What is life like as an 53A Information Systems Management Soldier?

My first assignment out of the FA53 course and the satellite ILE at Fort Gordon was to 8th Theater Sustainment Command G6 at Fort Shafter, HI. I absolutely loved it! I was the Chief, G6 Operations and the Chief, Information Systems Services during my time there.

Chief of G6 Ops was really a 25A position, but I was the only MAJ in the office out of 4 authorized and that was the critical position to fill. Most of my time was spent planning for deployment exercises and daily operations (migrations, special DA missions (aka the USB thing from 2008). My AO spanned from Fort Shafter to Schofield Barracks, HI and over to Toshii Station, Japan (although I never got to see Okinawa). I traveled quite a bit to exercise conferences across the Pacific in this job - awesome experience! I also got experience in migrating from Windows XP to Windows Vista for over 4000 computers as Chief, Information Systems Services (aka the "help desk"). As Chief of G6 Ops I had 42 Soldiers working for me in some capacity. At the help desk, I had 15 dedicated Soldiers.

After 8th TSC, I moved over to the Defense Information Systems Agency - Pacific (DISA PAC) for a two-year stint as a Liaison Officer to the major subordinate commands (US Army Pacific, Pacific Fleet, Marine Forces Pacific, Special Operations Command Pacific). It was an interesting experience, but I didn't do a lot of what was taught in the FA53 course. If you want to get to Hawaii or stay in Hawaii, it is definitely a job to consider. If it were in CONUS, I would pass.

I was accepted to the Army's Advanced Civilian Schooling program while in Hawaii and I cut my DISA PAC tour a year short (two instead of three years). I attended the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Master of Science Degree program at the University of Colorado - Boulder. Excellent program and I can set anyone up with a POC if interested. I did the tour in the Boulder area for 18 months (August 2013 - December 2014).

I just started my newest tour as the G6 Executive Officer for the US Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, AZ. A week and a half in and I can tell that it will be a great tour! I am starting to dig into things like the COOP, G6 projects, and CCRI. I am already getting involved with the three battalion XOs and the HHC commander and first sergeant.

I already have certifications for CompTIA A+ and Network+, and KMPro's Certified Knowledge Manager. I will be working towards the CISSP as my position lends itself to the Army paying for it. We are not all so lucky these days...

In short, I am much happier as a FA53 officer than I ever was in the AG world.

There are over 150 currently serving 53A officers on RallyPoint. You can connect with any of them here:

https://www.rallypoint.com/specialties/53a-information-systems-management/primary

I'm also tagging a few so that they can hopefully provide good info here on the discussion for future readers. CPT (Join to see) MAJ (Join to see) MAJ (Join to see)

I currently work at the cyber center in Hawaii. My day as an Information Assurance officer is pretty busy. Primarily I focus on STIGs and IAVA management in addition to security policy.