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.

I'm current in the school, so I do not have the work experience as one. My frustration as an S6 (25A) was the lack of the technical understanding of the systems (even though i knew quite abit for not being certified). Now I have several certs and have a much deeper understanding of various systems. The advice that I get as a 53 in that every job being KD; is be good at whatever position you are assigned and be transformational within the organization. A more senior FA53 could tell you more, but the FA53 course for me has been an eye opener with nearly 8 months of training in PMP, MS Server, CCNA and more. If you crave the technical knowledge, while maintaining a (technical - added) leadership role; it's a good move.

I was going to comment in CPT Dunn's area, but figured I'd do it on the normal thread. What's your branch? I assume signal, but maybe not. I agree with CPT Dunn that you will get a ton of technical training, but I disagree about the leadership part. Here's something you need to consider. You will ALWAYS work for an operations track signal officer. Any functional area officer will generally be placed under an operational track person in their field. There are some exceptions like FAO, Comptroller, Contracting Officer, etc, but those are specialty fields with no branch in that field. 53 is not one of them. Same story with Strategic Plans or Strategic Intelligence. Those fields will always be placed under someone who chose to stay operations. That doesn't mean you won't have a couple of people working for you, but it does mean that you will most likely never take command of anything in the future. Just a thought.

Automation... you need to love and be inclined for software. In a BCT you will be in charge of all the servers and their services to include Outlook and Sharepoint. I think is a good FA however you need to be ok knowing that your chances at COL will drastically be reduce and you most likely be place in command positions. Not an absolute but rule of thumb. If you want to see that full bird on your chest, dont go 53, if you just love the FA then you will be GTG!

CPT (Join to see), just doing a follow up, but going 53 helped me get picked up for 17A Cyber Branch (so I'm just finishing up this 53 job in Korea until I report to the school house in spring). I'm glad I attended the school and picking up 35+ certifications (CISSP, CCNP, CEH and etc) was a bonus. Taking the PMP exam on 30 DEC (this is studying in my free time, but the Project+ course in the school house was great and confidence builder for this). Since a good chunk of the 53's are going cyber, this has opened up more slots. I still would recommend it regardless.

This just came out in the Army Times and thought of you along the way... lol. You can go active duty easily if you want in that they need FA53's.

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/careers/army/2015/12/20/army-guard-reserve-officers-sought-active-duty-ranks/77043128/

If you look at the comments already provided, the 53A Functional Area still has no clearly defined role. I presume that the school house is still reluctant to pigeon hole what the roles and responsibilities of the 53 are. Having said that, be prepared to fill whatever niche your BDE/DIV S6 needs you to fulfill. While you have the potential to gain several professional certs while you're at the school, those certs don't necessarily translate into what your job will be...as you can see you can be serving as the IA or you can be the KM lead doing sharepoint and managing the share folders...you could also be writing the BDE Annex H....just depends and that's the biggest issue I had at the schoolhouse, they couldn't define the role and the training received reflected that. Perhaps that's changed since 2012 as I now understand that you have to be at least SEC+ to enter the course. Good luck!

What are the requirements for obtaining 53A through constructive credit? I am a 1LT M-Day NG signal officer currently in a 53A slot and work in IT on the civilian side. I've been searching for any information on the 53A course as far as what its like, what certifications are obtained, what the success rate is, what the ADSO requirement is, and what constructive credit they will consider but there is precious little information out there publicly available.