Air Force holds first joint DT for cyber operations career field

By Staff Sgt. Steve Grever
Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs

June 23, 2010 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Senior Air Force officials from across the space and cyberspace spectrum met at the Air Force Personnel Center May 31 through June 4 to conduct the first joint cyber operations career field developmental team for officers and civilians.

The 17D career field developmental team was comprised of general officers, major command communications directors, and other key representatives from throughout the Air Force cyberspace community.

Lt. Col. Oscar Delgado, the Air Force Personnel Center Cyberspace Operations Assignments Branch chief, said this DT focused on professional military education for officers and civilians. The DT reviewed more than 100 officer packages for senior developmental education, 150 officer packages for intermediate developmental education and 20 civilian packages for civilian developmental education.

“We had a unique situation with a combined DT with not only just military, but civilians as well,” Colonel Delgado said. “It was a combined effort, and the focus of the developmental team was to look at school opportunities for civilians and officers.”

Brig. Gen. Tod Wolters, the Air Force Space Command director of air, space and cyberspace operations, chaired the first 17D developmental team and was inspired by the depth of talent and experience he saw when the team was reviewing officer and civilian packages.

“We have amazing people doing amazing things who work extremely hard, and it is inspiring to see how much talent these individual Airmen have,” General Wolters said. “We’ll be just fine as an Air Force because when you start with great talent and technical expertise, you know you’ll be okay.”

General Wolters explained that the 17D career field is unique due to the nature of the cyber operations mission. This requires the Airmen who make up the cyber operations career field to have a higher level of technical expertise as well as other qualities that are expected of Air Force officers.

“I’ve had the opportunity to serve on a 13S developmental team that takes care of our space operators, and those individuals require a high degree of technical expertise,” the general said. “It helps us as we work on this 17D DT for the first time to have a lot of folks who have been exposed previously to the 13S career field. Technical expertise is critical. We have that in abundance in the Air Force.” Developmental teams play a critical role in helping manage the force and typically focus on one of three areas – squadron commander positions, PME or vectoring. Since this DT for cyber operations was geared toward PME, the team’s next meeting in August will focus on squadron commander opportunities for 17D officers.

Colonel Delgado said AFPC provides extensive logistics support and manning to ensure each DT receives everything they need to manage and vector their respective officers and civilians.

“We bring everyone in and facilitate the entire discussion and meetings,” Colonel Delgado said. “We are here to provide personnel information and have all the records reviewed before team members actually get here and start scoring. So, when the team arrives it can hit the ground running and focus on vectoring and selecting the right officers and civilians.”

During the 17D DT outbrief, General Wolters commended AFPC and several members of the communications and information officer assignments branch for its efforts during the 17D DT as well.

“We received outstanding support from the AFPC team in every regard,” the general said.