Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskirk pinned officers from the information warfare, naval intelligence, meteorological and oceanography communities.
For officers to obtain the IDWO designation, they have to demonstrate they acquired specific knowledge, skills, and experience, and have performed at a proficiency at the professional level of competence required for satisfactory performance of assigned duties.
"Officers who are newer to the community will have to go through basic and intermediate qualifications, as well as an exam," said Capt. John Holmes, 7th Fleet assistant chief of staff communications and information systems officer.
"It's new and interesting, and it's something I never thought we were really going to have," said LT Meredith Schley, 7th Fleet signals information warfare officer. "I never saw this as something this community would ever pick up and do."
The 21 U.S. 7th Fleet staff officers pinned by Van Buskirk were the first officers to receive the IDWO pin in the 7th Fleet area of operation.
"It's a good feeling, to be a part of history being made," said Cmdr. Weldon.
6 comments:
Information Dominance Warfare Officer? And now a pin? How many times does this community have to reinvent itself to stay alive?
As many times as necessary to fulfill its ever evolving mission.
IDWO,
How about fulfulling those parts of the mission that haven't evolved enough to warrant a renaming and a pin, namely afloat cryptology.
We are shooting ourselves in the foot in the fleet. Have been for years.
It's not all about the latest trend, buzz-word, or gadget. And it certainly isn't about a pin.
CTRCS(SW) Goodson
Senior,
So I am on travel, in Florida, at a working group.
I go to this blog, read your comment and think: hey, this sounds like that one crusty Senior Chief I work with. And low and behold, it was you!
Your favorite Old Town LT
So there I was at the embassy in Baghdad a few years ago with 2 other jg's. We were all prior service so a little long in the tooth for jg's. None of us had warfare pins. A Captain came up to us staring at our chests, round about inquiring why they were bare.
It didn't matter that I was Intel, it didn't matter that I had a Masters, it didn't matter that my sea time was never long enough to get a qual outside of my community, it only mattered to him that I/we didn't have the bling and the unspoken attitude he gave us was there was something wrong with us.
So maybe the pin is silly, maybe I should just be proud of the job I do and the oddity of spending most of my deployments with the Army but that Captain left a bad taste in my mouth that day. If it takes a piece of bling to convince a senior officer I can do my job as opposed to my experience, education and training, then so be it. We've got 6 seconds to convince people we're competent. If a shiny piece of bling can make our customers more confident in us so be it.
Anyway it'll look great on my I love me wall the day the Navy wises up and forces me to retire.
Cheers!
LT, IDWO, (1)ea.
Ahem...four USS BLUE RIDGE officers were the first to receive their IDWO pins in the C7F AOR. Date of pinning: 04 NOV.
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