Information System Technician

You are the non-rate in the IT shop. The network your unit runs on doesn't fix itself, the help-desk queue doesn't answer itself, and every qualified IT in the rating started exactly where you are — staring at a patch panel they don't yet know how to label correctly.

You came out of TRACEN Cape May after eight weeks and reported to a sector, a district, or a communications and information systems (CIS) facility as a non-rated Coastie striking for IT. Most of your day is the work the petty officers do not have time for — running cable, labeling ports, logging help-desk tickets, imaging workstations, resetting passwords under supervision, and standing the details and duty-section rotations that pad the bottom of every watchbill. You shadow qualified ITs on network equipment maintenance, account provisioning in the Active Directory environment, printer and workstation troubleshooting, and configuration audits against the DISA STIGs. You start the IT Rating Performance Qualification Standard (PQS) and you spend every spare hour reading the CompTIA Network+ study guide and the current DISA STIG overview documents, because the A-school seat at TRACEN Petaluma is competitive and the candidates who show up knowing OSI layer 2 from layer 3 get more out of the pipeline.

• 01Identify the major network infrastructure components at your unit — routers, switches, firewalls, wireless access points, patch panels, and the server room physical layout — and know which closet, which rack unit, and which switch port each workstation is connected to.
• 02Perform basic workstation setup and imaging tasks under a qualified IT — join a machine to the domain, apply group policy, verify antivirus signature currency, and confirm the machine is reporting to the command's patch-management console before closing the ticket.
• 03Handle a standard help-desk ticket correctly: gather the information the IT2 needs (error message, affected user, affected system, impact on mission), log it in the unit's ticketing system, and escalate without guessing at a fix outside your current qualification.
• 04Run structured cabling tasks under supervision — terminate a Cat6 keystone, test continuity with a basic cable tester, label both ends of a run legibly, and document the port assignment in the unit's network documentation.
• 05Identify a basic network connectivity fault by working through the OSI model from physical to application — check the cable, the switch port light, the IP address, the gateway, and the DNS resolution before declaring "the network is down."
• 06Maintain your personal study materials — the PQS, the rating bibliography, the current CompTIA Network+ objectives, and the DISA STIG overview the IT1 pointed you at — because the A-school seat goes to the non-rate the OIC endorses, not the one who waited for someone to hand them a study guide.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. The governing publication for CG IT systems management, information assurance policy, and network administration standards. Verify the current revision against the CG Directives System before citing by number.
• —DoD 8570.01-M — Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program. The DoD-wide baseline certification requirement framework; at this tier, understand what the baseline certifications are (CompTIA Security+, Network+) and why the IT rating is mapped to it.
• —COMDTINST M1000-series — Coast Guard Personnel Manual (the umbrella for leave, liberty, advancement, conduct, and everything else that applies to you as a member).
• —COMDTINST M1020.8 (current revision) — Coast Guard Weight and Body Fat Standards.
• —IT Rating Performance Qualification Standard (PQS) — the qual book that runs you from non-rate to IT3, task by task. Pull it from the Coast Guard Institute on day one.
• —Unit IT Standard Operating Procedures and Network User Policy — read the acceptable-use policy, the help-desk ticket intake procedure, and the physical security requirements for the server room the first week you check in.

• —IT A-school designation and a class date at TRACEN Petaluma, CA. The pipeline is competitive; your EER blocks as a non-rate, your PQS progress, and the OIC endorsement decide the seat. Verify current course length and prerequisites against NETC / CG Institute listings.
• —Coast Guard PFT passed every cycle per current personnel manual standards; weight and body composition compliant with COMDTINST M1020.8.
• —PQS lines signed consistently on the supervisor's timeline. The non-rate who shows up to A-school with documented shop exposure gets more out of the pipeline than the one who shows up cold.
• —Zero unauthorized system access attempts and zero security violations. The IT shop is one of the highest-trust spaces in any command; a single unauthorized login or a single intentional policy bypass ends the striker designation before it starts.
• —CompTIA Network+ study in active progress. The IT3 who walks out of A-school and immediately sits the Network+ exam is the one the IT2 wants to work with; the one who waits until someone tells him to study has already lost time.

