By Morgan Montalvo
WOAI News
Local industry executives, educators, and elected officials Thursday afternoon were offered a snapshot of military cyber-readiness by the San Antonio-based 24th Air Force.
The open house-format gathering, hosted by Port San Antonio, allowed the military to tout some of its network maintenance and defense capabilities, and have questions answered by Air Force IT personnel.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Weggeman, 24th AF commander, told a news conference following the event that the military is attracting and retaining some of America's best IT talent "because the people that join the military are joining to serve their country, and as long as we can give them what I call 'the reps and sets' - if you think about workouts - in their functional domain, then they're happy."
Weggeman said the military is overcoming one of its major hurdles: reliance upon private industry for much of its training and "best practices."
"It is changing," he said. "I'd like to see it change a little bit faster."
Among those changes, said Weggeman, are in-house military IT curriculum development.
"The challenge is, technology is being replaced so fast, and updated. So we get new hardware and software, and new capabilities, so frequently that our curriculum development's got to keep pace with technology - and that's where we're having to go to the private sector to help us."
Weggeman also complimented the Alamo City on rapidly increasing the number of IT employers and computer-industry education programs.
"The 'cyber ecosystem' as we like to say here between the military, the private sector and even the defense industrial base that's here in San Antonio gives us the perfect DNA we need for all of us to be successful together," the general said.
PHOTO COURTESY: US AIR FORCE