Advanced Communications Officer
Course (ACOC). “Games based on cur-
rent challenges provide the relevance
that transforms traditional training into
meaningful learning that can be trans-
ferred to other contexts and used to
integrate 2-3-6 cyberspace efforts.”
The course has been delivered to fleet
units in a mobile training team format.
“I’m enthusiastic today because I’ve been
asking in a lot of places for something
like this, and today’s class was the first
credible response,” says Col. William
Vivian, USMC, commanding officer of
the 7th Marine Regiment, in an email to
the CTB leaders. “[Other training orga-
nizations] are undershooting the mark,
in my opinion. Your Marines provided
a useful framework for getting after this,
coupled with practical tips on how to
translate into action.”
The future of the course lies in a
cyber leader training concept called
Cylon Raider. This three- to four-
phase, multisite cyber integration
leadership program would teach
tomorrow’s leaders to fight in com-
plex operational environments using
kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities.
Much like the Army’s Ranger School
teaches leadership and problem-solv-
ing skills on today’s battlefields, Cylon
Raider would teach technically enabled
warfighters how to think and inno-
vate in the cybersecurity environment.
The training would take place at Twen-
tynine Palms Marine Corps base in
California, where communication and
cybersecurity personnel now train.
A hallmark of the CTB course is to
shift the focus from the individual to
team performance. Emerging cyber-enabled teams must train to fight
together and go for a team win.
The gamified version of the CTB’s
cyber planner course is one of a few
collective training venues that forces
students to solve real world-inspired
problems using cyberspace effects. The
course will ensure that tomorrow’s
leaders understand how cyber can be
used to generate advantage for a com-
mander and win tomorrow’s conflicts.
All images courtesy of
Capt. Terry Traylor, USMC
Capt. Terry Traylor, USMC, is with Delta
Company, Communication Training Battalion, at the U.S. Marine Corps Com-munication-Electronics School. The views
expressed here are his alone.
contact: Capt. Terry Traylor,
terry.traylor@usmc.mil
www.safenetAT.com
Protecting the Government’s Most
Sensitive Data
from the Cloud to the Data Center to the Endpoint
and Across the Network
as it’s Accessed, Stored, and Shared
