'Drop Night' sets path to future for cyber officers

  • Published
  • By Capt. David Trollman
  • 333rd Training Squadron
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Fifteen officers in the first undergraduate cyber training course in the 333rd Training Squadron received their assignments Friday during "Drop Night" at the Bay Breeze Event Center.

This is the Air Force's first UCT class. The course was launched June 22 to bolster the demands of a networkcentric Air Force operating in an ever-increasing cyberspace domain.

In other officer career fields, drop night is a formal, and usually raucous, event held with many friends and family in attendance.

The first UCT drop night used a setup similar to an NFL or NBA draft. Units "draft" the students just like NBA or NFL teams draft their players. Of course, this "draft" is actually an assignment match by the Air Force Personnel Center in coordination with the UCT cadre.

Undergraduate cyber training, like other long-term officer training programs such as specialized undergraduate pilot training, specialized undergraduate navigator training and intelligence officer training, is a first-assignment permanent change of station for tudents. The students and their families make a PCS to Keesler to attend the 23-week UCT course.

As a result of this PCS for training, students usually don't know about their next assignment. UCT uses a competitive selection process for assignments that's based on how the student performs during the course. The competitive process ensures that students are matched to assignments where they will most likely succeed and excel at their first assignment following graduation from the course.

In flying communities, the assignment of a weapon system, such as the F-16, A-10, C-17 or B-52, determines the officer's career and assignment path for next five to seven years.

With the transition of the communications and information career field to cyber operations, the first post-UCT assignment of a 17D Cyber officer determines the officer's career and assignment path for the next three to seven years, depending on the officer's
assignment.

The class graduates Dec. 7.