The Secret Life of Quonset
Despite its importance to the state, few Rhode Islanders know what really goes on at Quonset Point.
Technical Sergeant Conor Flynn and Technical Sergeant Brittany Thompson. Photography by James Jones.
Technical Sergeant Conor Flynn and Technical Sergeant Brittany Thompson, 102nd Network Warfare Squadron, U.S. Air Force
The flyboys have gotten all the glory ever since there has been a United states air Force, and the Rhode Island Air National Guard is no exception. The Guard’s 143rd Airlift Wing can be found daily in the skies over Quonset Point, piloting their C130 Hercules on training and active missions. Flying low and slow, these cargo-carrying workhorses are impossible to miss.
The members of the 102nd Cyberspace Operations Squadron, by contrast, work in a dark, windowless room in a nondescript building on the airbase, spending their days staring into computer screens and working to protect the Air Force network from hackers.
It’s a vital role for a twenty-first-century military, but one that’s still not well-understood. “The question we always get is, ‘Do you fly planes?’ ” says Tech Sergeant Brittany Thompson, a cyber operator and supervisor in the 102nd. “We’re the cyber pilots,” she usually replies, sometimes whipping on her Top Gun-style aviator sunglasses to back the claim.
Thompson and colleague Tech Sergeant Conor Flynn may embrace the Cheeto-munching, Mountain Dew-slurping stereotype of the computer geek with a grin, but they treat their mission with the utmost seriousness.
“We defend the Air Force networks globally,” explains Thompson, while Flynn adds: “If you touch an Air Force computer anywhere in the world, we have our eyes on that.”
Not surprisingly, few details are forthcoming about how the 102nd performs its network security mission, or even who they protect it against. Certainly, the unit’s adversaries include foreign intelligence agencies attempting to break into United States military systems to gain information or perform sabotage, but the 102nd also combats common spyware, ransomware and, as Flynn describes it, “Whoops, I shouldn’t have downloaded that” errors by system users.
“The big picture is that there are people trying to get in twenty-four/seven, and attackers are getting more and more clever,” says Flynn. “It’s not like you see on ‘CSI’: We have to rely on products like firewalls, but there’s only so much they can catch. You need to have eyes like ours to make sure that traffic is non-malicious.”
The 102nd is the only Air National Guard unit to take on the cybersecurity mission and works in collaboration with (and in support of) state and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police.
Flynn and Thompson say they get the most job satisfaction out of unraveling problems and outfoxing their opponents. And basement-dwelling hermit stereotypes to the contrary, the two cyber operators say the best part of their job is the people they work with both inside and outside the military.
“At the end of the day, we’re a bunch of stubborn tech nerds obsessed with details,” says Flynn, “but we’re all challenging each other to come up with the right answers.”
