Cyber seminar for tech-savvy Airmen Published Jan. 30, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Andrea F. Liechti 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Barksdale Airmen attended the Cyberspace Operations and Support Community Transformation seminar at Hoban Hall here Jan. 24. Lt. Gen. William Lord, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, lead the seminar. "I can remember back to 1978 when I was a second lieutenant," Lord said. "We received the best technology out there, an IBM Selectric III typewriter." It was evident by the audience's laughter that technology has changed dramatically over the years, because some Airmen have never used a typewriter. Technology even affects how people communicate and interact with each other. "No more yelling up the stairs to tell the kids to come down for dinner," he said. "Now you text your kids to come down for dinner." Lord experienced a lot of technological change throughout the years and explained the importance of incorporating that change into the lifestyles of today's Airmen. The problem with advancing as quickly as the rest of the country is security. Once security can be ensured, the technological advances are endless. Throughout the presentation, Lord gave examples of how people could tie different weapons systems together. His goal is to limit the Air Force's big, bulky objects. One example he gave of this was to link data on an F-35 Lighting II joint strike fighter to an F-22 Raptor. Right now, the data systems can't talk to each other, but he pointed out how unstoppable we'd be if they could interact with each other. That's just one of the ideas Lord would like to get in the works. "It's a capability we need to be focused on," Lord said. "There's this perfect storm that's coming. A lot of change is needed. We have the people to do it."