United States Cyber Command

Okay, so this is, they shortened it to INS, which oversees defense department intelligence programs, began work in early 2025 on a white paper exploring how to scale up the Pentagon to existing classified tech sabotage programs.

The white paper, completed that fall, considered nesting both programs under the Pentagon's Digital Warfighting Unit, U.S. Cyber Command, but ultimately recommended merging the efforts into a new agency with its own budget and procurement powers.

The move would empower the agency to more quickly integrate cutting-edge tech from the private sector and think more strategically about which foreign defense technologies pose the biggest threats across U.S. military organizations.

Senior Pentagon leadership also saw an opportunity to consolidate some control over Defense Department intelligence programs, a former Pentagon official familiar with the initiative said.

That's where I live in Tennessee.

Well, they've just started, within the past couple weeks, started a new facility, which is going to be led by General Paul Nakasone, who led, I think it was Cyber Command, and they have this philosophy of Defense Forward, where they're not waiting for the adversary to come and get us.

We're taking more active measures.

And that's a big concern for you.

And from there, it just kind of like went full speed.

I got into military cyber operations and I spent quite a bit of time at Fort Meade working with the predecessors, the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency and pretty much spent the majority of my working career after that at that location.

Yeah, and what a location there with all the neighboring agencies.

That must have been a really, really great experience seeing how things work, you know, in the real world with those, you know, offensive and defensive attacks.

And I was there for over a decade in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and that's where I got into cyber.

Stood up the Army's first cyber operations battalion, went to stand up U.S. Cyber Command, and then ended up in the private sector at Morgan Stanley and then at CISA, which is America's cyber defense agency.

And now I run the largest platform for cybersecurity.

And so a very circuitous path, which all kinds of different threats, but right now a huge focus on cyber.

He completed a 34-year career across federal government and private industry, serving in leadership roles that covered everything from workforce development and organizational change to procurement, technology, and human resources.

His experience includes work in federal procurement reform and the establishment of U.S. Cyber Command.

Today, he is the founder and CEO of the Johnson Leadership Group, where he coaches and develops leaders across different organizations.

He's also an author, an ordained minister, and the writer of The Leadership with a Seventh Heart series.

And that's what I teach and that's what I train.

Wow.

So you were involved in federal procurement reform on later during the establishment of U.S. Cyber Command.

So what did those experiences teach you about trying to make meaningful changes inside large institutions?

There's quite a military presence.

It would almost sit— i'm going out on a limb thinking that the heritage of district 3 is probably military and you have so many that are generational as well in that region your your military experience and you you were you were at the pentagon on september 11th and thank you for your service by the way and then and you also set up cyber command and there's so many so many steps there's so many layers of military experience What has the military taught you about accountability? And that accountability seems to be lacking in Washington.

Is there anything that you could do about it or anyone else?

Well, you know, one of the presidents once said, the buck stops here.