Center for Information Dominance Receives Go-ahead for Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialty Pin
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS110210-07
2/10/2011
By Gary Nichols, Center for Information Dominance Public Affairs
PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Center for Information Dominance (CID) has become the first non-operational shore command to be approved for the Navy's newly created Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialty (EIDWS) pin, Jan. 6.
The EIDWS, along with the IDC Warfare pin for officers, are the first new pins to be approved for the Navy since it rolled out the Expeditionary Warfare Specialty pin in 2006.
The new warfare designation is an integral part of the Information Dominance Corps (IDC), which was established Jan. 29, 2010, as part of the reactivation of the 10th Fleet at Fort Meade, Md.
In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October 2009, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced the future of cyber warfare. In addition to the 10th Fleet, he spoke about the creation of the Navy's newest corps as one of the centerpieces of that new cyber future.
"Right now we have a lot of ratings, a lot of specialties within the Navy that in and of themselves are a bunch of different communities, a bunch of different structures if you will," Roughead said. "And we will combine them into an Information Dominance Corps."
In this new corps, he said, the diverse communities would include Information Systems Technicians, Cryptographic Technicians, Aerographers Mates, Information Professionals and Intelligence, and they would have a new warfare pin to reflect their new responsibilities.
"So what we have done is to take our already very proficient and experienced operators and create with them and with others an 'Information Dominance Corps,'" Roughead said.
"They will all be combined into an Information Dominance Corps, and when you add that together, it will constitute about 44,000 Sailors in the United States Navy. They will retain their individual identities, but they will be managed as a corps, they will develop as a corps and they will fight as a corps."
Since its inception in 2005 CID has led the fight by using a multi-disciplinary, asymmetric approach to training joint warfighters for cyber space and to dominate the information domain.
CID Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Christopher Thompson explained that it makes sense for CID to be selected for the EIDWS because CID develops IDC Sailors.
"Our command is named Center for Information Dominance," Thompson said. "So when the Navy implements a new warfare program, named Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialist, one would think CID would be the leader for this warfare program because we train virtually every aspect of the EIDWS program. Minus the meteorology and the intelligence portion, CID teaches everything within the Information Dominance Corps."
Ironically, as a shore-based training command, CID wasn't one of the commands initially selected to be an authorizing authority for the EIDWS.
In October 2010 CID Commanding Officer Capt. Gary Edwards selected Senior Enlisted Leader CTRC(SW/AW) Doc Wallach to form a team of subject matter experts (SME) from CID to come up with an EIDWS qualification program for CID instuctors.
Over the next several months Wallach and his group of 23 active-duty and retired Chief Petty Officers – all experts in their respective fields – labored during weekends and off-duty hours to develop a qualification program so CID instructors could have the chance of qualifying for the EIDWS.
Wallach said putting together the entire program from start to finish was especially challenging since none of that work was done during duty hours. The reason, he said, is because CID's primary mission of training Sailors and joint service members is too important to compromise by working on extra-curricular work, even for important work such as the EIDWS program.
He said the experience was invaluable because each member of his team learned a lot about their individual rates along with the rates of their fellow cryptologists and information systems technicians.
When CID's qualification program was finally completed to the satisfaction of Thomson and Wallach's team, they invited Navy Cyber Forces Force Master Chief (AW/SW) Jay Powers to Corry Station, the home of CID to evaluate their new program.
Thompson, Wallach and CID's team of SMEs were a little nervous about the visit because the original instruction was written for operational commands.
"He (Powers) was skeptical about a training command – a non-operational command – being approved for the program," Thompson said. "So he came down here thinking that he probably would not approve the program and he told us this ahead of time."
Following the evaluation, Powers told the working group they had developed a solid, well-thought out and thorough qualification program, probably the best he had seen to date. Nevertheless, they would learn what his decision would be at the end of the day.
"The only thing that was going through my mind was that I might have to face all these subject matter experts who had put all these months of effort into this project and tell them 'I'm sorry that I wasted your time,'" Wallach said. "That's what I was most fearful of."
During an all-Chiefs meeting at the Chiefs Mess on board Corry Station at the end of the day, the team finally had the answer they were hoping for.
"CID is the birth place for our IDC Sailors," Powers said. "CID's entrance into the Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare program brings a wealth of battle-tested experience and continues the development and qualification of our Navy Master Training Specialist (MTS) IDC Sailors. As I reviewed your program it became crystal-clear to me that not only does the EIDWS program belong here, but it promises to be the gold standard for all other EIDWS programs across the globe."
Each CID instructor is currently mandated to earn their MTS. Now they will be required to earn their EIDWS before completing their tour of duty at CID.
Wallach said shore duty at CID is going to be even more rugged now due to the rigorous EIDWS qualification process, but the instructors will become better Sailors because of the new requirements.
CID Executive Officer Cmdr. Michael Douglas said he was proud of the monumental effort by his Chief Petty Officers who put the successful EIDWS qualification program together.
"These Chiefs really exemplify the concept of one team, one fight," Douglas said. This new warfare qualification pin shows the world that CID Sailors are leading the effort to protect and defend the information domain, and I believe they really deserve this recognition for their contribution."
"They are going to be the best of the best in the community and probably the future leaders in the community," Wallach said.
The group of SMEs at CID Corry Station are scheduled to take their qualifying examination the first week of March. If and when they qualify and their program is certified by Powers, every CID instructor throughout the CID domain will be eligible to qualify for – and if successful – proudly wear the new EIDWS pin.
"We're going to challenge them every step of the way," Thompson said. "In essence what we're doing is taking a great Sailor and making them even better. When they complete their tour here at CID, they'll be a better, more well-rounded Sailor, and any command will be fortunate to have one of our instructors join their ranks."
CID is the Navy's Learning Center that leads, manages, and delivers Navy and joint force training in information operations, information technology and cryptology.
With a staff of more than 1,050 military, civilian and contracted staff members, CID Corry Station oversees the development and administration of more than 168 courses at 16 learning sites throughout the United States and in Japan. CID Corry Station provides training for more than 19,000 members of the U.S. Armed Services and allied forces each year.
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