U.S. Cyber Command Chief inspires students

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Austin Knox
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Chief Master Sgt. Kevin Slater, U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency/Central Security Service senior enlisted leader, visited Goodfellow, Sept. 10, to get a first hand view of its world class training environment.

Slater graduated from the Cryptologic Linguist Training at Goodfellow in 1985 and went on to serve in various intelligence positions around the globe; including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ft. Meade, Maryland.

During his visit, Slater talked about cyber defense and how it has become a major area for the Defense Department where lines of defense are required.

"I'm not even sure if the word cyber ever came up in mission discussions during the first 15 years of my career," Slater said. "We had communications, we had operations, and we had intelligence. We hadn't fully realized the convergence of the many pieces and parts of what would later become cyber. We quickly realized the positive mission impacts of technological advancements and found mission accomplishment becoming more and more dependent on access to cyber space than ever before."

He also said that our ability to move greater amounts of data at ever-increasing rates around the globe has impacted assignments of service members in ways much different than his own experiences. We have gone from having to send the person to the data to sending the data to the person.

Slater's visit also served to give the students an idea on what to expect in their career and to share some words of wisdom. Chief Slater offered some advice to the students, that although the intelligence career field is analytical and data driven, this type of thinking is not always helpful or healthy for a successful life.

"I would encourage people not to turn their life's journey into a math problem or science project," he told the students. "Show up every day with the right attitude and meet each opportunity with your best effort. Doors will open and more opportunities will present themselves to you. Before long you will look back and thirty years will have passed and you probably will have surprised yourself with how much you were able to contribute along the way."

Slater also took the time to thank the students and permanent party for their dedication.
"To the permanent party folks, thank you for all that you're doing to prepare today's Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, Marines and Coastguardsmen for the missions that lie ahead," he said. "For the students, thank you for stepping forward to participate in this worthy endeavor. Thank you for the effort you are making to square yourself away, because I think in large measure, no matter how hard the instructor cadre work to provide you with the training you require, much will still come down to your personal effort."

Slater also explained cyber commands role in today's cyber environment; to provide the service components with the direction they need to do what they do best; organize, train, and equip forces to conduct operations in, from, and through cyberspace.

"At the service component level, operationalizing cyberspace starts with understanding and identifying the cyber dependencies of so many service core functions," said Slater. "At the tactical level, operators need to be able to secure the links and circuits required to complete the mission. The U.S. Cyber Command orchestrates the efforts of all of our service components to defend our nation and secure our future."