U.S. Army Cyber School Delivers Results

U.S. Army leaders continue to fill roles within their cyber department, and officials are crediting the success to courses taught at their unique cyber school at Fort Eisenhower, Georgia. This constant comes as the branch understands that maintaining its cyber operations is paramount in today’s ever-changing landscape.

The Army released an executive order that officially transformed the Signal Center of Excellence into the Cyber Center of Excellence (CCoE), according to Scott Anderson, an Army Cyber School historian. The executive order also created the school in 2014, and ever since then, the institution has followed the mission of providing “the Army with a highly skilled, agile, and innovative cyber workforce, trained to Army and Joint standards, to fulfill commanders’ strategic, operational, and tactical requirements within the cyberspace domain,” according to the CCoE.

Before the establishment of the CCoE and cyber school, the U.S. Army Signal Corps provided the branch with personnel to fill those positions within the cyber protection brigade, according to Todd Boudreau, deputy commandant of the Army Cyber School. The CCoE and the school allowed this procedure to completely change as they were now able to recruit and develop talent from within their own ranks, a project spearheaded by Gen. Raymond Odierno, former chief of staff of the Army. During an interview with SIGNAL Media, Boudreau further illustrated Odierno’s goal. 

“[Odierno] wanted a completely different mindset, not on a service delivery or a combat service or combat server support,” Boudreau said. “He wanted a separate branch that was recruited, trained and employed with the maneuver mindset: that we will maneuver through the cyberspace domain and through the electromagnetic spectrum in a way that we maneuver through a land domain.”

“And so having a separate school, not only a separate branch, allowed us to really focus on not just the information technology or IT skills that our soldiers on the cyber warfare side need, but also that culture that we inculcate within them as they acculturate, not only into the Army and the profession of arms but into this force,” Boudreau added.

The new cyber branch and school have proved extremely effective at accomplishing Odierno’s objective. The Army had about 2,200 individuals working in the cyber community, and now they have approximately 6,400 people, according to Boudreau. Army leaders say the cyber branch is continuing to grow. They estimate that they will add another 2,000 people by 2028. Boudreau credits that personnel increase to several new courses that the Army added.

“We’ve gone from 2,000 [people] and [we’re] headed towards 10,000 over that time frame,” Boudreau said. “We started the first officers’ course in 2015. We had a transition course for other branch individuals that were transitioning into cyber branch and folks that just came from the United States Military Academy West Point, or ROTC; we had their basic course.”

“In 2015, we started training our officers,” Boudreau added. “In 2016, we started training our Army’s warrant officers that were in the cyber branch, and then in 2017, we started training the enlisted cohort. So, three years in a row, we added to those. In 2018, we took the EW soldiers. They were formerly number 29 series, and they transitioned into the 17 series.”

And soldiers attending the school come from a wide variety of backgrounds, especially their area of expertise and demographics. The student body consists of some individuals who have managed their own IT companies and others who have no experience whatsoever, according to Boudreau.

During an interview with SIGNAL Media, Boudreau said that nearly a quarter of the student population enters the school with a bachelor’s degree, while others are admitted straight out of high school. The institution is designed for this: accepting students with no prior experience while offering advanced courses for soldiers with exceptional knowledge within the realm. School officials also rely on experienced students to help and tutor individuals who might be coming into the school with basic cyber knowledge.

“The individuals that already came with skills, they’re helping to bring up or train up their peer student because they’re going to be stationed with each other, and so that builds that,” said Boudreau. “It also builds that camaraderie, and within the military, you’re part of the team, and part of your responsibility is to train others.”

Nevertheless, due to the ever-changing and unique nature of the cyber world, this is purposeless unless the school’s professors educate their students on up-to-date material. The institution accomplished this essential task in several ways. 

Firstly, and arguably most obviously, school officials ensure their instructors are trained and ready to go with the most relevant information. Another way is that the institution typically hires its instructors on a two- or three-year cycle, so every time they bring in new teachers, with them comes new information and changes within the cyber realm. 

On the technical side of cyberspace, school officials have developed a software product known as “GIT.” Individuals with access to the software can look at code and make any relevant changes to ensure that the information is updated. Senior instructors are then responsible for monitoring any changes made and making sure those changes are reflected in the material that school officials teach, according to Boudreau.

Another unique thing about the institution is that it is the only cyber-specific school offered within the military. The Army takes on the challenge of educating members of other branches and ensuring they are also ready to take on the world’s biggest threats and risks when it comes to cyber.

Lastly, turning to what the future looks like for students who complete and graduate from the program. Some soldiers get assigned to a position within the active Army. Others already have jobs in the IT industry, so following completion, they return to their jobs and can show what they have learned, which can lead to promotions or other higher-paying career paths within the industry. But Boudreau noted that they want to train students who will then help the public sector rather than the private sector.

“We don’t want to be a jobs program,” said Boudreau. “We also recognize that a lot of people that we will train will get out. Somebody asked, ‘What if you train them all and then they all get out?’ Well, the counter to that is what if we train none of them and they all stay in, and so we have to train them to their jobs.”

“But then also on the other side, we don’t want them all to stay in,” Boudreau added. “We have pyramids in the services with fewer positions at higher grades, and so we know that a number of folks are going to get out. Our desire is that we can hopefully work with the ones that we want to stay in, and they’ll stay in, and others that get out make great Americans out there working in all of the cyberspace and cybersecurity positions that keep our country safe.”