FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 91st Cyber Brigade hosted Virginia Military Institute cadets during their drill weekend Nov. 16 and 17, 2024, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
During the weekend, the Shadow Warriors provided the VMI cadets with cyber-focused presentations and workshops, as well as hands-on training. This was the third time the brigade has hosted VMI cadets.
Lt. Col. Chris Elgee, the 91st’s operations officer, discussed cyber career options with the cadets, covering industry topics and providing information on resume preparation and certifications, as well as the benefits of a home lab for interview prep and participating in “capture the flag” events for skills demonstrations.
Later in the day, VNG Soldiers assigned to the 144th Cyber Warfare Company conducted hands-on training with the cadets, focusing on circuit board design and soldering techniques.
“The Soldiers and cadets learned the basics of assembling and soldering electronic components and creating their own functional LED sound-responsive circuit board that reacted dynamically to audio input with experience instructors,” said Capt. Olivia Brundage, commander of the 143rd Cyber Warfare Company. “This is just another normal day within the 91st Cyber Brigade.”
On the second day of the event, Capt. David Morgan, a cyber security team leader for the 133rd Cyber Security Company, 123rd Cyber Protection Battalion, 91st Cyber Brigade, provided instruction on a variety of cyber topics. Instruction included an introduction to intelligence terms and definitions, components of cyber threat intelligence and basics in open source intelligence collection.
“The content of the instruction also included some advanced cyber intelligence concepts, including the operationalization of threat intelligence, the legal and regulatory differences between government/military and private sector cyber threat intelligence collection and usage, and a demonstration of type and format of threat intelligence available in leading commercial intelligence platforms,” he said.
Similar events with other Virginia schools are being planned for 2025, according to leaders with the 91st.
The 91st Cyber Brigade is the first and only Army National Guard Cyber Brigade in the country with units located in more than 30 different states. The brigade’s five cyber protection battalions each employ two cyber protection teams whose primary mission is defensive cyberspace operations. All CPTs within the brigade are validated against U.S. Cyber Command standards.
Read more about the 91st Cyber Brigade at https://vngpao.info/yckujpv2.