• —Touching a production switch, router, or server without a qualified IT watching and without a documented change ticket. One misconfigured port disables the entire watchfloor NIPR segment; the outage ticket names the technician who made the last change.
• —Resetting a user's password without verifying the requester's identity through the unit's authentication procedure. Social engineering starts at the help desk; the IT shop is responsible for identity management and "she sounded like herself" is not an access verification.
• —Connecting a personal device — USB drive, phone, personal laptop — to any government network port without explicit authorization. One unauthorized device on a DoD network is an incident report, a COMDTINST M5500-series compliance finding, and a conversation with the command's Information Systems Security Officer (ISSO) that you do not want to have as a non-rate.
• —Logging a resolved help-desk ticket without documenting what was actually done. The ticket is the audit trail; a ticket that reads "fixed" with no resolution notes is useless to the IT2 who inherits the same problem next month.
• —Discussing network architecture, IP addressing schemes, server roles, or system vulnerabilities on personal social media or in an unsecured environment. The CG network posture is sensitive; what you do not post cannot be exploited.

The good IT striker is the non-rate the IT2 takes into the server room first when a switch needs to be racked — because the kid labels the cables before plugging them in, reads the diagram before touching anything, and asks the right question before making a change. By the time the A-school designation comes through, his PQS is signed deep across the unit's primary help-desk and workstation workflows, the CompTIA Network+ study guide is dog-eared, and the OIC is writing the endorsement that gets him the Petaluma class date.

You are a Petty Officer in the rating that keeps the command's network running and its data protected. The crow says you completed the schoolhouse — now the real training is every change ticket, every STIG finding, and every incident your name goes on.

You came back from TRACEN Petaluma with the IT rating badge and reported to a sector, a district information management office, a communications and information systems facility, a cutter, or a Coast Guard unit's IT shop as a working IT3. You perform network administration tasks — account creation and deactivation in Active Directory, group policy verification, VLAN configuration on managed switches, patch management, backup verification — under the IT2 or IT1. You respond to help-desk tickets at the first-responder level, you image and deploy workstations, and you run DISA STIG compliance checks on assigned systems using the STIG Viewer tool and current benchmark files. You are working toward the CompTIA Security+ certification, which is the DoD 8570.01-M baseline requirement for the IAT Level II that your billet likely carries. You supervise non-rate IT strikers on cable management and basic ticket intake, and your name is going on maintenance logs and change tickets for the first time — the audit trail is yours.

• 01Administer Active Directory user and computer accounts — create, modify, disable, and audit accounts per the unit's account-management SOP and the DoD account-management requirements; no orphaned accounts left open after member departure.
• 02Perform a DISA STIG compliance check on an assigned Windows workstation or server using the current benchmark files and STIG Viewer — identify open findings, document them with the correct Finding ID and status, and route them to the IT2 with a clear explanation of severity.
• 03Configure and troubleshoot a managed switch port — assign a VLAN, verify port status, read the MAC address table to identify where a connected device lives, and clear a port error without guessing.
• 04Execute a routine patch management cycle on assigned systems — verify baseline patch levels against current IAVM (Information Assurance Vulnerability Management) requirements, apply patches through the command's approved management console, and document the completion in the compliance tracker.
• 05Respond to a help-desk ticket at the first-responder level — diagnose standard workstation faults (OS issues, connectivity, print, account lockout), resolve within your authorization, escalate with complete documentation when you reach the ceiling.
• 06Train IT non-rate strikers on PQS items, help-desk ticket intake, cable management standards, and the physical security requirements for the server room the IT1 wants signed off.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. Your daily maintenance actions and compliance activities root in this publication.
• —DoD 8570.01-M — Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program and DoDD 8140.01 — Cyberspace Workforce Management (current revision). The baseline certification requirements (CompTIA Security+ CE at minimum for IAT Level II) that govern your billet and your next career step.
• —DISA STIGs (current release) — Security Technical Implementation Guides for the operating systems, applications, and network equipment you administer. Current benchmark files are published on the DISA STIG portal; old STIGs are non-compliant.
• —NIST SP 800-53 (Rev 5) — Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations. The federal control framework that DISA STIGs implement; knowing the SP 800-53 control families tells you why each STIG finding matters.
• —COMDTINST M1000-series — Personnel Manual sections on advancement, EER, and the Servicewide Exam process for IT2.
• —FCC 47 CFR Part 13 — General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL) path if your billet includes radio or satellite communications systems; verify whether your unit's IT shop owns GMDSS or satellite terminal administration.

• —CompTIA Security+ CE certification achieved or in active preparation — the DoD 8570.01-M IAT Level II baseline. An IT3 who does not hold the Security+ is an unfulfilled billet requirement; an IT3 who knocks it out inside the first year is already ahead of the SWE cycle.
• —DISA STIG compliance checks performed on assigned systems on the command's required cycle; open findings documented and tracked — not closed without remediation.
• —Coast Guard PFT passed every cycle; weight and body composition compliant with COMDTINST M1020.8.
• —Servicewide Exam preparation in motion for IT2 — pull the current bibliography from the CG Institute, build a study schedule, and work the rate training manual chapters. The March / August SWE is the gate.
• —EER blocks clean and trending up; zero security incidents or unauthorized access findings attributable to your work as IT3.

