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First cyber class graduates

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  • By 81st Training Wing Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Air Force took a significant step forward in its cyberspace training transformation today as 15 officers graduated from the first undergraduate cyberspace training course at Keesler.

"It's time to leave here and provide the Air Force and the nation with real options and opportunities based on what you've learned," said Brig. Gen. David Cotton, guest speaker at the graduation ceremony. General Cotton is the director of cyberspace operations and Air Force senior information assurance officer for the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Information Dominance at the Pentagon.

"You'll provide an improved mission assurance and provide the hope that we have folks that can be deployed as leaders as we go forward into this new world with new missions and new capabilities based on threats and vulnerabilities," he said.

The cyberspace operations officers completed 24 weeks of rigorous training in the 333rd Training Squadron focused on developing experts in cyber space operations. The initial skills training course replaced basic communications officer training. Keesler's performance-based instruction provides students with an introduction to fundamentals and operations in the cyberspace domain.

The course is part of the Air Force's vision for a fully developed Air Force cyberspace operations workforce with the required operational rigor and mission assurance for effectively establishing, controlling and leveraging cyberspace capabilities.

"You might not fully appreciate the magnitude of your military service in this mission area right now, but I promise you that if you maintain your commitment and stay in the armed forces, when you look back on your life one day, you realize how unbelievable it was to have had this historic opportunity to be part of such a special, pioneering group," said Maj. Gen. Michael Basla at Monday's dinner honoring the graduates. He's the vice commander of Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.

"No enemy out there today is ready to go against the United States beak to beak, but they are very willing to go after our soft underbelly, using the capabilities that you just studied these last 24 weeks," General Basla pointed out. "Your mission is to prevent them from doing that.

"These three warfighting domains of air, space, and cyberspace offer opportunities for great synergy and our integrated approach for rapidly planning and executing operations across these domains will allow us to deliver tremendous warfighting capability to the armed forces, for a US military capacity that is beyond anything history has yet witnessed," he emphasized.

Although Keesler has trained officers and enlisted members in communications, computer technology, air traffic control and electronics for decades, technical training is transitioning to support the Air Force's new roles in cyberspace operations. The training is intended to bolster the unfolding organizational, technical and security demands of a network-centric Air Force operating in the cyberspace domain.

The new course provides initial training for 17DX cyber operations officers, a career field that replaced 33SX communications officers. The course provides a foundation on which officers can build their skill sets.

Graduates have the fundamental training to establish, secure, operate, assess and actively defend seven types of networks including command and control systems, Internet protocol, telephony, satellite and mobile telecommunications.

Because of the fluid nature of the cyberspace domain, the Keesler training team is primed to keep pace with changes in cyberspace technology, tactics, techniques and procedures through strong partnerships with career field managers, Air Education and Training Command representatives, other Department of Defense agencies, industry and academia.

In the first phase of the course, students earned their Security + certification, a commercial standard in the industry. The second half of the course emphasizes what it means to fly, fight and win in cyberspace at the Internet protocol level, with training on networking fundamentals and a variety of simulators.

Up to 400 military members, civilians and international students are expected to complete the course annually.

Susan Griggs, Keesler News editor; 1st Lt. Joost Verduyn, 81st Training Wing Public Affairs deputy director; and Airman 1st Class Heather Holcomb, 81st Training Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this report.