On "Creating Time"

Last summer witnessed the release of the Cryptologic Community Foundational Principles. The document’s self-described purpose is to “unify the efforts of the Cryptologic Community,” and it outlines the community’s beliefs, mission, and values. The document boldly states: “Time is our most precious resource. We will make time for what is most important and we will create time for Operational Commanders.” The community’s mission statement echoes this theme of creating time, declaring that we will “apply our core skills of SIGINT, CNO, and EW to create time and effects for and as operational commanders...”

The idea of creating time in warfare is not new. Employing operational art, a Western concept dating back to the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, commanders have sought to balance the operational factors of time, space, and force to their advantage. Of these three operational factors, time is unique in that lost time can never be regained. Time, however, can be created by successfully balancing it with another operational factor, such as force. In this case, the application of the cryptologic community’s core skills represents the operational factor of force. Today, while technology has evolved, the essence of applying the core skills of SIGINT, CNO, and EW is the same and the goal has not changed. In the information age, applying our core skills has never been more important. And in the rapid-fire environment of modern warfare, time is of the essence. Whether operating ashore or afloat, in the air or under the sea, Cryptologic Technicians follow in the footsteps of those who preceded them. In the spirit of Station Hypo, the efforts of the cryptologic community continue to focus, first and foremost, on creating time for the operational commander.

Lieutenant Commander Chuck Hall

Brief excerpt from upcoming article in INFODOMAIN magazine 

You can read his full article HERE.