FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. – Col. Candy Boparai, commander of the 780th Military Intelligence (MI) Brigade (Cyber), hosted a Casing of the Colors ceremony for Task Force Echo, marking the end of the TFE mission, at the Captain John E. Smathers United States Army Reserve Center, August 6.
The official party for this historic event included Boparai; Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph P. Daniel, the senior enlisted leader of the 780th MI Brigade (Cyber); Col. Russel E. McGuire, commander of the 91st Cyber Brigade, Virginia Army National Guard (VA ARNG); and Command Sgt. Maj. Michael S. Rivera-Wenger, the senior enlisted leader of the 91st Cyber Brigade.
In 2017, the U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) identified a critical requirement for immediate support. The 123rd Data Processing Unit, VA ARNG, mobilized on August 15, 2017, as part of a new mission called Task Force Echo (TFE).
Since inception, TFE has been aligned under, and operationally controlled by the 780th MI Brigade (Cyber) and administratively controlled by U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER).
The 91st Cyber Brigade, VA ARNG, was officially activated on September 1, 2017, and the 123rd Data Processing Unit became part of the 123rd Cyber Protection Battalion (CPB). Since then, the five CPBs of the 91st Cyber Brigade have mobilized annually in support of the TFE mission, providing formations of the nation’s most highly skilled cyber warriors.
“I was a mission team lead here at the 780th from 2015 to 2018, and I remember well when the Ops (operations) floor in building 310 was the JMOC (Joint Mission Operations Center), the only JMOC in the enterprise, and it was the only place anyone could do Title 10 missions across the enterprise,” said Boparai. “And I remember that Ops floor being full of all service teams working on the mission, and we had VIPs that would come and visit the floor from the highest levels of government and the military, and I have no doubt that some of the latest support that we have enjoyed at those levels of government started in that JMOC as leaders came in and got to know our mission and came to understand our needs… and in all of that Task Force Echo was in the midst of all that.”
Boparai explained that TFE Soldiers were “critical and crucial” to running the operations floor and the infrastructure.
“In my mind, one of the most important things that Task Force Echo accomplished was that it showed that COMPO 2 teammates ( COMPO 2 is comprised of the U.S. National Guard units which are under state control but can be federalized) can make a truly impactful contribution to the cyber mission,” added Boparai. “You know we say that cyber is a team sport, we work across all services, we work with partners in the interagency, and the intelligence community, and with foreign partners, and with Task Force Echo we added COMPO 2 to this list of partners and we saw how they excelled.”
The casing of the colors is significant in that it symbolizes the final chapter in TFE history and signifies the end of the TFE mission and the release of TFE VIII from its present assignment with ARCYBER and its reassignment to the 91st Cyber Brigade, VA ARNG.
The final TFE VIII rotation was commanded by Lt. Col. Karmin Ng, commander of the 126th CPB, and the senior enlisted leader is Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel P. Doherty. The 126th CPB was activated on November 5, 2017, at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, and previously mobilized on the third rotation of TFE on March 13, 2019.
In his remarks, Col. McGuire explained when the Army National Guard was initially given the Task Force Echo mission, they were not even the 91st Cyber Brigade, they were the 91st Troop Command, and initially, some of the Soldiers initially supporting the mission were artillery, signal, and even infantry.
“So, where do they come from? So, in civilian jobs we have a contractor who works for the Department of the Navy and secures the Atomic Clock,” said McGuire. “We have people that work for local, state, and federal agencies, protecting cyber assets in our national security interest. In the private sector, whether it’s Booz-Allen, Microsoft, Cisco, Red Hat, AWS, we even have a developer from the GitHub red team. All in these ranks, and they all want to serve and come on these missions, and they don’t do it for the money.”
Following the eighth TFE iteration, thousands of Citizen Soldiers representing 32 U.S. states – Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin – will have answered their Nation’s call to duty.
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