The AG Warrior-The 21 st Century Human Resource Professional That Brings Soldie r Support All Together

Soldiers begin and end their Army experience with the AG Corps. The collection and safeguarding of personal information has been around since the Army was first organized, but it has only been in the past few decades that our data is available and accessible everywhere and that it can be used against us-personally and professionally. Personnel data is where it all begins and where it all culminates. Yester-year it was handwritten documents, then it moved to forms, now it is in database format, tomorrow it will be more specific data encrypted with biometric safeguards. We are no longer administrators we are information managers from highest to the lowest ranks and positions. Data exists seamlessly across all operational spectrums, conditions and missions and personnel data is the foundation of each and every soldier. The ability of our soldiers to accomplish these new missions is not what they can do for us as an Army, but what we can do as leaders to equip and resource them for these every present requirements.

The human resource community has approximately 165 personnel centric systems. How does any organization manage such a sizeable collection of data processing equipment and applications/systems? Data assimilation, processing, storage and fidelity has become a new support and operational center of gravity and its multi-level safeguarding will remain a top priority for resources and mission accomplishment-- hence the new Cyber Command. From the bottom to the top, your data (ie, you) is who you are literally and digitally. Database professionals across all professional fields agree that data (personal or organizational) is just as important as a line item asset or liability on a profit and loss statement. The data further should be treated as a resource to protect it and what resource/financial loss it would mean to an organization if it had to be replaced-if that were even possible. The next question that has been become mainstream dialogue is who owns the data? Contrary to popular third-party requests, the data should always remain a US Government asset that is statutorily protected, not a contractual ‘fine-print’ statement of work. Data administration cannot equal data ownership despite what contractors ask for.

Data for the Army is compromised of old legacy data that is in a myriad of formats over decades of compilation. Primarily today and most recently (defined as within 30 years) our data is in digital format and tomorrow, due to security requirements will be digital-via-biometric-via-algorithm yet to be developed and determined. Additionally, the development-to-field timeframe exacerbates the old Army procurement life-cycle concerns. By the time it is developed and fielded, it is old technology and thus incompatible with any real usefulness or value. This is a code yet to be broken by most field organizations outside of the cyber-world parameters

The AG Warrior-The 21 st Century Human Resource Professional That Brings Soldier Support All Together LTC Brian F Borek

2and remains a critical issue regarding the right digital programs (tool) for the digital requirements (job).

The most valuable and most popular member of the unit has become the geek and the (former) hacker turned programmer turned soldier. Fortunately, in 2015, that skill set co-exists at high levels already within our ranks and is imbued into our soldiers as a function of societal and cultural trends and tech-savvy generations. Leadership has to not only understand how to employee these soldiers and skill sets, but how to translate that into mission accomplishment. Fortunately, we are well into about the second generation of computer centric leadership based upon the infusion of personal computers into our daily lives dating back to about the 1980 timeframe.

LOGINS/PASSWORDs, fingerprints, retinal image scans are all have become the new sensitive items and their security just as important, if not more, as legacy end items. Who will develop and manage these programs and systems? We will have to develop and grow our own if that is possible and it will require a shift MOS focus shift to align our needs with what is available. The MOS-to-Technology Gap will remain a major force development challenge from now until we find a way to meet these constantly evolving requirements. The military has always been adept at change, especially in a battlefield conditions, now it must envelop our entire organizational construct. You no longer have to have only good tactile (not tactical) skills, you have to have good gaming skills, which many would argue have become one in the same-sort of. Tactical “Soldier Skill Tradecraft” instruction is what the Army is best at, and always has been. Bringing the new and old, tactical-via-data is what matters most. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’s, UAV), now known more commonly as “drones”, career fields are quickly becoming common in both the public and private sector which in turn drives academia. The same can be said of computer programmers with the advent of the new 25D and 35Q series that will compete with other branches for talent. Talent and skills that are lacking everywhere, especially when the Army and public sector is competing with the likes of a twenty-something, ride-your-skateboard to work laissez-faire generation. Not to say they are not the best at what they do, quite the exception. They are the best of the best, but how do we recruit a 21 year old Harvard or Stanford educated coder who has been offered 150K in salary and benefits and works from home in his sweatpants. The answer is we appeal to his sense of duty, patriotism and national pride. Is it a difficult sell? Yes, but a sales pitch that we have carefully mastered and perfected over the years. The U.S. Army is the most professional and skilled sales force in the world, time to adjust fire.