• —Closing a STIG finding as "Not a Finding" or "Not Applicable" without documenting the technical justification. The Information Systems Security Officer (ISSO) reviews the status; an unjustified closure on a CAT I finding is a compliance violation that generates a POAM (Plan of Action and Milestones) finding against the command.
• —Making a production network change — port configuration, ACL modification, DNS entry, account permission change — without a documented change ticket reviewed by the IT1 or IT2. The change that breaks the watch floor at 0200 is traced to the last entry in the change log, and that entry is yours.
• —Leaving an Active Directory account active after a member has departed. Orphaned accounts with domain access are a DoD 8570.01-M compliance finding and a real attack surface; the account audit names the technician who administered the last change.
• —Using an out-of-date STIG benchmark file for a compliance scan. DISA publishes updated benchmark files regularly; a STIG scan against a superseded benchmark produces a compliance report that does not reflect the current requirement and the ISSO will catch it.
• —Sharing specific system configurations, network diagrams, IP addressing schemes, or vulnerability findings outside the appropriate classification and need-to-know boundary. The IT shop's awareness of the network posture is operationally sensitive; a text message to a buddy at another unit is an OPSEC incident.

The good IT3 is the petty officer the IT2 assigns to the STIG compliance sweep and trusts to deliver a clean, documented result — because the findings are accurately identified, the statuses are justified, and the report doesn't need a second pass before it goes to the ISSO. His non-rate strikers know the help-desk intake procedure and the server room physical security requirements because he told them on day one, and the CompTIA Security+ certificate is already framed on the bulkhead before the next SWE cycle opens.

You are a qualified network administrator and a working cybersecurity compliance technician. The IT1 sets the program; you run the daily execution — and the IT3s and strikers are learning the trade by watching how you work a change ticket and a STIG finding.

You are typically the senior day-to-day IT technician at a small boat station, a sector communications and IT shop, or a cutter IT division — or one of two or three ITs in a larger district information management office. You perform and sign network administration changes, you own the STIG compliance tracking for an assigned set of systems under the IT1 or ISSO, and you are the diagnostician the shop escalates to when an IT3 hits the ceiling on a network fault or a compliance question. You likely hold CompTIA Security+ CE and are working toward additional IAT / IASAE credentials (CompTIA Network+ CE, CySA+, or the certification track aligned to your specific billet designation). You stand the help-desk escalation role and you are the primary responder on network outages, server faults, and account-management incidents. You write the first round of EER inputs on the IT3s and non-rates below you, and you manage the IT3s' SWE study calendar alongside the daily workload. The C-school pipeline — CISCO networking courses, Microsoft server administration, specific DoD network architecture courses through the Defense Information School (DINFOS) or the USCG's own IT-career C-school offerings — is now a real career lever, not future-tense planning.

• 01Administer the unit's network infrastructure at the IT2 level — VLAN management, switch and router access-layer configuration, DHCP and DNS administration, wireless infrastructure user management, and the network documentation that the IT1 can hand to a District staff on a site visit without embarrassment.
• 02Own a set of STIG compliance findings in the command's Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) tracker — work remediations, update statuses with documented technical justification, and clear CAT I findings before the command's next Authorizing Official (AO) review cycle.
• 03Respond to a network outage as the senior IT on duty — systematic fault isolation from physical layer through application layer, root-cause identification without guessing, and a documented incident report the IT1 can brief to the command before the situation escalates.
• 04Conduct an Active Directory account audit against the command's account-management SOP — identify orphaned accounts, over-privileged service accounts, and group membership anomalies, and route findings to the IT1 with a remediation recommendation.
• 05Write clean EER inputs on the IT3s below you — observable performance, measurable results, no inflation. The IT1 uses your inputs as the primary record; a ticket count and a STIG finding closure count are measurable; "worked hard and learned a lot" is not.
• 06Deliver unit-level cybersecurity awareness training on the help-desk floor — annual training reminders, phishing recognition, acceptable use, and physical security of equipment — because the IT shop is only as secure as the user population it supports.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. At IT2 you are executing the program it defines, not learning it exists.
• —DoD 8570.01-M / DoDD 8140.01 (current revision) — the baseline certification and workforce management requirements that govern your billet designation and your next credential step.
• —DISA STIGs (current release) — you are remediating findings and maintaining compliance status on assigned systems; current benchmark files, STIG Viewer proficiency, and the POAM management workflow are your daily tools.
• —NIST SP 800-53 (Rev 5) — Security and Privacy Controls. At IT2 you reference the control families when writing remediation justifications and when explaining STIG findings to the IT1 or the ISSO.
• —COMDTINST M1000-series — Personnel Manual sections on advancement, EER, and the Servicewide Exam process for IT1.
• —CIM 1610-series — Enlisted Employee Review (EER). You write inputs now; understand how the EER mark and the supervisor narrative drive the SWE final multiple for the IT3s under you.

