AUGUSTA, Ga. — Attracting new cyber personnel to Fort Gordon hasn’t always been easy.
“I tell you, it was a significant task to convince over 1,000 civilians and military to move down from the national capital region to take a chance in Augusta,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of the U.S. Army Cyber Command newly based at Fort Gordon. “But to me, it’s an easy sell. I’m a believer in what’s happening here.”
The sell could get even easier if the fort’s partnership with local stakeholders continues to thrive, he said Wednesday at the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce’s Post-Legislative Breakfast. He discussed the almost $2.5 billion in military construction that’s been completed at the fort in the past seven years, and the $1 billion in construction still planned.
For workers at Fort Belvoir, Va., to move to Fort Gordon, two leading enticements have been the high quality of schools and less-troublesome commutes.
“A lot of people thought we were crazy a few years ago,” Fogarty said. How, they asked, would a suitably qualified workforce be assembled to operate the Army’s vast cyber systems?
“Well, we did it in partnership with you,” he told local business leaders at the Columbia County Exhibition Center. “What I can’t do is bring them down here and the commute starts to look like the commute they left behind in D.C. And I have to have schools.”
While the higher quality of Columbia County public schools has been a longtime selling point for prospective new residents, Fogarty said similar efforts to boost school performance in Richmond County and North Augusta would expand housing options for new personnel.
And if they live in those areas, they’ll also need fewer hassles traveling to and from work. Fogarty said he and other leaders met last week with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to secure his support for constructing a connector between Interstate 20 and the fort’s new Gate 6, slated to open this summer.
“We said, ‘Governor, you’ve got to be an advocate for this connector because then it makes it viable for someone to live in North Augusta, to live downtown in Augusta, and actually have a reasonable commute to Fort Gordon,'” Fogarty said.
Attracting and retaining a highly educated workforce to the Augusta area is becoming increasingly crucial. Fogarty pointed out that 35% of Army enlisted personnel enter Cyber Command already holding bachelor’s degrees. Across all Army enlisted, only 5% have bachelor’s degrees.
“We’re all in a talent race, right? A race for talent. People working for me today are the people you want. The people who are working for you today are the people I want,” Fogarty said. “I think one of the things we’re going to figure out is how we allow this highly talented workforce to be able to move seamlessly back and forth between the commercial sector, the academic sector and the government.”
Calling the arrival of Cyber Command “just the first chapter in a really thick book,” Fogarty said that making a new home for Army cyber in the Augusta area means also making a new home for the people who help keep the vast operation running, Fogarty said.
“They became part of the community,” he said. “They live here, they work here, they’ll raise their kids here, and they’re part of this story, and that’s what we want to continue to be.”
