settings. Family content is also username/password protected and the families are responsible for choosing their own usernames and passwords.

Physical security breaks down into two subdivisions: physical security of NetExec’s servers, and, physical security of the families.

Our servers are physically secure and their locations are not publicly known. They are also replicated for redundant availability and security. Family security is a matter for the families when the create their content:

We provide guidelines warning families never to reveal complete names, phone numbers, physical street addresses or email addresses. If a family follows those guidelines, there is no way for any 3rd party to learn such sensitive information from the websites. Furthermore, we do not require much information during the application process and what we do retain is not publicly available and is not complete enough to uniquely locate any family or individual.

We have put a great deal of thought into this, since security, protection and trustworthiness are extremely important when delivering a reliable and useful service in this industry.

NetExec, Inc. is a privately held, Seattle-based technology company. We have spent years developing an extremely advanced software platform for building flexible websites. Our platform delivers the functionality typically found in major corporate infrastructures to individuals, small to medium businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Our platform contains all the tools necessary to easily set up and maintain a website – no prior experience is necessary and no other applications are necessary, just a web browser.

Our regular business is twofold:

• For a fixed monthly subscription fee, we host websites that are built using our technology.
• Our technology is also available as licensed software for large organizations looking to deploy advanced, web-enabled applications.

We do waive all charges and fees for the websites and hosting we are providing for military families.

Cathi has over 25 years of experience providing tactical support for business operations in a wide range of organizations – from small regional enterprises on up through major multinationals in a variety of markets such as telecommunications, steel, textiles, and computer manufacturing.

Working in progressively more responsible roles, Cathi’s expertise and experience ranges from executive development, executive operations, Board planning and strategic support, through operational activities in career planning, workforce training, curriculum development, staffing, team-building, and corporate communications. She is equally at home in tactical or strategic activities.

Robert has over 25 years of experience in High Tech. He is mathematician by training and his professional roles have spanned the entire spectrum from engineer to CEO.

Robert has previously been the CEO of several software start-ups. Prior to that, he spent 15 years rising through the ranks at computer manufacturer Digital Equipment Corporation to become the company’s corporate Vice President for Global Strategic Alliances. His skills range from tactical implementation to strategic management.

Yes we do. That is our business. Our rates are very modest, between $25 and $70 per month (depending on which options are chosen) – extremely competitive for all the functionality we provide. We currently have our technology deployed in 4 different markets and have customers in all those markets. Our current markets are: Professional Coaching, Professional Talent, Personal Websites and Faith-Based Institutions.

We have built the free military family service as a secure offshoot of our Personal Website platform.