Cyber Warriors Will Still Fill Sandbags

I wrote a piece on Monday about an article in the spring 2009 issue of the IANewsletter, published by the Defense Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center. The article made some compelling arguments for the establishment of a fourth service to conduct cyberwarfare.

The authors point out that the talents of cyber warriors are wasted performing tasks beneath their station and skills, such as work on the United States' ultimate weapon of war - PowerPoint slides.

Based on observation and experience, this is not a new phenomenon. Wander around the Pentagon and you'll find junior aviators who used to answer to the call sign "Killer" tasked to organize the NCAA basketball March Madness pool and some light colonel snake eaters pushing a hand truck. (Really. I have seen this with my own, aging eyes.)

If a Cyber Command is formed, sooner or later one of its units will deploy to some unpleasant part of the planet, which means some high-powered talent will end up filling sandbags, because no matter how high tech war becomes, sandbags will always be around to deflect old fashioned kinetic weapons like hand grenades.

I thought filling sandbags definitely wasted my range of skills as a PFC radio operator in a Marine infantry battalion. But Sgt. Herbierto Gonzalez told me it was a character building opportunity.