The Connecticut Army National Guard’s cyber warfare detachment is getting its first deployment.
Members of the guard were honored with a send-off ceremony at the Armory in Hartford on Friday, December 7.
Cpt. Tyler Sams, of West Simsbury, said the unit has prepared for two years.
“The unit’s going to be primarily focused on protecting and defending United States’ critical infrastructure and key resources so we’re going to help try to keep the lights on,” Sams said.
The 10 cyber specialists are being sent to an undisclosed location. Sams said that’s being kept quiet because of enemy interest in breaking down protection mechanisms.
That unit isn’t the only one being deployed. Spc. Stephen Bittel was one of seven national guardsmen sent off at the ceremony being deployed to Romania into a detachment responsible for airfield firefighting and emergency response services.
“We are all trained on how to handle any sort of [airport base firefighting] incident and then on the same side, we also do structural firefighting,” Bittel said. “We all come with a different skillset. A lot of us do firefighting on the civilian side as well.”
It’s the first deployment for Bittel, who’s a firefighter at the Stratford Fire Department.
Bittel was joined at the ceremony by his mother, father, and wife Emily.
He said the deployment should last about a year.