• —CompTIA Security+ CE held; second baseline credential (CompTIA Network+ CE, CySA+, or equivalent IAT Level II / IAT Level III cert aligned to billet) in active pursuit.
• —DISA STIG compliance status current on all assigned systems; no overdue CAT I findings on the command's POAM without a documented risk acceptance or active remediation plan.
• —EER marks at or near the unit average; the IT1 and ITC inputs are the variable, and a rating this small writes EERs that mean something because everyone in the district knows everyone.
• —Servicewide Exam taken on cycle with a bibliography-driven study plan; pull the current ALCGPSC / CGPSC advancement message for the IT SWE cutoff and run the final-multiple math honestly.
• —PFT passed; body composition compliant; zero security incident findings attributable to your administrative actions.

• —Remediating a STIG finding by disabling the control rather than correctly implementing it — disabling the audit log policy to eliminate the finding instead of sizing the log correctly. The next STIG scan no longer shows the finding; the AO review finds the gap and the POAM now has a new, worse entry with your name on the last change.
• —Granting a user elevated privileges or a group membership exception because the request came from a supervisor and it was easier than explaining the policy. Over-privileged accounts are the second entry on every insider threat incident report; the IT1 and the ISSO both sign the compliance posture that your account-management decisions produce.
• —Closing a network outage ticket before the root cause is identified and documented. The outage that recurs three weeks later because the symptom was treated instead of the cause generates a second incident report with a note that the first was never resolved — and both reports name the same IT2.
• —Treating the C-school pipeline as something to apply for when the IT1 tells you to. The IT2 who builds the training request before the selection window and clears the watch schedule conflict in advance gets the seat; the one who waits for direction misses the cycle.
• —Skipping the EER input drafting process and letting the IT1 build the record from memory. The bullets you do not write are the bullets nobody can defend at the IT1 SWE cycle or the District personnel board.

The good IT2 is the tech the IT1 sends to the remote site visit without a chaperone — the STIG compliance report comes back clean, the network documentation is updated to reflect what actually exists, and the after-action is one page because there were no surprises. His IT3s pass the SWE on the first attempt because he built their study calendar into the watch schedule; his help-desk ticket queue closes at a rate that impresses the ITC; and the second certification is submitted before the next deployment cycle.

You are the senior IT on the deckplate. The ITC sets the program standard; you run the daily execution — the compliance calendar, the qualification record, and the petty officers who keep the network and the endpoints protected.

You are typically the senior enlisted IT at a small boat station or sector IT shop, the LPIO of the communications and information systems department at a district, or the senior IT technician in the C4I division on a National Security Cutter or Offshore Patrol Cutter under the Chief Engineer or the Command's IT officer. You own the unit's STIG compliance program for the full system inventory, you manage the POAM for all open findings, and you sign IT3 and IT2 qualification and work-authorization recommendations to the ITC or the ISSO. You write the bulk of the EER inputs for the IT2s and IT3s below you. You have multiple C-schools and credentials on the record — Microsoft infrastructure, Cisco routing and switching, DoD network architecture courses through DINFOS or CG-specific IT C-school offerings, and a complement of IAT certifications beyond the Security+ baseline. You hold or are actively pursuing the CompTIA CASP+ or equivalent IAT Level III certification that positions you for the ITC billet's compliance requirements. The commercial credential conversation is real: Cisco CCNA / CCNP, CompTIA CySA+, and the Security+ CE maintenance cycle are all active professional-development items. Chief board preparation is in earnest: EER profile, awards stack, leadership C-school per CGPSC requirements, and the chiefs' mess sponsorship conversation that decides whether the ITC packet is competitive.

