ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — West Virginia Adjutant Gen. James Hoyer knows you don’t have to look far in the state to find a major national asset to the United States Department of Defense.
Hoyer praised the work done on a national level at the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center (JITEC), which was renamed to the Army Interagency Training and Education Center (AITEC), on Thursday at the St. Albans Armory.
“This is a national asset,” he said. “Weapons of mass destruction training support and response support. It does critical infrastructure protection across the United States of America and for defense assets across the world.”
Hoyer said the name change is primarily because the Army puts the most resources into the unit. He noted the significance of the day is the fact that West Virginians have the ability to be a national asset while continuing to live in the area.
AITEC is a national homeland security capability with three locations in West Virginia including St. Albans, Camp Dawson in Kingwood and the Dunbar Armory. AITEC employs 219 full-time employees.
Per event release, AITEC provides training to active and reserve military components, intergovernmental and interagency partners, and emergency management and first-responders focused on civil support and emergency preparedness. Hoyer said there is training that supports personnel who protect national assets at home and across the globe including the World Cup, Olympics, the Super Bowl, and State of the Union address.
“It’s a demonstration of the fact that we in West Virginia are exceptional,” Hoyer said. “We can be exceptionally good and in this case, we are exceptionally good at defending the nation and protecting the homeland.
“219 families have the opportunities to live here in this state while their loved ones do a national mission. We believe that this unit over the next 18 months is going to grow significantly as we get into the cyber realm of critical infrastructure protection.”
Hoyer noted the National Guard will have a major role to play in national cybersecurity going forward. Representatives from the West Virginia National Guard were in Washington D.C. on Thursday to discuss cybersecurity.
“You’ve got a lot of talent within that defense structure and we’ve got a lot of people who have been trained in cybersecurity in West Virginia,” Hoyer said. “With this unit, part of our effort is to grow cybersecurity jobs through this organization and others that can do national security cyber work but live in West Virginia.
“There are some great opportunities to protect the nation but still live in here in West Virginia.”
According to the West Virginia National Guard website, in 2017 alone, AITEC conducted 64 total missions and trained more than 12,046 Soldiers and Airmen, ensuring the readiness of National Guard domestic Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high-yield Explosives units in 54 states and territories.