First cyber class graduates

  • Published
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) --  The Air Force took a significant step forward in its cyberspace training transformation Dec. 6, as 15 officers graduated from the first undergraduate cyberspace training course at here.

"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, a 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 training in the 333rd Training Squadron, focused on developing experts in cyberspace operations. The initial skills training course replaced basic communications officer training. Keesler Air Force Base's performance-based instruction is designed to provide 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 will 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 a dinner honoring the graduates. General Basla is the vice commander of Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB, 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 said. "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 U.S. military capacity that is beyond anything history has yet witnessed," he emphasized.

Although Keesler AFB 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.

Graduates are expected to 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.

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

(Courtesy of the 81st Training Wing Public Affairs Office)