It just dawned on me why CNA might have said C vs. Ada was a "wash."
CNA's "customer" was trying to decide which of two or more fielded Army
systems to select as the basis for their system.  I guess in
_that_context_ the languages those systems were written in would be
insignificant compared to questions of methodology and functionality.

Similarly, in that context, the O.S. the systems are on would be evaluated
differently than for a new system.

Of course, I'm still speculating, so I could be way wrong.  :-)