FORT CUSTER (WKZO) — The Air National Guard Base in Battle Creek has a new mission and a new commander.
The fact that the two have both arrived so close together is a coincidence.
Col. Bryan Teff says he didn’t find out that the Air National Guard Base he now commands had been awarded one of four cyber security operations handed out nationwide until he got off a flight Wednesday.
He turned on his phone and it “exploded” with messages.
He was the main speaker at a Thursday news conference.
He has only been on the job for four days and wanted to keep at it for at least five. That was the reason why he declined to answer questions from reporters about specific cyber missions and capabilities.
He was able to disclose that, of the 71 jobs that would be created by the new operational center, only about 21 will be full time. The other 50 will be filled by National Guardsmen, who may only work two days a month and two weeks a year, although he hopes they will be pressed into service for more time than that.
All of the positions will be filled by military personnel, and it will probably be two years before it’s fully staffed and operational.
A team that specializes in starting up similar operations will arrive in six months to begin setting up the equipment, hiring the manpower and assigning positions. Eight such squadrons already exist and four more are being added, including the one in Battle Creek.
He says their main mission will be protecting the military service from the millions of cyber attacks they experience every day.
Their focus will be on the military, but they may also provide the same protective function for the National Guard in Michigan.
He says there’s no guarantee the airbase near Kellogg Field will be immune from future base closures, but it should make them more relevant for decades to come. After all, cyber security and flying pilotless planes are the only growth fields in the Air Force these days, and they will be doing both.
Still to be determined is whether Fort Custer will also be chosen for a new ballistic missile base. That decision is at least a year away, maybe longer.
– John McNeill
