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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —Texas Army National Guard Soldiers are sharpening their technical skills and enhancing the state’s digital defenses during Cyber Shield 2026, the nation's largest unclassified cyber defense exercise, held from July 12-25 at the Professional Education Center.
Among the Texas Guardsmen, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jorge Rodriguez, a communications specialist with the Texas Joint Force Headquarters J6, is leading one of the many trainings happening during the 2 weeks. Serving as a Gold Team instructor for malware detection, Rodriguez is training participants to hunt down digital threat actors.
“We are teaching them how to create rules that will find malware and threat actors in their cyber environments.” Events like Cyber Shield help strengthen the capabilities of Texas’s cyber warriors. This enables the National Guard to be ready for attacks on critical infrastructure, such as energy grids, supply chains, and emergency management.
“Texas gets to train with industry partners and our counterparts from other military components,” Rodriguez said. “There are components from the 44 different National Guards, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and several State Partnership Program countries from Europe, Asia, and South America.”
The Joint Readiness Course, which Rodriguez was part of, focused on building multi-national cyber readiness. The course focused on five pillars: Cyber threat intelligence, network ID and enumeration, threat detection engineering, threat hunting, and host-based analysis.
“We take these lessons learned and incorporate them to be ready when the Texas National Guard gets called to face cyber challenges,” Rodriguez said.
For Sgt. Gunner Gransbery, a traditional M-Day Soldier with the HHC 71st Theater Information Operations Group, 71st Troop Command, the exercise provides vital technical depth. In his civilian career, Gransbery works as a network analyst for an Air Force cyber protection team and currently serves as an intelligence-threat analyst on Operation Fury Shield.
Now in his third Cyber Shield, Gransbery is focusing on hands-on application of malicious code in data systems. The practical exercises foster growth and to keep the nation’s digital networks safe.
“Because I’m usually an analyst, this training helps me see the more technical side of cyber defense,” he said. “Cyber Shield helps open people’s eyes to the intricacies of what we do and the training needed to stop cyber threats.”
Both Soldiers plan to bring their advanced training back to Texas to build a more ready and capable force. As leaders in their units, their goal is to spread the knowledge they are getting and refining. Gransbery also seeks to leverage what he has learned to enhance his leadership back in the Lone Star State.
“I plan to take some of these open-source resources back to my unit to help with supplemental training for my Soldiers,” Gransbery said.
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 07.17.2026 18:38 |
| Story ID: | 570245 |
| Location: | LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Texas Army National Guardsmen Gain Applicable Cyber Knowledge, by SSG Jason Archer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
