Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - Charles Stibrany discovered his second career after seeing for the first time a Palm Pilot at a U.S. military base in Bosnia.

"I sat there for hours in the office, playing with it," Stibrany said. "I went into a writing frenzy - writing four or five pages of notes of the possible uses in the military. I said, "My God, this has incredible potential.' "
Four years later, Stibrany - now retired from a 24-year career in the Army - is putting those notes to work with his Boulder company, Warrior Solutions Inc. The company has developed software for Palm Pilots that's being used by U.S. Army leaders to organize troops and recall safety and drill procedures.

While working as a military sciences professor at the University of Colorado, Stibrany rallied nine friends from CU and the military to start Warrior Solutions in 1999. The Palm software they created lets people access information from 100 military manuals and update and access personnel records on the go.

They can transfer the information to their desktop computer and avoid the need to input data over again. Today most troop leaders carry thick notebooks, handbooks, flashcards and checklists to remember such information.

"It's not rocket science, but it saves them four or five hours a week," said Stibrany, who works at Level 3 Communications but remains a founder of the company. He said Warrior Solutions is developing nine more software programs for the Navy and Air Force and has received interest from military officials in Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
At least 170,000 software applications have been developed for Palm, which controls more than three-quarters of the market for personal digital assistants. Palm Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif., maker of the devices, doesn't typically sign development agreements for these applications, since the Palm operating system is similar to that of a Windows operating system, anyone can develop programs for them.

Palm doesn't track how many military units use the devices, but John Inkley, manager of Palm's federal sales said he believes as many as 40,000 people in the Navy alone use them. He said several hundred software programs have been developed for the military to handle everything from shipboard inspections to aircraft maintenance.

Palm has agreed to co-market Warrior Solutions' software, touting it on the company's website and distributing CD-ROMs containing the $50 software at trade shows.

"It's a great product," Inkley said. "It has been well-received across the Department of Defense for its ability to eliminate paperwork."

But the company has run into trouble getting deals done with military officials. While America's war on terrorism has heightened the attention of the use of Palm Pilots in combat, it's made military officials too busy to worry about new software, said Cate Lawrence, CEO of Warrior Solutions.

"There are people I was talking to who are now worried about other things like anthrax," Lawrence said. For instance, the company had a meeting with high-level officials at the Pentagon scheduled for Sept. 15. But since the Sept. 11 attacks, the meeting has yet to be rescheduled.

Warrior Solutions has relied on word of mouth among individual soldiers and on the Internet. People can go to its website, www.warriorsolutions.com, and download free 30-day trials of the software.

A random search for military websites on the Internet is how Jim Lewis, an Army squad leader at Fort Knox, Ky., found the company. He downloaded the software two months ago and says it helps him keep track of his nine-person army unit, including their addresses, phone numbers, blood types and weapon testing information.

"It's what I've been looking for a long time," said Lewis. "The application itself is fantastic. I don't have to worry about carrying around bulky paper."