Defense secretary likes what he sees at JBLM on land, in air and on cyber

Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday got a close look at Joint Base Lewis-McChord units that fight on the ground, in the air and online.

That combination, he said in remarks to troops, puts the base on the cutting edge of the Pentagon’s operations.

“You are right now, right here at JBLM on the pivot point of strategic history,” he told a group of about 140 military service members from every branch of the Armed Forces at an assembly on McChord Air Field.

His stop at the second-largest military base on the West Coast was his last on a four-day trip he booked to connect with leading technology companies in Silicon Valley and in Seattle.

It was also the first time a sitting defense secretary has visited JBLM since Robert Gates met with a Stryker brigade as it prepared for a combat deployment in July 2008.

Carter’s visit, in contrast to Gates’, reflected a wide range of programs that operate out of the military’s largest joint base with an emphasis on how they work to enhance the Pentagon’s presence along the Pacific Rim.

It had the feel of a celebration recognizing years of work that went into integrating the Army and Air Force units whose headquarters are at JBLM, as well as incorporating the Reserves and National Guard with training for active-duty troops.

“This is our time,” said Rep. Denny Heck, D-Olympia, who met with Carter during the visit. “It’s our time and it’s going to be our time for quite awhile.”

Each of Carter’s meetings tended to stress the ways different units manipulate technology to gain an edge in combat, fitting the broader theme of his West Coast tour.

Inside a hangar, he saw a massive C-17 transport plane, a group of Air Force Special Operations airmen who direct artillery in close combat, one of the newest models of a Stryker infantry carrier and a weapon called the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Lt. Col. Jon Lauer showed Carter a new Stryker command vehicle that gives him almost as information as he’d receive in a built-out headquarters. It contained six screens and new communications equipment that provided him ways to see what Lauer’s soldiers see, and to advise them.

“It’s like a fire hose, there’s so much information,” said Lauer, the commander of the 1^st Battalion, 17^th Infantry Regiment.

Many of the troops who met with Carter had wide smiles after chatting with him.

“That was amazing,” said Staff Sgt. William Tigg, who showed Carter a HIMARS. “He’s a man like any of us, just with a bigger title.”

Carter also visited Washington National Guard’s 252^nd Cyber Operations Group, which has airmen trained to conduct threat assessments on information networks for the Defense Department and other public agencies.

It was one of the National Guard’s first cyber operations units, and it’s considered a pioneer in its field.

Last year, its airmen worked with the Snohomish Public Utility District, marking the first time they’d carried out a threat assessment for a local government agency.

They haven’t had a follow-up request, but anticipate more work with small government agencies.

“I really think this is a model for the country,” Washington National Guard Commander Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty said.

Carter agreed.

He liked how the Guard’s cyber units were able to retain part-time troops who hold down full-time jobs with leading Seattle-area tech companies. That’s an advantage, he said, because he worries that military service members trained in cyber operations will be poached by private industry.

“They bring to the mission of national security that tremendous talent from outside that we otherwise would have to try to recruit and retain within the full-time active component, which would be very difficult,” he said.

Although Carter largely focused on talk of technology and future ways of fighting wars, he also acknowledged troops that are in harm’s way today. The HIMARS unit, for example, has about 140 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. He shook hands with two Army Rangers, who serve in a unit that constantly moves in and out of Afghanistan.

Carter also told the assembly at JBLM that they’d be among the first to respond to a crisis on the Korean Peninsula, where North Korea has been rattling nerves with recent missile tests.

“We have to do it all,” he said. “We are going to continue to do the rebalance (to the Pacific Rim). We’re putting some of our most advanced forces in the Pacific. At the same time, we have to finish off (the Islamic State).”

Toward the end of his visit, Carter took five questions from a group of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. They put him on the spot about the reforms that are aimed to curb sexual assault and their concerns that services like Google Earth may be disclosing too much information about security at military bases.

“I don’t think we’re going to get that back,” Carter told the Marine who wanted the Pentagon to pressure tech companies to obscure images of military bases around the world. “We’re going to have to up our game for that reason you say. The enemy has tools they never had.

“It’s a two-edge sword, that technology,” he said.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Defense secretary likes what he sees at JBLM on land, in air and on cyber."