Interview with Captain Kevin R. Hooley: Commanding Officer Center for Information Dominance

CHIPS, April-June, 2005

The merger between the Center for Information Technology (CIT), headquartered in San Diego, Calif., and the Center for Cryptology (CC) Corry Station, located in Pensacola, Fla., to form the Center for Information Dominance (CID) Corry Station, integrates training responsibilities for four key disciplines of information dominance--exploit, attack, defend and operate--under one learning center. Prior to the merger, CIT was responsible for the training of personnel specializing in network operations for the United States and allied forces, while CC Corry Station had oversight responsibilities for the training of signals intelligence. CC Corry Station commanding officer Capt. Kevin R. Hooley will assume command of the new Learning Center, which commenced operations Jan. 31, in a provisional status until formally established.

CID responsibilities include administering more than 225 courses and managing a staff of 897, with the charge of training nearly 16,000 members of the armed services, including the U.S. Coast Guard and allied forces each year. There are 17 CID learning sites and detachments throughout the United States and worldwide.

CHIPS asked Capt. Kevin R. Hooley to talk about what the stand up of the CID means to the Navy.

CHIPS: Can you explain the significance of the merger between the Center for Information Technology and the Center for Cryptology?

Capt. Hooley: In its purest form, the significance is effectiveness, efficiency, alignment and operational readiness--Sea Warriors developed through blended training solutions to optimize the power of information. To achieve information dominance there are four major attributes that we work. Those are the ability to exploit information and to attack information, while at the same time defending and operating our information within our net-works.

Prior to the merger of these centers, these skills were taught at various locations throughout the Navy. As a result, information dominance was not operating as a synchronized, interdependent training function.

Operating networks was taught at the Center for Information Technology in San Diego. The exploitation of information for intelligence purposes was taught at the Center for Cryptology in Pensacola. Training for information warfare and information operations, which deal with information assurance (the defense of systems and the attack of enemy systems), were not taught under the oversight of any particular learning center. As a primary warfare skill of the Navy, run principally from the Naval Network Warfare Command, information warfare skills were taught via Mobile Training Teams in a just-in-time training methodology.

While all these organizations did an outstanding job in training, our overall capability in information dominance was com-promised by this dispersal of intellectual capital and less than optimal alignment. With this merger, we have taken all of these principal attributes of information dominance and aligned the training responsibilities for each into one center. Now a fleet unit or fleet commander or type commander can reach to one place, one center, "one-stop-shop," per se, to leverage our expertise to answer any questions within the realm of information dominance.

Also, we had a lot of intellectual capital in the Navy that was dispersed at many centers and many sites. But they were not really leveraging off each other to move our mission forward. By bringing them under one center we are able to do that. We are also able to diminish the size of the staffs, since there were some redundant positions that we were able to eliminate and reinvest into other principal jobs in the Naval Personnel Development Command domain. As I mentioned up front, effectiveness and efficiency are the biggest benefits to the Navy.

What it means to the Navy is the ability for us to provide them with a better trained information warrior and, therefore, a better warfare capability in the fleet. That's truly the bottom line of what we are all about--developing warriors to dominate information in the maritime maneuver and battlespaces.

CHIPS: How will this merger ensure information dominance for the warfighter?

Capt. Hooley: I think ensuring information dominance for the warfighter involves a blending of training, along with the robust tactics, techniques and procedures that are developed and implemented in the fleet. There is no single answer--it's a continuum of training and operations.

CID's mission is to deliver the right training, at the right time, in the right place, utilizing technology, innovation and the science of learning, to provide the fleet with optimally trained Sea Warriors who will create a tactical advantage for mission success in the information domain. We will provide a very strong foundational training base that will give the fleet the best qualified Sailor to ensure information dominance through expert planning and execution of operational tactics. So, that assurance of information dominance comes from a continuum of us (as trainers) and the operators in the fleet.