USS Missouri Won't Be A Mute Landmark For LongUSS Missouri Won't Be A Mute Landmark For Long

As we prepare to pay tribute to those Americans who fought and died for this nation, a networking company is rigging a LAN through a historical World War II landmark. The company, Avaya, wants to make access to both the battleship USS Missouri and its history as easy as clicking a button.

Avaya is running 35 miles of high-speed fiber-optic cable throughout the 887-foot ship, on which Japanese leaders surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945. Already a museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the retired vessel will sprout 200 video cameras for remote tours and 30 information kiosks. Ultimately, it's hoped that the infrastructure will be linked to the USS Missouri Web site. The kiosks will tell the 400,000 visitors who visit the ship each year what part of the ship they're in and what function it performed. They also will play film clips from World War II and interviews with service men and women.

The project is expected to take six months to complete. Says Gerry Criscenzo, an independent consultant at GTIC Services.com, "This goes to show that technology can and should be more widely used to boost educational efforts."