TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, Pa. - Edward Kilduff, security specialist, achieved honor status while attending the Defense Security Service Academy.
Kilduff, who works in the Industrial Risk Management Directorate's Security Division, received an Honor Graduate award on Dec. 12, after completing the Department of Defense's Security Specialist Course. The commendation was awarded for his "effort, professionalism, high standards of conduct and dedication," noted Brian Miller, director of DSSA, in a letter that accompanied Kilduff's Certificate of Achievement.
The 10-day course covered security disciplines, policies, procedures, interaction and implementation, as they apply to the DoD security specialist career field.
The 45 students who participated in the course were evaluated using practical exercises and written examinations. In order to achieve Honor Graduate recognition, the graduate must attain 276 out of 291 possible points. Kilduff earned 276.
"I am required to work with a diverse work force and must be prepared to explain requirements," noted Kilduff. "We build consensus and ensure assets and personnel are protected [in order] to complete the mission and support the warfighter."
Students focused on teambuilding and formed agreements among team members, applying their respective expertise, when resolving a situation. He believes these practices will help him perform his job better.
Kilduff adds that the biggest challenges were the teambuilding exercises because they had to learn to work with representatives from several security disciplines.
"Taking the knowledge and experience of other security professionals, and applying and refining it to successfully resolve the practical exercises was trying at times," Kilduff explained. "But it served as a learning experience."
During the course Kilduff and his classmates participated in exercises that included planning all aspects of a simulated classified conference that was held off-post, surveying a proposed nuclear weapons storage area, and inspecting a mock security container storing classified information.
These exercises implemented training on Special Access Programs and classified programs, which require more stringent security standards than collateral classified information, he explained. Also included were procedures for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information and how to prepare and manage a large scale security education program.
He believes the experience has provided him with a better understanding of the big picture when it comes to force protection.
Kilduff served 20 years in the Air Force, retiring as a senior master sergeant in 1997. During his military career he worked in Information and Industrial Security.
Kilduff began working at the depot in September in the Emergency Operations Center.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is the largest full-service Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) maintenance and logistics support facility in the Department of Defense. Employees repair, overhaul and fabricate electronics systems and components, from tactical field radios to the ground terminals for the defense satellite communications network.
Tobyhanna's missions support all branches of the Armed Forces. The depot is the Army Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for Communications-Electronics, Avionics, and Missile Guidance and Control Systems and the Air Force Technology Repair Center for ground communications and electronics.
About 5,700 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, which is located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S.
Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command. Headquartered at Fort Monmouth, N.J., the command's mission is to research, develop, acquire, field and sustain communications, command, control, computer, intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors capabilities for the Armed Forces.
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