ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Information Dominance Corps members and their guests commemorated the Battle of Midway during a ceremony held simultaneously in Annapolis, Md., and Norfolk, Va., June 8.
The two sites were brought together via video teleconference to celebrate the 71st anniversary of one of the greatest naval engagements in history.
“We are here tonight to commemorate our forbearers in what we now call the Information Dominance Corps and their roles in the Battle of Midway,” said guest speaker Dr. David Rosenberg, Captain USN, retired. “While the ships were abroad, most of our predecessors who contributed to the success of the Navy in this battle did their fighting from land.”
The Battle of Midway was fought June 4-7, 1942 and is regarded as the turning point in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II. During the battle, the U.S. Pacific Fleet sank four Imperial Japanese carriers.
“For the Navy’s Information Dominance Corps, it is not only an opportunity to celebrate the momentous victory and honor those who gave their lives, but also to mark a decisive moment in the history of information superiority,” said Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers, commander of U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet.
The efforts of the U.S. Navy’s codebreakers, predecessors of today’s Information Dominance Corps, were key to Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s decision as U.S. Pacific Fleet commander to engage the Japanese at Midway.
“Those 200 or so individuals brought together the right knowledge at the right time to achieve in depth understandings of an opponent,” said Rogers. “This understanding would generate enough confidence for Adm. Nimitz to take a chance, which ultimately paid off.”
The Battle of Midway demonstrated the importance of a commander’s basic insight into what was actually occurring on, below and above the sea. Today, that is known as “battlespace awareness,” one of the key tenets of information dominance, along with “assured command and control” and “integrated fires.”
The Navy Information Dominance Corps is the result of the alignment of the OPNAV N2 (intelligence), N6 (communications networks), and elements of N3 (N39, information and cyber operations) and N8 (unmanned systems programs and resources) into a unified organization.
“The IDC [Information Dominance Corps] has continued to grow positively in every direction over the past three years,” said Vice Adm. Kendall L. Card, deputy chief of Navy operations for information dominance/ director of naval intelligence. “The key ingredients to this success have been our excitement, professionalism, sacrifice and dedication.”