US Army cyber warriors may be excused combat training

[Майор Хаткевич]

The thing that stood out the most for me was, I cannot recall the last time I saw a ponytail.

what are you suggesting a LTG is out of touch with today's youth and fashion trends.   

The LTGs pre-speech briefing must have consisted of this:


Air Force concept:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=gSI71JSLkiI

[Brit_in_CAP]

Don't we already have a way for people like this to serve the national interests in this way? DoD civilian employees and contractors.

Contractors and civilians are not authorized to perform certain "offensive" cyber attacks just like civilians and contractors are not authorized to be used as offensive troops on the battlefield.

Perhaps we should start issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal to the contractors.

:clap: :clap:

Classy!

[kwe1009]

Don't we already have a way for people like this to serve the national interests in this way? DoD civilian employees and contractors.

Contractors and civilians are not authorized to perform certain "offensive" cyber attacks just like civilians and contractors are not authorized to be used as offensive troops on the battlefield.

Perhaps we should start issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal to the contractors.

:clap: :clap:

Classy!

Nice!

[LSThiker]

What if...somehow their "cyberbunker" gets infiltrated and they have to actually defend themselves?

Because their "cyberbunker" is in the US.  We are in a world of hurt if that happens

Really, what they are saying makes sense.  It is basically the same thing we do with medical professionals.  Do we need to send doctors, nurses, PTs, and others through the same combat training as Infantry?  Not really.  So perhaps they are on the right thinking about these technical professionals. 

[68w20]

What if...somehow their "cyberbunker" gets infiltrated and they have to actually defend themselves?

Because their "cyberbunker" is in the US.  We are in a world of hurt if that happens

Really, what they are saying makes sense.  It is basically the same thing we do with medical professionals.  Do we need to send doctors, nurses, PTs, and others through the same combat training as Infantry?  Not really.  So perhaps they are on the right thinking about these technical professionals.

There's still a major difference between Infantry School and Basic Combat Training (and the Officer equivalent).  All Soldiers learn the fundamentals of war-fighting, regardless of whether they're going to Ft Benning to train as an 11B, or to Joint Base San Antonio as a 68V.

[LSThiker]

There's still a major difference between Infantry School and Basic Combat Training (and the Officer equivalent).  All Soldiers learn the fundamentals of war-fighting, regardless of whether they're going to Ft Benning to train as an 11B, or to Joint Base San Antonio as a 68V.

All enlisted do yes, but not all officers.  There is the Army and there is AMEDD.  70 series officers go through Basic Officers Leaders Course (BOLC) (the new OBC).  This is divided into Phase I and Phase II.  Phase I is at Fort Sill or Fort Benning and consists of all AOCs (including Infantry), while Phase II is your AOC course.  On the other hand, MEDPROs (except some 65D) go through Officers Basic Leaders Course (OBLC), which is a school conducted only by AMEDD at Fort Sam. 

Needless to say, it "teaches" new MEDPROs how to live in the Army, but it is far from teaching the fundamentals of war-fighting.  Yes, it "teaches" basic tasks such as orienteering, saluting, M-9 qualification, but it is really a familiarization than a teaching.

So, if the Army is actually considering just teaching cyberwarfare soldiers that are non-deployable MOSs, then perhaps setting up a Signal Corps version of OBLC for them is not that far fetched.   

[Al Sayre]

Or they could move NSA under DOD and then put them TDY to the Army as needed...

[LSThiker]

Or they could move NSA under DOD and then put them TDY to the Army as needed...

NSA operates under the DoD. Their budget and personnel are administratively controlled by the Army. The director serves as the commander for US Cyber Command and is a 3-star General. so that is how they already operate.

[SaBeR33]

Or they could move NSA under DOD and then put them TDY to the Army as needed...

NSA operates under the DoD. Their budget and personnel are administratively controlled by the Army. The director serves as the commander for US Cyber Command and is a 3-star General. so that is how they already operate.

You're almost correct. The NSA's budget and personnel are loosely administratively controlled by the ODNI, not the Army. And yes, the NSA Director (aka the DIRNSA, pronounced "dern-suh") also serves as the Commander of USCYBERCOM, but the DIRNSA is a 4-star general or flag officer while the Deputy Director of USCYBERCOM is a 3-star general or flag officer.

[PhoenixRisen]

Really, what they are saying makes sense.  It is basically the same thing we do with medical professionals.  Do we need to send doctors, nurses, PTs, and others through the same combat training as Infantry?  Not really.  So perhaps they are on the right thinking about these technical professionals.

As someone who is physically fit enough to pass PT tests, has the technical experience, but is medically DQ'd from any type of uniformed service due to medical reasoning, I'm absolutely stoked about this thought!  I know I'm not the only one in the same boat...

[NIN]

Dunno how I missed this one.

There is a fair degree of precedent for this kind of thing.

I have a first-hand example: During BCT, I had a solider in my platoon who was absolutely *horrid* at pushups. As in "We spent 8 weeks pushing and he didn't get any better" horrid.

Come time for our final PT test, I know for a fact that Sam didn't score 42 pushups because our entire platoon was cheering him on as he did about 24 pushups.

Sam graduated with the rest of us, on time.  He'd been given a waiver for his crappy PT score.

A *waiver*? I was incredulous, but Sam was one of my soliders, and darn it, that was fantastic for him. You can't say the guy wasn't trying, but his build (he was very tall, like 6' 2") and body shape (he was kind of "big boned" so to speak) conspired against his chicken arms. 

I bade Sam a farewell as I got on the bus to head to AIT at Fort Eustis.  About 20 weeks later, I'm checking in at my first assignment at Camp Humphreys, ROK, and I have to go to finance. There is SP4 Sam, sitting behind the counter as one of the finance clerks!  Turns out, Sam had a 4 year degree in Finance, and the Army didn't even send him to an AIT: Right from BCT to Cp Humphreys. *pow*

Guess if they need your civilian skills bad enough, they'll waive a lot of stuff.

BTW, this was in 1986.