Posted on Apr 22, 2020
Warrant officers should be the next cyber operators
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Warrant Officers
Cyber
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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This sounds like a good plan. Another possibility is to offer career incentive pay as well as enlistment and reenlistment bonus’ to Enlisted Operators.
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Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin
They already do. It's not enough to keep the really talented operators. Like the Army, where they have Warrant Officer pilots, they also provide them with flight pay, bonuses, and hazardous duty pay (and combat pay when they go into theater).
If you couple Warrant pay with Cyber Pay (not necessarily bonuses), and allow them to stay in their technical field throughout their career, I think we would go a long way into solving retention. Both Officers and SNCOs get taken off the keyboard eventually and moved far away from the operators. Some don't have a problem with that, but many others do.
Warrants could become the primary source of cyber operators. They would be allowed to remain technical throughout their career as a rule with few exceptions.
The Enlisted force should be designated to cover the maintenance of the kits in garrison and also deploy with the teams to install and maintain the kits on mission. Those that demonstrate high degrees of technical capability should be encouraged to become Warrants/operators.
The Officers should go through the same cyber ops training pipeline as the Warrants, only we are not looking to keep them as operators for their entire career after they make Captain (4 years). They are meant to learn the technical aspects and become familiar with the aspects of tactical cyber ops. As they rise in rank, they will get less and less keyboard time and be expected to lead the teams, enable cyber operations, lead the units, etc... They also need to know this going into OTS/Academy/ROTC and eventually the cyber training pipeline... They will not be technical operators for their entire career. Their job is to learn the ropes as young LTs, and eventually lead the cyber forces. If they feel like their are too technical for that and that they just want to do the technical stuff, then they need to go the Warrant Officer path. Officers would also not receive the cyber pay after they no longer are required to maintain their proficiency on keyboard.
If you couple Warrant pay with Cyber Pay (not necessarily bonuses), and allow them to stay in their technical field throughout their career, I think we would go a long way into solving retention. Both Officers and SNCOs get taken off the keyboard eventually and moved far away from the operators. Some don't have a problem with that, but many others do.
Warrants could become the primary source of cyber operators. They would be allowed to remain technical throughout their career as a rule with few exceptions.
The Enlisted force should be designated to cover the maintenance of the kits in garrison and also deploy with the teams to install and maintain the kits on mission. Those that demonstrate high degrees of technical capability should be encouraged to become Warrants/operators.
The Officers should go through the same cyber ops training pipeline as the Warrants, only we are not looking to keep them as operators for their entire career after they make Captain (4 years). They are meant to learn the technical aspects and become familiar with the aspects of tactical cyber ops. As they rise in rank, they will get less and less keyboard time and be expected to lead the teams, enable cyber operations, lead the units, etc... They also need to know this going into OTS/Academy/ROTC and eventually the cyber training pipeline... They will not be technical operators for their entire career. Their job is to learn the ropes as young LTs, and eventually lead the cyber forces. If they feel like their are too technical for that and that they just want to do the technical stuff, then they need to go the Warrant Officer path. Officers would also not receive the cyber pay after they no longer are required to maintain their proficiency on keyboard.
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SSG Robert Mark Odom The Name Cyber is New but Electronic and Information Warfare Warrant Officers have been around a while. CWO Bob Payne and Several Others come to mind. One is even a Friend of Someone I Know here SPC Robert Conway I Heard Him Earlier talking about Jim Wright.
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This makes sense. The reality is that the paygrade on the civilian market is just too high for enlisted ranks to compete. It's not just a little more, it's a lot more. And they have to put up with all the BS of being enlisted when in the civilian world they will be highly respected and in demand talent.
Sure some will stay, but a lot, probably many of the best ones, will leave.
Sure some will stay, but a lot, probably many of the best ones, will leave.
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