The AG Warrior-The 21 st Century Human Resource Professional That Brings Soldier Support All Together LTC Brian F Borek

3

Along these lines of technological advancements, inprocessing has become a data swipe and biometric scan. This will continue to evolve but already the DMDC/DEERS database/s contains fingerprint (biometric) identification data that combined with straight legacy digital data. The combination of these is why this particular database is so powerful and coins the term of

Near Real time Human

Telemetry. We have already seen

instances of medical Biotelemetry in medical

uses, but the security aspects will exploit those advances for proper

identifiable personal security safeguards that are combination of all of

these technological advancements. Social Media connectivity-NDAs, Privacy Act Disclosures, Security

Checklist/ROE will become a condition of employment. Everything/everyone is connected. Let me state that again: Everything and everyone is connected. How do we channel, safeguard, exploit and defend our virtual identities and personas as individuals and database’s of those identities as modern-day organizations? Is our data now our cornerstone asset and liability? The answer is yes.

In conclusion, soldiers should/will be issued data devices of differing levels during CIF issue and given a tech centric briefing upon initial entry to set the stage for the rest of their service time periods. The AG Corps would be well-served to establish a 42 Series Programmer career track as an initial detail assignment that would lead to a later 25/35 Series transition. This would work well in that the soldier-programmer would develop and hone their skill sets on non-classified systems and then compete and apply to the next-level which begins at the E5/E6 level. The risk would be minimized and a two to four year detail would blend well with most short and long term

The AG Warrior-The 21 st Century Human Resource Professional That Brings Soldier Support All Together LTC Brian F Borek

4programming projects while simultaneously building the soldier skill set. The soldier programmer MOS development program of instruction should be developed with a joint perspective and part of the training should include Joint systems and multi-service training perspectives. In other words, an army programmer would be well-served to train side-by-side with sister service programmers for optimal skill assimilation and training value. This would also establish a baseline for DOD centric programming standards and expectations. The soldier-data-system model is bringing all functions into a main focus. The soldier is a data unit, a data sensor, as part of the computer network and weapon system. Over time, as history has demonstrated, the convergence of man-data-weapon will continue at its geometric rate. All are a function of the other and we must not only embrace the technology but understand it’s usefulness and value as a force because whether you like it or not technology will continue to increase at such a fast pace that if we do not use it properly, it will become the next vulnerability.

Written by: LTC Brian F. Borek, Chief of Operations for HRC-TAGD-ESPD. LTC Borek is an Aviation and Military Intelligence branch officer serving with HRC since 2013, has served in all three components and has completed 30 years of total army service. He can be reached at HRC-ESPD at 502-613-8760 or brian.f.borek.mil@mail.mil.

Referenceshttp://www.armytimes.com/story/military/careers/army/enlisted/2015/03/02/training-industry-experience-2015/23928863/

http://www.medstartr.com/projects/435-human-telemetry-in-near-real-time-for-chf

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/aviation-schools-prepare-for-boom-in-demand-for-drone-pilots/

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/08/air-force-mulls-drone-pilot-bonus-to-boost-retention.html

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/25/news/drone-pilot-degree/index.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/09/12/why-biometrics-dont-work/2802095/

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2015/01/05/air-force-short-on-drone-pilots-for-isis-campaign/

The AG Warrior-The 21 st Century Human Resource Professional That Brings Soldier Support All Together LTC Brian F Borek

5http://archive.armytimes.com/article/20130408/CAREERS/304080008/Be-an-Army-hacker-top-secret-cyber-unit-wants-you