• 01Own the unit's cybersecurity compliance program as the senior IT — DISA STIG compliance tracking across all assigned systems, POAM management, IAVM patch compliance, ATO (Authority to Operate) documentation currency, and the ISSO interface that keeps the AO review from producing surprises.
• 02Serve as the technical authority on hard network and systems casualties — a switch that is dropping traffic on a specific VLAN, a domain controller replication fault, a firewall ACL blocking a mission system, a backup failure that went unreported for two weeks — and direct the fix without substituting a rebuild for a diagnosis.
• 03Run the unit's IT qualification and work-authorization program — IT3 and IT2 qualification board, change-ticket authorization levels, STIG compliance sign-off authority, and the training record that survives a District CIS staff site visit.
• 04Mentor two or three IT2s toward IT1-SWE readiness — study plans, EER blocks, certification prep, C-school pipeline, awards packages, and the gaps on their record the ITC slate will read.
• 05Write the bulk of EER inputs for IT2s and IT3s — observable, measurable, no inflation. The ITC uses your bullets as the primary record for the advancement slate and the CGPSC personnel board reads across multiple commands.
• 06Sit in the command's ISSO or IT officer's readiness brief and push back honestly when a deferred STIG finding, a proposed configuration change, or an operational shortcut would take the system inventory outside the ATO boundary — the IT1 voice is the last working-level filter before the problem becomes an AO finding.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. You are the unit authority on what this publication requires and where the configuration boundary ends.
• —DoD 8570.01-M / DoDD 8140.01 (current revision) — Cyberspace Workforce Management. At IT1 you are the billet compliance and credential tracking authority for the IT shop; your ITs' certifications are your professional-development program.
• —DISA STIGs (current release) — you are the program manager for STIG compliance; current benchmark files, POAM currency, and ATO documentation are your shop's compliance outputs.
• —NIST SP 800-53 (Rev 5) — Security and Privacy Controls. You reference the control families when writing POAMs, briefing the ISSO, and explaining risk acceptance to the AO.
• —CIM 1610-series — Enlisted Employee Review (EER). You write the bulk of the inputs and you read the ITC's draft of yours; understand how the EER mark and the supervisor narrative drive the SWE final multiple.
• —COMDTINST M1000-series — Personnel Manual sections on advancement, the Servicewide Exam, and the Service-Wide Personnel Board process for E-7 selection.

• —IAT Level II minimum (CompTIA Security+ CE) held; IAT Level III credential (CompTIA CASP+ CE or equivalent per current DoD 8570.01-M / DoDD 8140.01 mapping) in active pursuit or achieved — the credential the ITC billet requires.
• —Unit STIG compliance program current — no overdue CAT I findings on the POAM without a documented and signed risk acceptance; ATO documentation within its review cycle.
• —IT1 EER profile at the top of the unit's IT1 cohort. The ITC board reads the EER trend across multiple commands, not just the most recent period.
• —Service-Wide Personnel Board / ITC selection competitive — pull the current CGPSC ALCGENL for the ITC slate cycle and use the most-recent slate composition as your planning baseline.
• —Permanent Cutterman device earned if your sea time on cutters over 65 feet qualifies; awards profile (Achievement, Commendation, Letter of Commendation) consistent with compliance program leadership, incident response work, and EER record.

• —Signing an IT2 work-authorization recommendation because the petty officer is motivated rather than because he can manage a POAM and work a network fault without escalation. The first time he makes an unauthorized change that generates an AO finding, the ITC reads the recommendation letter back to you.
• —Letting the unit's STIG compliance status drift during a heavy operational tempo because "the ITC knows what's open." The DISA compliance posture is a continuous obligation; a CAT I finding that goes un-remediated through two ATO review cycles is the ISSO conversation that lands on the command and on the IT1 who owned the program.
• —Making a configuration change to a production system — firewall rule, DNS entry, domain trust — without a change ticket, without IT1 documentation, and without the ITC aware. The network outage that follows traces to the change log, and the IT1 who made an undocumented change in production is explaining it to the ISSO and the commanding officer in the same afternoon.
• —Confusing being "tight" with the ISSO or the IT officer on the ATO review outcome with being aligned with them. You push back in the office on a risk acceptance that exceeds what the ATO envelope actually allows — in private, before the finding becomes the AO's problem.
• —Treating the DoD 8570.01-M credential renewal and the certification maintenance cycle as the command admin officer's problem. Your certifications and the certifications of the ITs under you are your professional program; an expired IAT baseline on a billet is a compliance gap with your name on the billet chart.

The good IT1 is the senior tech the ITC trusts with the District CIS staff site visit — the STIG compliance report is current, the POAM is clean, the change logs are complete, the ATO documentation is within its review cycle, and the IT2 who answers the District staff's questions knows the answers. His IT2s pin IT1, his IT3s pass the SWE on first attempt, and the ITC is sponsoring him in the chiefs' mess before the next chief board cycle drops.

