Air Force To Re-Open Pursuit of Cyber Command 142
GovTechGuy writes "Top Air Force leadership has decided to pursue forming a Cyber Command to defend Defense Department networks and to launch cyberattacks against foes, after putting the project on hold in August."
Why don't they just hire media defener (Score:3, Interesting)
All they want are DDOS kiddies right? They might as well do something useful with that company, such as defending the nation instead of letting it attack our citizens.
Don't bother applying, you'll just load missiles.. (Score:5, Interesting)
That is a shame. However, it's not the saddest part of this story. The saddest part of this story is the boneheaded way the Air Force fills positions... it will probably make this a command not worth working in, and not as effective as it could be. The real problem is that the Air Force, and other branches of the military, tend to treat people as interchangeable, identical cogs, rather than individuals with aptitudes, skills, and backgrounds that vary widely.
Backstory: I actually did try to apply for this command. My background is this: I have two bachelor's degrees, one in computer science, and one in computer engineering, both with distinction. During college, I specialized in information security and showed a great deal of aptitude for it. I was offered jobs by both the NSA and CIA, and was OKed for the highest level of clearance.
So I hear about this thing with the Air Force, and I thought, "Man, that sounds interesting, and I know I can do it." So I talked to one of the recruiters online and told him I'd be happy to serve my country and be happy to join the Air Force, but I told him I had some unique abilities I could give them and asked him if I could enlist into that command.
And he told me no. He told me I would be placed according to the needs of the Air Force, basically wherever they felt like it. They would not take any look at my background at all. The likelihood that I would be just a laborer loading missiles (I use missile loading as an example) onto a jet was higher than me being put in the Cyber Command, despite my advanced background. And it was also just as likely that they would grab some random missile loader and stick him in the command, assuming they can "train him into it" just like they train someone to operate a radio.
So needless to say, I passed on that opportunity. If our country were being attacked and missile loaders were the thing we most needed, I would be happy to serve, so don't get me wrong. But given how things are today, I'm not going to join the Air Force and let them squander my skills. That's not good for either me or them, because they don't get all of my skilled potential, and I don't get to contribute everything I can. So they can go find some other grunt to load missiles, and someday, if they actually acknowledge that some people are better suited for a job than others, I'll be around. But if they insist on being blind to the differences between individuals and wasting much of the talent in their organization, then I won't ever serve with them (except perhaps in critical wartime).
Re:Where do I apply? (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope the ethics hammered into the better class of military leaders (and I mean West Point, Annapolis, Air Force Academy graduates)
You think the ring-tappers* are the "better class of military leaders"? You've obviously never been in the military--- or are yourself a ring-tapper. They're the jackass political hacks that fill the halls of the pentagon with hare-brained ideas that fly in the face of reason**.
* so called for the annoying habit of many of them of spending too much time pointing out that they graduated from [W.Point|Annapolis|Colo Spgs], and not enough time demonstrating the leadership skills they (supposedly) learned there. Specifically refers to the practice of tapping the academy grad ring against stuff, as if by idle habit, in order to draw attention to it.
** Two classic examples: the Army Combat Uniform for the Army and the Airman Battle Uniform for the Air Force:
The Army spent millions working with the US Army Natick Labs and outside contractors like Crye Precision to develop a truly universal camouflage. One result of that was Crye MultiCam [wikipedia.org]. Unfortunately, some asshat ring-tapper general decided to go with the current ACU pattern [wikipedia.org] because the other patterns weren't "digital", like the Marines have.
In the case of the Airman Battle Uniform [wikipedia.org], the original pattern was to be tiger stripe with dark blue stripes [scarmy.com]! Some chair-bound rig tapper hack AF general and his yes-men at the Pentagon decided that the Air Force didn't really need effective camouflage, as airmen don't go into combat. During testing, it was pointed out to them by the airmen testing that yes, many of them do go into combat, so a useful camouflage might be better, thank you very fucking much. Fortunately, they listened to reason and modified it to a more sensible gray stripe. Sadly, they totally ignored requests to make its pockets/collar/etc similar to the much improved Army ACU, and subsequently those poor Air Force slobs are still walking around in the same crappy uniform we all wore in the 80's, only in a different color. Well, OK, the AF wore the outdated olive drab "pickle suit" the Army and USMC dumped in '82 until 1988, so I guess this is just par for the course.
Re:Where do I apply? (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope the ethics hammered into the better class of military leaders (and I mean West Point, Annapolis, Air Force Academy graduates) are a part of those leading the group. I don't mean the Gitmo crew, I mean the old school for whom a class in civics is not an elective. People for whom "honor" is not negotiable.
During my years of enlisted service in both the Army and the Air Force, I worked with a lot of academy grads and a lot of officers who got their commissions in other ways (ROTC, OCS/OTS, etc.) and I never saw any difference in quality based on where they came from. There were some very good ones, some bad ones, and as with any large group of people, the majority somewhere in the middle. It's true that the academies have very strong honor codes and try to instill those in their cadets. The downside is that the strong sense of esprit de corps the academies foster in order to get the cadets to take the honor code seriously also can make their graduates see themselves as the Chosen Few, superior to everyone else in the military (officers and enlisted) and they're often arrogant and closed-minded as a result. Also, remember that getting into the academies is essentially a political process -- the most common way is to get a nomination from a Senator or Representative -- so cadets tend to come from well-off, connected families, which can also add to this kind of arrogance.
Balance it all out -- the very good education, intensive training, and constant drumbeat of honor and discipline academy cadets receive, vs. the exposure to the wider world and range of experience those who obtain their commissions by other routes get during their formative years -- and it's pretty much a wash.
Re:Don't bother applying, you'll just load missile (Score:1, Interesting)
True. But the problem with this way of thinking is when they try to apply it to civilians or military SMEs... perhaps at a DC HQs? Where the only excuse they can come up is "in case you are hit by a bus"?
I went to school for 4 years (+2 grad school so far) and, have a job as a DoD computer scientist, why do I have to know how to do Sgt Snuffy's job? Sgt Snuffy sure doesn't understand how to do MY job.