SAN ANGELO, Texas – Lt. Cmdr. John Allen was relieved by Lt. Cmdr. Mark Wess as officer in charge of Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Monterey Detachment Goodfellow during a modified change of charge ceremony at the Goodfellow Air Force Base Event Center, March 31.

Due to COVID-19 mitigations, the event was attended by a small cadre of Goodfellow Air Force Base leaders, as well as virtual attendance by senior leadership and family members in Florida and California. The ceremony flowed smoothly and provided deference to the time-honored tradition of changing the charge.

Cmdr. Josie Moore, commanding officer of the Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Monterey, presided over the ceremony virtually from Monterey, California. She extended sincere gratitude to the outgoing OIC, as well as a warm welcome to the incoming OIC.

Allen offered heartfelt remarks about his time on board IWTC Monterey Detachment Goodfellow, stating, “To be trusted with the responsibility and authority to lead these professionals has been humbling and extremely rewarding. I have learned so much from all of you. This day is my opportunity to thank you all one more time.”

Although he remained humble about his achievements at the Detachment, he worked tirelessly to stand up the renewed pipeline of Navy cryptologic technician interpretive Sailors to pass through Goodfellow for follow-on “A” school training at the nationally renowned Apprentice Cryptologic Language Analyst course. Although he will not witness the fruits of his labor firsthand, he has built a steadfast foundation for the new OIC to build upon.

After the ceremonial change of charge, Wess spoke succinctly about his perspective and vision going forward. He offered the following warning to our adversaries:

“To our foreign enemies who wish to disregard rules-based international order to promote international strife, we will defeat you with our awesome naval power. And for the domestic enemies who wish to disregard decency and kindness to promote hate and discontent among our nation’s people, we will defeat you with our awesome naval values.”

Wess is a highly intelligent and well-seasoned naval officer who entered the service in 2009 as a direct input officer. During his first tour, he taught officer and enlisted mathematics, physics, electrical engineering at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command.

In 2013, he changed designators and became a cryptologic warfare officer and reported to Naval Information Operations Command San Antonio. Wess accumulated over 900 flight hours as a special evaluator on the Navy’s EP-3 platform. Other tours include Misawa, Japan and San Diego as the cryptologic resource coordinator and intelligence and information operations planner respectively.

Wess received an exceptionally warm welcome from the Goodfellow joint commanders and his new subordinates. His unique naval history and perspective will provide ample opportunities for strategic growth for the Navy and her sister services.

Wess, along with his Detachment and paired with the expertise of the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Coast Guard, are set to dominate the signals intelligence community, granting terrorists around the globe absolutely no quarter in our house!

As part of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) domain, IWTC Monterey Detachment Goodfellow is aligned under IWTC Monterey, and oversees follow-on “A” and “C” schools for 200+ Sailors at any given time.

With four schoolhouse commands, a detachment, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT trains over 22,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.

For more news from Center for Information Warfare Training domain, visit https://www.public.navy.mil/netc/centers/ciwt/, www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.