The new qualification is designed to give members of the Information Dominance Corps a broader understanding of information dominance outside of their specialties.
"You really have to be able to understand, if you're in intelligence, what the cryptology folks are doing," said Master Chief Petty Officer Russell Smith, OPNAV staff command master chief. "You have to know how weather effects your operations. All these things combine together."
At risk of revealing myself as an Old Fogy, I offer some reminiscences and advice.
ReplyDeleteTruly, there’s nothing new under the sun! That which appears to be new is merely something others (earlier) knew – wrapped in a different package – or even only different colored paper. For example: Supplemental Plot (SUPPLOT), in a CV. In my ship – SARATOGA/CV60 - happily, it was collocated with SSES, and had two distinct functionalities: an extension of the signals research space AND an adjunct to the CVIC. As owner of the bull’s eye designating the compartment, the arrangement was excellent and both ship’s an air wing AI’s worked with us “cryppies “ 24-7, and ALCON benefited mightily. Similarly, when I flew with VQ2, every member of the air crew was on the same team and charged with the same objective: support the Fleet operators.
Ashore, relationships among intel and cryptologic professionals were very close, witness spirited interface at the field-to-Fleet level. In view of parallel feedback on other, similar chat topics in this excellent blog, I believe that “fleet Operators” consist of many more Navy professionals than just those who detect, track, ID and destroy the enemy target. Our warships would be sitting, cold-iron and impotent if legions of support personnel were not present to allow warfighters to do their jobs and train for tomorrow’s. AND to mentor the people who, one day, will see old sea dogs down some distant brow… .
I feel especially privileged to stand between those men and women who won the Second World War and you IO/ID professionals who will, one day, stand as the middle link in a noble chain connecting us Cold Warriors with ‘sub-space bandwidths that allows YOUR successors’ successors one day to beam up and to ply the space-oceans of the sixth ENTERPRISE!
May you live long and prosper.
V/r, Captain Steve Myers, 1613/USN retired
That must be where all the pins are! Remarkably, even though the IDC was created over a year ago, the pin was unveiled in February, there are none to be had in the fleet.
ReplyDelete-Not at NEX Gulfport, MS (servicing one of the highest concentrations of METOC officers around.
-Not available via the NEX on line system
-Not available by phone.
We knew WHEN this day was coming, we knew HOW MANY pins we'd need, we knew WHERE we'd need them. Yet, the Navy failed the roll-out.
It's impossible to impress the rest of the Navy, already skeptical of this dubious "warfare qualification", when we can't successfully apply simple knowledge to solve simple problems. UNSAT.
worthless!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that the NEX hasn't changed over the years. In 1975 I read that the new SWO pin would soon be available and went to the NEX in Newport, RI, to see when they would receive their shipment. She told me that only 10 were coming in since only a few had been pre-ordered and they had only ordered 2 or 3 more "to be on the safe side". Granted, Newport wasn't a major fleet concentration like San Diego or Norfolk but there were several hundred SWOs at the Destroyer School (soon to become SWOS), the NWC, and the other training commands there. I guess when there's no competition...
ReplyDeleteC-dore 14
Captain,
ReplyDeleteActually, NIOC Maryland pinned it's first two enlisted Sailors on the 18th of October when FORCMC Powers certified the commands EIDWS board process... Just saying.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/10/navy-cyber-warriors-pinned-102410w/
I think the distinction being made in this piece was the "group" award.
ReplyDelete