@adam.szczypka, it seems like you are asserting that because Cyber is a “branch” and not a “functional area” that technical competence in the domain is less important than “command” competencies. I would have to bluntly disagree with this dichotomy. I think a Cyber officer cannot be a competent commander without a high degree of technical competence. Imagine how quickly an Infantry battalion commander would be sidelined if they stated in an operations meeting that they don’t understand how land warfare works, yet we have Cyber leaders doing almost exactly this but saying “Cyber” instead of “land.”

I read Josh’s point as the Cyber officer corps must first and foremost be technical experts, much like our maneuver peers, but that in order to maintain that expertise, we must follow the example of our other technical peers, the medical corps. For maneuver forces, command & technical are mostly the same job. However, for Cyber I would argue that an operationally engaged computer network defense (CND) manager is far closer to a maneuver company commander’s experience than Cyber’s current company commanders. Unfortunately, because my “operational” time was labeled “manager” and my “administrative” time is “commander” the officers from other branches on our promotion boards are far more likely to weight my command time more heavily than the time most relevant to executing the branch’s mission within the Army.

With regard to the ADCON/OPCON divide, we (Cyber branch) are such a low-density asset that regulations will always make this a difficult problem. To put it simply, our Army teams tend to support joint commands (combatant commands, joint force headquarters, etc.) but Army policy specifically prohibits ADCON being given to anything but an Army commander. I think the only way to shield our Soldiers from some of the fallout of this is to ensure there is at least one echelon with a proper staff (i.e. a battalion) between teams/companies and the ADCON/OPCON divide. This will help ensure proper planning, coordination, and deconfliction occurs with the multiple headquarters with which we interact. Unfortunately, this would require a major reorganization of ARCYBER forces in order to align battalions against the supported commands rather than against their functional composition (offensive cyber vs defensive cyber).