CIWT Completes CTM “A” School Pilot

Photo By Michele Diamond | Logo for Center for Information Warfare Training. (U.S. Navy graphic by Michele Diamond)  

PENSACOLA, FL, UNITED STATES

04.11.2017

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Taylor Jackson 

Center for Information Warfare Training

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) wrapped up a pilot for the cryptologic technician (maintenance) (CTM) "A" school, April 11.

The course is taught at Information Warfare Training Command Corry Station in Pensacola, Florida and is designed to provide entry-level CTM personnel with fundamental knowledge and skills in the field of electronics equipment repair. Students receive classroom and hands-on laboratory training on computer, networking, communication, and collection systems, as well as test equipment such as hardware, software, operating systems, and peripheral devices.

The course integrated relevant training topics from the Apprentice Technical Training (ATT) course, a prerequisite school for the CTM rating, to eliminate redundancy. It also incorporated elements of the information systems technician training curriculum.

“The course changes we’ve implemented provide our students with a larger skillset that helps them to become better CTMs right out of ‘A’ school,” said Chief Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) Bryan Shoberg, the CTM “A” school’s leading chief petty officer. “Consolidating important elements of different functional areas allows our students more time for hands-on work with troubleshooting equipment and allows us to incorporate new lessons.”

The update is intended to more closely align with the Ready Relevant Learning initiative. CIWT staff and IWTC Corry Station instructors evaluated the curriculum for accuracy and relevancy, identified training gaps and ensured the course learning objectives were being met. An example of a recommendation they made was improving the delivery of the course by restructuring the learning sequence to make it even more cohesive.

Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) Seaman Dakota Sorter, a graduate with orders to USS Mahan (DDG 72) in Norfolk, said the pilot gave him a good starting point for understanding the basics of his rating.

“Going through this course definitely makes me feel confident in my ability to do my job as a CTM,” said Sorter. “I feel like the instructors all did a great job of teaching us a lot of different skills without the course becoming too overwhelming.”

As part of the Information Warfare community, CTMs serve as experts in the preventive and corrective maintenance of sophisticated cryptologic equipment, networks and systems.

Center for Information Warfare Training delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services, enabling optimal performance of information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training organization, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/cid/, http://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/ciwt/, http://www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT/, or http://www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT/

• Date Taken: 04.11.2017
• Date Posted: 04.18.2017 12:57
• Story ID: 230711
• Location: PENSACOLA, FL, US