You are an anchor. The Chiefs Mess is a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and the command reads its cybersecurity posture by what you tolerate in the POAM and what you push back on in the ISSO's brief.

You are typically the Chief Information Systems Technician in Charge at a sector or district IT shop, the senior IT chief in the C4I department of a National Security Cutter or Offshore Patrol Cutter under the Chief Engineer, or a senior billet at a Coast Guard Communications Area Master Station (CAMS) or a CG telecommunications center. You went to the Chief Petty Officer Academy (CPOA) at TRACEN Petaluma, CA when your initiation cycle pinned you, and the job changed more between IT1 and ITC than at any other point in the rating. You are now responsible for the command's cybersecurity compliance climate, the ATO documentation posture, the qualification program for every IT in the division, and the working-level interface with the command's ISSO and Authorizing Official — not just the switch that is flapping in the server room. You write EERs on the IT1s and IT2s below you, you advise the ISSO, the C4I officer, and the command leadership on every enlisted IT decision that touches the network posture or the ATO boundary, and you sit in the District ITC network — small enough that every ITC at your paygrade knows you by name and by the quality of the compliance program your unit runs. You also begin senior chief preparation in earnest: the Senior Enlisted Leadership Course (SELC), broader command and senior-IT-leader billet decisions, and the post-CG credential conversation 36-48 months out — federal civilian IT roles (USCG civilian Information Technology Specialist GS-09 through GS-13), DoD contractor network and cybersecurity positions (L3Harris, Booz Allen, SAIC, Leidos, ManTech), and the federal IT contractor market where a CGPSC-documented compliance record and active IAT Level III certifications translate directly to cleared contractor roles.

• 01Run the unit's cybersecurity compliance and IT program as the senior IT chief — DISA STIG posture, POAM management, IAVM patch compliance, ATO documentation currency, Active Directory security baseline, network documentation, and the boundary between operational need and what the ATO actually authorizes.
• 02Advise the command ISSO, the C4I officer, and the commanding officer on network and cybersecurity posture honestly — the CAT I finding backlog that is being papered over, the ATO documentation that is 60 days out of its review window, the IT2 who is qualified on paper but not in practice, the hardware end-of-life that is creating a compliance gap.
• 03Mentor three to four IT1s into ITC-board-competitive candidates — EER trajectory, DoD 8570.01-M credential profile, C-school pipeline, awards record, leadership course completion, family stability, and the chiefs' mess sponsorship conversation.
• 04Brief the Sector or District commander, the cutter CO, or the DCMS (District Chief of Maintenance and Logistics) on unit IT and cybersecurity readiness honestly — patch compliance percentage, ATO status, help-desk ticket resolution rate, network uptime, and the things the command cannot see from the bridge or the conference room.
• 05Walk a cybersecurity incident, an unauthorized access event, or an ATO compliance finding as the senior enlisted IT authority — identify the broken control, the configuration drift, or the qualification gap before the investigating officer names it.
• 06Sit in the Chiefs Mess on the unit's discipline cases, climate sensing, and EO posture and translate those into actions the commanding officer will fund and the IT division will execute.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. You are the senior authority in the unit on what the manual requires and where the configuration boundary ends.
• —DoD 8570.01-M / DoDD 8140.01 (current revision) — Cyberspace Workforce Management. You are the billet compliance authority and the credential program manager for the IT shop at your command.
• —DISA STIGs (current release) and the DISA RMF (Risk Management Framework) process documentation — at ITC you are responsible for the posture, not just the scans.
• —NIST SP 800-53 (Rev 5) and NIST SP 800-37 (RMF for Information Systems) — the control framework and the authorization process that underpin the ATO your command operates under.
• —CIM 1610-series — Enlisted Employee Review (EER) and the EER writing guide. Your bullets pick the next advancement slate; write them as if the Chief of the rating is reading over your shoulder.
• —The Chief Petty Officer Academy and Senior Enlisted Leadership Course reading lists from TRACEN Petaluma, CA — your continuing professional development as a senior enlisted member of the Coast Guard.

• —Chief Petty Officer Academy (CPOA) at TRACEN Petaluma, CA completed; IAT Level III baseline credential (CompTIA CASP+ CE or current DoDD 8140.01 equivalent) held; Senior Enlisted Leadership Course (SELC) on the calendar if you are competitive for senior chief.
• —Unit ATO documentation current and the POAM clean — no overdue CAT I findings without a documented and ISSO-signed risk acceptance; no ATO lapses during your watch.
• —Unit EER profile clean — the IT1s and IT2s under you are advancing on schedule and your bullets read consistent with what the District IT staff knows about the unit.
• —Zero senior-enlisted integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, OPSEC, unauthorized system access, data-handling violations. The IT rating is small and one event ends the career; the district and the ISSO network will know before the investigation closes.
• —Unit patch-compliance and IAVM posture clean — DISA IAVM compliance current within the command's required window, documented corrective action on any District CIS staff audit finding.

