/* Warning: Extensive over-use of the word “cyber” ahead. */
The other day my old friend and colleague Bob Gourley Tweeted:
Random thought: There are 24 four-star flag officers in the U.S. military. Every 4 star I have ever met is really smart. But only one of those 24 has real cyber war experience, and he is retiring soon. How do we change that for the better?
My friendly, snarky-a** response at the time was:
First: Get a time machine
The services have had “cyber” components for several years now, and the US Cyber Command has been active since 2009. But a military officer could have been exposed to what we would recognize as the cyber mission these days at roughly the turn of the century. For the sake of discussion let’s say this was their first assignment out of training. The average amount of time officers spend at various ranks breaks down something like this:
Rank / Time in Service
2nd Lieutenant / 1 year
1st Lieutenant / 1.5 years
Captain / 4 years
Major/ 10 years
Lieutenant Colonel/ 16 years
Colonel/ 22 years
So if our notional lieutenant started her career in cyber in ‘99, she attended all the right schools, got sufficient command time, and punched all her staff assignment tickets, she might be a G2 (chief intelligence officer) or battalion commander. If she was a “rock star” she may have received several “below the zone” promotions (getting advanced ahead of her peers) and might even be looking at colonel in the very near future.
But…
Time in service doesn’t mean time spent doing the job. The first 4-6 years of an officer’s career is learning the ropes. It is probably when they’re the most technically oriented. Once they get a company-level command their life is basically paperwork (and shaking their head ruefully and the shenanigans of the junior enlisted in their charge).
After company command is staff jobs (more paperwork), and higher civilian and military education. Lieutenant colonel is an officer’s next opportunity at command, and where they’re exposed in-depth to sub-disciplines and how to make all those moving parts work as a coherent whole. Then more staff time until colonel, and with luck brigade command.
In 20 years Colonel Duty Bound is a very well-rounded officer, but she has spent less than half of that time actively working the mission.
“But Mike, there were more senior officers who were working the mission back then. The pipeline of experienced cyber offices isn’t so grim.”
True, but you know who I never heard of back then? Paul Nakasone. You know who I did know? Dusty Rhodes (not the other one). “Who?” you ask. Exactly. Then Captain Jay Healey could have been a Colonel by now. Then Lt. Commander Bill Peyton a Rear Admiral. Then Major Marc Sachs a Lieutenant General. My man Bob Gourley could have been an Admiral and running US Fleet Cyber Command by now, but you know what the Navy decided not to do to one of the pioneering officers in the cyber field? Make him a Captain. We’re not lacking in talent, we’re lacking in talent management.
We have been training, equipping, and staffing for the cyber mission – in fits and starts – for over two decades, and yet the cyber career field is still a newborn. To put things into perspective, the Army Air Corps went from biplanes to the B-29 Super Fortress and nascent jet fighters between the ~20 years of its formation and the end of WWII. Moore’s Law indeed.
The various service schoolhouses can turn out 1,000 cyber lieutenants and ensigns a year, but there are still only a handful of flag officer billets for service-level and national-level command in the field. To be successful as warfighters in the information age, we have to ensure that “cyber” is an element within every career field. As odd as this sounds, we can’t treat technology, the use thereof, and the associated risks and threats to same, as something special. Everyone has to know something about it. Everyone has to be responsible for it to some degree. Every commander at every level in every career field needs to know what cyber can do for them (and if they’re not careful what it can do to them and their ability to execute the mission).
Success is a constellation, not a supernova.
