Sailors at Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet (C6F) headquarters are hard at work creating the qualifications for the Enlisted Information Dominance Warfare Specialist (EIDWS) program.

A core group of 20 Information Dominance Corps (IDC) rated sailors were selected in December, to initially qualify and develop personal qualification standards (PQS) as well as conduct an assessment phase to enhance the understanding of the role of information dominance.

"The 20 sailors were selected because their IDC rates already give them a core group of knowledge in Information Dominance," said Chief Petty Officer Carrie Sayers, EIDWS coordinator. "Everyone is working really hard and I am very proud of how far we have come. Real world operations like Operation Odyssey Dawn and Unified Protector have made it very challenging, but we are close to having the program established."

Sayers continued to say that they have developed the standard fleet specific 200 series PQS and a command specific 300 series PQS. They have also developed all of the training materials and an EIDWS website to help train the rest of the command once the program is approved.

"We have to wait for final approval from Commander, Navy Cyber Forces," said Sayers "Once we have approval then we can conduct the testing and final board process."

Once the program is established it will be open to all Sailors at C6F, but will be mandatory for all IDC rates such as Aerographer's Mate; Intelligence Specialist; Information Systems Technician and Cryptologic Technician (Collection, Intelligence and Technical).

"This will be the first warfare device for many sailors here," said Electronics Technician 1st Class Rodney Downs, leading petty officer for the 20 selected IDC sailors. "Once achieved, it will allow these sailors to be competitive with others who had the chance to go to sea duty or another command with warfare programs."

Downs added sailors will acquire additional general knowledge, enhancing their understanding of the role of the IDC. Sailors who wear the EIDWS insignia will stand out as significant contributors to the information dominance battlefield.