• —Letting the unit's ATO documentation or STIG compliance status drift because "the IT1 manages the POAM." At ITC, the ATO posture is your compliance program — not the IT1's paperwork. A lapsed ATO or an unmitigated CAT I finding in a District CIS audit lands on the ITINC of record.
• —Going public with disagreement with the ISSO, the C4I officer, or the District CIS staff. You take it in the office; you walk out aligned, and the unit reads alignment from a chief.
• —Stopping your personal PT and your time on the technical work because "I'm a chief now." The IT shop respects the anchor only as long as the chief can still read a STIG finding, interpret a network diagram, and walk a fault-isolation procedure without asking the IT2 to explain it.
• —Inflating EER blocks on a favored IT1. The senior chiefs in the Mess and the District ITC network see the inflation across multiple cycles, and the advancement slate discounts your bullets the next cycle without telling you why.
• —Skipping the Chiefs Mess work — the climate sensing, the discipline reviews, the new-arrival sponsorship — because the compliance calendar is relentless. The Mess is the job at this paygrade; treating it as overhead is how an ITC becomes a non-selectee for ITCS.

The good ITC is the chief the District CIS staff calls when they hear a unit's ATO review is generating findings — because this chief's unit is the reference for what clean looks like. His IT1s pin ITC, his IT2s pin IT1, the POAM has no overdue CAT I items, and the District audit walks in and walks out without a finding because the ITC's standard on STIG compliance, IAVM currency, and change-ticket discipline is not negotiable. When he leaves the unit, the standard stays for at least another rotation — the real measure of the anchor pin.

You are the standard for the IT rating. Every ITC in the service knows your name; every junior IT is reading your career to decide whether the rating is still worth striking for, and the cybersecurity posture of every unit you have touched is either tighter or looser because of what you tolerated in the POAM.

As ITCS you are typically the senior IT chief at a major sector or district information management office, the senior enlisted IT advisor at a Coast Guard Communications Area Master Station (CAMS Atlantic at Chesapeake, VA or CAMS Pacific at Point Reyes, CA), the senior enlisted presence in the CG's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) programs office, or a leadership-cadre billet at TRACEN Petaluma running the IT A-school or C-school pipeline. As ITCM you are on the senior enlisted or command master chief track — at a major Sector, a District, the CG Cyber Command, the CG Communications System Center or its successor, Atlantic or Pacific Area HQ, or as Command Master Chief at a large cutter or shore command — and your name is on the slate the Service reads at the senior-enlisted council. You advise the command ISSO, the Area CIO, or the District commander on every enlisted IT decision. You set the standard for the rating by what you tolerate in the ATO and what you push back on in the ISSO's brief. You sit in the ITCM network, the Senior Enlisted Council, and the slate-board prep that picks the next ITCS and ITCM cohort. You are also planning the post-CG market actively — 24-36 months out — because the IT and cybersecurity rating translates extremely well and the senior ITs who plan early land well: USCG civilian IT Specialist GS-09 through GS-13; DoD and DHS contractor cybersecurity analyst and network engineer roles (Booz Allen, L3Harris, SAIC, Leidos, ManTech); federal cleared-contractor work at DHS, USCYBERCOM, or Coast Guard Cyber Command; and private-sector network and cybersecurity operations roles where a DoD 8570.01-M IAT credential profile, an active clearance, and twenty years of federal network administration are the hiring conversation, not the gatekeeping one.

