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Military Maintenance Workers – Best Training for Cyber Security Jobs

Updated | Julie Provost
Cyber Security Jobs

You might not think of cyber security jobs when you think about those who work in maintenance to fix airplanes in the military. However, the military did just that.

Studying Capacity to Do A Job

According to Air Force Colonel Jori Robinson, who is the vice commander of the Maryland Air National Guard 175th Wing, the Air Force is studying what makes someone have the capacity to do a job, not just currently being able to do the job.

She went on to learn about studies that were done about those who have worked in maintenance for 15 years being able to have to have the capacity and the innate ability to understand networks and end up becoming prolific and fantastic operators.

Military Maintainers Becoming Highly Sought After as Cyber Operators

She goes on to talk about how they took some of the maintainers in the Air Force and turned them into cyber operators. They are doing very well in their classes and becoming the most sought after in their field.

Air Force Lt. Colonel Jody Ogle, who is the J6 director of communications and cyber programs from the West Virginia National Guard said that West Virginia has already seen success from this effort when the 167th Air Wing started converting the C-5 Galaxy to the C-17 Globemaster.

As C-17s don’t require as many maintainers as a C-5 does, so they had more people who didn’t have their regular job. They used workforce development grant money to put them through civilian education and found success. About 50 maintainers went into cyber-related jobs

There Is An IT Side To Cyber

Ogle talked about how cyber isn’t always defense and that there is an IT side to cyber, and you need people to maintain that part of it.

The Air National Guard now has seven network warfare squadrons, as well as two information operations squadrons, one information aggressor squadron and a small amount of other cyber-capable units.

The Army National Guard is also establishing a Cyber Brigade to include five cyber battalions, 10 cyber protection teams, with one in each of the Federal Emergency Management regions. They also will have five cyber support companies and five cyber warfare companies.

Brigadier General Jeffrey Burkett, who is the vice director of domestic operations for The National Guard Bureau, talked about how they have 3,880 cyber warriors currently, and are building them out so that by 2022, they should be fully mission capable across all of the units and skill sets.

Both the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard are looking to the future by adding more cyber related jobs.

Maintenance Roles AFSC’s and MOS’s

The typical Maintenance AFSCs include job titles under the Aerospace Maintenance AFSC, 2A. They include jobs such as:

  • Tactical Aircraft Maintenance 2A3x3
  • Tactical Aircraft Maintenance (5th Generation) 2A3X7
  • Remotely Piloted Aircraft Maintenance 2A3X8
  • Airlift/Special Mission Aircraft Maintenance 2A5X1
  • Helicopter/Tiltrotor Aircraft Maintenance 2A5X2
  • Refuel/Bomber Aircraft Maintenance 2A5X4
  • Aircraft Structural Maintenance 2A7X3
  • Low Observable Aircraft Structural Maintenance 2A7X5

In the Army, they are a part of the Field Mechanical Maintenance,  91 MOS which includes jobs such as:

  • M1 Abrams Tank System Maintainer 91A
  • Wheel Vehicle Mechanic 91B
  • Utilities Equipment Repairer 91C
  • Tactical Power Generation Specialist 91D
  • Allied Trades Specialist 91E
  • Small Arms/Towed Artillery Repairer 91F
  • Tracked Vehicle Repairer 91H
  • Quartermaster/Chemical Equipment Repairer 91J
  • Construction Equipment Repairer 91L
  • Bradley Fighting Veh Sys Maintainer 91M
  • Self-Propelled Artillery System Maintainer 91P
  • Stryker System Maintainer 91S

Cyber-Related Air Force and Army Military Occupational Codes

When it comes to Cyber related AFSCs and MOSs, the Air Force has:

  • Cyber Warfare 1B
  • Cyberspace Support 3D
  • Cyberspace Operations Commander 17CX
  • Cyberspace Operations 17DX
  • Cyberspace Warfare Operations Officer 17SX

And the Army has:

  • Cyber Operations Technician 170A
  • Electronic Warfare Technician 290A
  • Cyber Operations Specialist 17C
  • Cyber Operations Officer 17A
  • Electronic Warfare Specialist 17E

To read more on this topic, go here…

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About the author

Julie Provost
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Julie Provost is a freelance writer, and blogger. She lives in Tennessee with her National Guard husband and three boys.

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