More Than Button Pushing

Classroom Instruction

The quality of our training will determine our mission success. Shortcuts during training can have negative long-term effects on our mission readiness. This article is intended to pick up where The Lost Art of Training left off. If you haven’t read it yet, I would suggest you start there.

The Shifting Sands of Technology

White Sands

Technical competence is the foundation on which our profession is built. We are in a constant race to maintain a relevant set of skills. Technology is continuously changing and evolving like shifting sand under our feet. If we fail to learn and adapt, we will be left behind.

Getting from A to Z Part 2 (Troubleshooting Layer 3)

Troubleshooting

By and large I personally think that most of us are much more comfortable with layer three than any other layer in the OSI model. We deal with it each and every day. We have a number of tools at our disposal which make it very easy for us to see if/when it’s working and just how the data is traveling. To start with though, we have to know just how things are supposed to work.

Getting from A to Z

Troubleshooting

When I entered the Army in July 1999, I came in as 31F (switch operator). Anyone who worked with MSE will remember that it had almost absolutely no data capabilities, but also that it was extremely easy to troubleshoot. Signal flow for MSE was pretty darn easy to understand. If you understood the idea of how the system worked, the signal flow was easy to follow. With the introduction of JNN and IP data networks to tactical communications, logical and physical said “It’s been fun” and headed their separate ways leaving our operators and even ourselves busy scratching our heads wondering how the hell it all worked.

2015 Warrant Officer Promotion List

Warrant Officer 97 Years of Service

So in case you missed it, at long last the FY 15 warrant officer promotion list was released (two weeks into FY16). You can see the list here. While I am sure that branch will send out their analysis shortly a couple of quick numbers after looking at the list.

Cyber Operations Technician Warrant Officer Accession Details Announced

ARCyber

MILPER Message 15-294 was released today which officially announced the details of the first 170A Cyber Operations Technician accession board. I had previously said that I believed that the Jan 2016 selection board would be the first time that 170A was looked at, instead it looks like it will now be the March 2016 board which is expected to be held O/A 14 March 2016.