• 01Run a major sector or district IT program as the senior enlisted IT authority — ATO portfolio management, billet qualification and credential compliance across the IT workforce, DISA STIG and IAVM program oversight, change management governance, and the senior-enlisted interface with the command's ISSO, C4I officer, and commanding officer on every readiness decision.
• 02Mentor four to six ITCs into ITCS-board-competitive candidates — EER trajectory, DoD 8570.01-M credential profile, C-school and broadening assignments (TRACEN cadre, District CIS staff, CG Cyber Command, C4I program offices at headquarters), command sponsorship, and family stability.
• 03Sit on an IT rating slate or community manager board (per CGPSC tasking) and translate community-level needs — billet distribution gaps, credential pipeline shortfalls, retention problems driven by commercial IT compensation disparity, emerging C4I system requirements — into slate decisions the rating lives with for three years.
• 04Brief the Sector or District commander, Area commander, or Area CIO on IT and cybersecurity readiness, retention, and the things they cannot see from the bridge or the flag conference room — the ATO gap that is being papered over by a risk acceptance that does not reflect current threat intelligence, the credential shortfall the command is not funded to fix, the patch-compliance problem that is two inspection cycles from a significant finding.
• 05Walk the IT division or the network operations center during a cybersecurity incident, an ATO finding, or a critical infrastructure event and identify the broken control or the procedural gap before the investigating authority does — the missed STIG remediation, the POAM entry with a false remediation date, the change that was made without a ticket.
• 06Hold the post-service credential conversation with junior chiefs honestly — the path from an active IAT Level III cert to a federal cleared contractor cybersecurity analyst role, the USCG civilian IT Specialist pipeline, the DHS / USCYBERCOM contractor support billet — because the rating loses senior ITs who do not plan, and the slate notices the chiefs who mentored a generation through it.

• —COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. You are the rating's walking authority at your command on what the manual requires.
• —DoD 8570.01-M / DoDD 8140.01 (current revision) — Cyberspace Workforce Management. You are the community's credential compliance authority and the rating's institutional memory for the DoD 8140 workforce management framework as it evolves.
• —DISA STIGs, NIST SP 800-53 (Rev 5), and NIST SP 800-37 (RMF) — you are not running scans; you are setting the posture standard and advising senior leadership on risk.
• —COMDTINST M1000-series — Personnel Manual (you sign as the senior enlisted on its compliance posture at your command).
• —CIM 1610-series — Enlisted Employee Review (EER). Your bullets pick the next ITC and ITCS advancement slate at the command.
• —The Senior Enlisted Leadership Course (SELC) reading list and the master chief / command master chief community professional development curriculum from TRACEN Petaluma, CA.

• —Senior Enlisted Leadership Course (SELC) graduate; command master chief or ITINC of a major sector or district IT organization, or senior enlisted IT advisor at a CG major command — the visible track for the rating's most senior seats.
• —IAT Level III credential (CompTIA CASP+ CE or current DoDD 8140.01 equivalent) held; continuous professional development in the form of current certifications maintained and the credential renewal cycle managed actively.
• —Command EER profile clean; the ITCs and IT1s under you are pinning on schedule and your bullets are consistent across multiple periods.
• —Command ATO and STIG compliance posture clean — no lapsed ATOs, no overdue CAT I POAM items without documented risk acceptance, zero DISA or District CIS audit critical findings during your tenure, documented corrective action on all findings.
• —Zero senior-enlisted integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, OPSEC, unauthorized system access. At this paygrade the record is the only thing the slate sees.

• —Going public with disagreement with the ISSO, the C4I officer, the Area CIO, or the District CIS staff. You take it in the office; you walk out aligned, and the rating reads alignment from an ITCM at this paygrade.
• —Confusing seniority with technical currency. The IT field moves fast — new STIG benchmarks, updated NIST guidance, evolving DoDD 8140.01 workforce categories, new cloud and zero-trust architecture requirements. The IT2 who just completed the current DISA training knows that corner better than you do. Let them brief it and stand behind them; the ITC network sees who is honest about the gap.
• —Stopping your personal PT and your time in the network operations center because "I'm at District now." The IT shop respects the rating's most senior anchors only as long as they can still read a POAM, interpret a STIG finding, and walk through the server room without looking like a visitor.
• —Letting an ITC run a drifted ATO or a sloppy STIG compliance program at a subordinate unit because "the ITC has it handled." The District CIS staff or the DISA assessment team hears about it the first time that unit's ATO is flagged or a critical infrastructure event generates an investigative review, and the investigating officer names the senior enlisted who tolerated it.
• —Treating the warm-up to retirement as if the job is over. Until you walk out of formation for the last time, the rating is still your job — and the rating reads what you tolerated in your last two years more than what you built in your first twenty.

The good ITCS / ITCM is the senior enlisted every IT in the service knows by face and reputation. The sector or district IT program runs because the ITC's standard on STIG compliance, POAM discipline, IAVM currency, change-management integrity, and DoD 8570 credential tracking is not negotiable — because the ITCM set it. His ITCs pin ITCS; his ITCSs pin ITCM. The Sector or District commander, the ISSO, or the Area CIO trusts him with the worst ATO finding at 0300 and the hardest IT workforce decision at 0900. When he leaves the formation for the last time, the program still runs the way the standard was set — and the credential package he walks out with, and the ones he mentored a generation of ITCs into, are what the federal IT and cybersecurity market talks about for years.