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 New Main Battery - N2/N6

“Unless you make bold changes to your information capabilities and … take some risk by developing more comprehensive approaches as to how you manage the electromagnetic spectrum … and the flow of information, there is a potential that the United States and the U.S. Navy would begin to lose that competitive advantage."

VADM Jack Dorsett
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance

“The Navy has made a commitment to bring together ISR, cyber, C4 [command, control, communications and computers], EW [electronic warfare], space and other information capabilities into a single organization, the Information Dominance Corps. Information has become the main battery of the Navy’s arsenal.”

Rear Admiral (select) Sean R. Filipowski
Director, Cyber, Sensors, and Electronic Warfare
(OPNAV N2N6F3)

From:
The New Main Battery
The Navy realigns its organization toward information dominance
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

Intelligence—The Profession of Specialists

"If Naval Intelligence is to realize its vision of achieving information dominance over potential adversaries and create decision superiority for our commanders, our operational forces and our allied partners, we must fundamentally alter course with regard to how we look at ourselves. We must be highly skilled and possess extensive experiences in the profession of intelligence. We must invest in educating our people to a dramatically higher level than we ever have in our history. I commit to you my energies and leadership, but I will need your help and your innovative thinking as we implement new methods for training and educating our professionals. This is our highest priority. Standby your stations, we’re about to crank it up to flank speed."

Vice Admiral Jack Dorsett, Director of Naval Intelligence