PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Rear Adm. Nancy A. Norton, director of Warfare Integration for Information Dominance, wrapped up a two-day visit to training and operational commands for the information warfare (IW) community in Pensacola, Jan. 15.
Her visit began with a stop at Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Pensacola for an operations brief and a facilities tour.
She observed firsthand Cyber Mission Force and national support Sailors conducting cyberspace operations and signals intelligence tasks.
In her previous position as the director of the Command, Control, Communications and Cyber Directorate, J6, at U.S. Pacific Command, some of the combat support teams at NIOC Pensacola had worked for her, and she said she had always wanted to see them in action in person.
"Seeing the progression that they've made, that all of the teams have made, and all of the missions there at NIOC Pensacola was just wonderful," said Norton. "They have made leaps and bounds from pretty much a cold start of starting up capability to providing direct support to real world operations. It's really impressive — great Sailors, great mission. They're doing tremendous work."
Norton met with Rear Adm. Michael S. White, commander, Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), which set the stage for a comprehensive visit to the IW community's training arm at the Center for Information Dominance (CID) headquarters and one of its four units, CID Unit Corry Station.
Instructors and staff provided an overview of the kind of courses taught throughout the CID domain, many in fleet concentration areas, to about 3,800 students from all military services every day.
"Nothing beats a trip to CID (in) Pensacola for a shot in the arm to tell you how bright the future of the United States Navy is and the information warfare community," said Norton.
Tours and briefs included the afloat operations training system, the electronics training lab, the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 maintenance course, the cryptologic technician (collection) digital signals lab, the cryptologic technician (networks) course and its capstone exercise, and the Ship Signal Exploitation Equipment (SSEE) Increment "E" and Increment "F" shipboard countermeasures suite lab.
Demonstrations for intelligent tutoring, adapted to the information systems technician curriculum, showed Norton some of the innovative methods being tested using advanced teaching methodologies to deliver dynamic, relevant training. The artificial intelligence-based training coaches students one-on-one through interactive software.
"Seeing the young Sailors who are going through the training and the instructors who are teaching those young Sailors just warms the heart to know that the motivation is high, the skills are high, they know what they want to do," said Norton. "They are determined to go out there and make a difference in the fleet, and they're going to be able to do it because of the skills that CID is giving them.
"I'm particularly impressed with some of the instructors here and how motivated they are to make a difference and to be able to influence the future of the Navy."
She also met with and answered questions from officers attending the Information Professional (IP) Basic Course, and a discussion on the way ahead for the course gave Norton the latest on training for the IW community's IP officers.
Capt. Maureen Fox, CID headquarters commanding officer, noted that the visit was an opportunity for Norton to gain insight into how high-caliber cyber, cryptology, and information technology training is developed and delivered to future IW community Sailors.
"The domain that the information warfare community operates in is multifaceted and is evolving so quickly," said Fox. "I was so pleased to have Adm. Norton see the high quality of Sailors we are delivering to today's fleet. This visit helped show one of our primary customers how CID is providing a competitive edge in all IW mission areas in support of the CNO's strategic guidance."
CID, with its headquarters based at Naval Air Station Pensacola Corry Station, is the NETC learning center that leads, manages and delivers Navy and joint forces training in information operations, information warfare, information technology, cryptology and intelligence.
With nearly 1,300 military, civilian and contracted staff members, CID provides training for approximately 22,000 members of the U.S. armed services and allied forces each year. CID oversees the development and administration of more than 200 courses at four commands, two detachments and 12 learning sites throughout the United States and Japan.
For more information on the Center for Information Dominance, visit www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ceninfodom/; www.facebook.com/CenterForInformationDominance/ and twitter.com/CenterInfoDom/.