Welcome to the Cryptologic Community

Do letters matter? Do 35 year old letters matter? Why does it matter and who does it matter to?

The letter on the right is a Welcome to the Cryptologic Community letter to a young LT in the diesel submarine community. It was written and delivered 35 years ago. Note the signature - G.P. March (That was not done with a signature pen.) The letter is old and its recipient is approaching middle age. This letter marks a significant milestone in this officer's career. It was a MAJOR transition for that officer. That MAJOR transition was recognized by the leader of the cryptologic community at the time - Rear Admiral G. Pat March who passed away on 18 October 2009. You can read about him elsewhere on this blog.

Critics will argue that it is a form letter and sending the letter was a mere formality - both meaningless, for the most part. The officer receiving this letter had no sense that this was a form letter and the process a mere formality. He competed with some number of other officers who wanted to become a cryptologist and he was selected. Others were not. He got a letter and others did not.

The Information Dominance Corps and the Information Warfare community should reinstate the practice of welcoming lateral transfers and new accessions with a letter recognizing their achievement. Truth be told, many of our community's most senior leaders have come from other warfare communities - RADM Deets was in training to be a Naval Aviator, RADM Singer was a SWO and so was VADM Dorsett.

Years ago (1986) when you had to request augmentation to the regular Navy, I received a letter from the Admiral welcoming me to the "Regular" Navy. I still have that letter as well as a letter from a Commanding Officer who said that he always "thought that I was a Regular guy anyway". Do these letters mean anything? I will let the length of time that they are kept by their recipients answer that. 35 years-24 years. I think that means something.

The Official IW Community Blog Is Back !!

Great news !! The Official IW Community Blog is back and RADM Deets is moderating it. Check with your IW leadership to learn how to log in on the new site. You'll need a CAC enabled computer to login. Use it or lose it.

"If we are to have frank and open discussion I need you to understand that some of our comments will be of a "proprietary" nature and thus not appropriate for release beyond the wardroom.

Also remember that many of our retired officers are contractors so much of what is on our blog won't be releasable to them.

I've created this to allow open dialogue. I will regularly participate. I hope all of you will too.
Best, EHD"

Quote from RADM Ned Deets

The Value of the IW Community

"In my mind, the value of the Information Warfare Community lies in the expertise of the Information Warfare Officers, the Cryptologic Technicians, civilians and government contractors supporting them. To sustain the IW Community, we must encourage those habits in ourselves and our subordinates which develop and improve the IW Community's underlying body of knowledge. We need to do this through both formal and informal collaboration. Ideally, we ought to get to a genuinely collaborative environment where we value "learning" more than "knowing". Wouldn't that be great?