Uncle Sam wants you: For cybersecurity. Fayetteville Tech event highlights jobs available

Consider it a message to the military community: Uncle Sam wants you. 

Again.

There are more than 18,000 jobs available right now in cybersecurity in North Carolina.

More:Pitts: Fayetteville veterans answered the call. Let’s build them something nice.

Veterans, their spouses and college students are strong candidates to move into these jobs. Guests at a cybersecurity jobs event received that message with a unified voice from Harry Coker Jr., the White House National Cyber Director, and from community college officials, private employers, Fort Liberty officials and veterans advocacy organizations on Wednesday at Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Coker, who started in the job in December, is a military veteran from a family of veterans. He served in senior roles in the Central Intelligence Agency; as executive director of the National Security Agency; and a Navy officer.

“I know what it means to be a part of the military family, while in uniform,” said Coker in his remarks at the Tony Rand Student Center. “But I also know what it means to continue protecting our nation when we take off those uniforms, and it’s time for the next mission.” 

Cybersecurity is important to national security, Coker said. We have become reliant on a “digital backbone” that affects everything from power, gas and the water coming into our homes; to the systems that keep roads, airports, hospitals, schools and businesses up and running, he said.

“With this connectivity and dependency comes the threat of an attack on that digital foundation,” he said.

Bringing a mission-driven focus to a different mission

Fayetteville Tech co-hosted the cybersecurity event with the Carolina Cyber Network, a coalition of 18 two- and four-year colleges and universities that are attempting to build a pipeline of graduates ready for cybersecurity jobs. In addition to FTCC President Dr. Mark Sorrells, who spoke, nearly a dozen community college presidents were on hand.

Earlier on Wednesday, Coker heard stories from several veterans, military-connected spouses and FTCC students who are pursuing careers in cyber. 

He highlighted two of them in his remarks: Rhiannon Holley, FTCC’s department chair for Systems Security and Analysis in FTCC’s Information Technology division, and a military spouse; and Ronnie Hutchins, a retired Fayetteville Police Department human trafficking detective and former Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot who is studying cybersecurity at FTCC.

“So, a career in cyber is a good fit for veterans and military spouses,” Coker said. “At the same time, employers are coming to understand that veterans and military spouses can be fantastic employees, leaders, and members of their teams.

“They are mission-driven, service-oriented, and highly disciplined. They are leaders and good teammates.”

The work force three years ago and two years from now

Coker was joined on the panel by Rob Shriver, Deputy Director of the federal Office of Personnel Management; Maj. Gen. Colin P. Tuley, 18th Airborne Corps Deputy Commanding General at Fort Liberty; and Elizabeth O'Brien, executive director of Hiring Our Heroes, a workforce development nonprofit that steers veterans and military connected spouses into jobs.

“What we look like as a work force three years ago is different from today and sure is heck is gonna be different from two years from now,”  said O’Brien, an active-duty military spouse. 

She said in 2023, the organization served 78,000 transitioning service members, and “we’ve served over 1 million members of our community over the last decade.”

She praised the longtime partnership with Fort Liberty, which she said allowed her organization to “fill the gaps alongside them to make sure our military-connected families are well cared-for.”

Military spouses: 21% unemployment

O'Brien noted that the unemployment rate for military spouses was 21% — five times the national average. She said Hiring Our Heroes partners with Blue Star Families on the 4+1 program that helps move military spouses into jobs, by finding opportunities that offer flexible, remote or other work options that take into account military families often move a lot. These include a program through the Department of Defense that places military spouses into a company for three months, she said.

“It’s resulted with an 85% hiring rate over the first year,” she said. “We placed over 400 military spouses. As we move forward, it’s heartening, it’s inspiring. We can never take our foot off the gas, around continuing to move forward, especially around cyber. These are the jobs that will continue to defend our country and ensure the stability of our military families.” 

Uncle Sam would agree.

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.