Pentagon recalls memo with Star Wars references to C3PO and Jedi

The Force just wasn't with the Pentagon's No. 2 civilian when he tried to inject "Star Wars" references into a memo setting up the Defense Department's multibillion-dollar cloud computing initiative. In a memo issued Jan. 4 and rescinded about an hour later, Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan announced a new "Central Cloud Computing Program Office" - or "C3PO" - to "acquire the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud."

"C3PO is authorized to obligate funds as necessary in support of the JEDI Cloud," Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, wrote, managing to get a beloved droid from the space-themed movies and an equally popular fictional order of warriors into what otherwise would be a routine message in the Pentagon bureaucracy.

16th January 2018