Eric Mankin
December 04, 2006 —
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Captain Vicente C. Garcia, Jr.
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Vicente C. Garcia Jr., who is Director of the Information Sciences Institute's Center for Information Operations at the USC Viterbi School, has received a high military honor for peacetime service.
Garcia came to ISI in late February, 2006 after a long Navy career working on various cryptologic and information assignments.
The Defense Meritiorious Service Medal, according to official descriptions, is "awarded to those members of the United States Armed Forces who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service or achievement while assigned to a joint activity. The DMSM is usually awarded to those serving in leadership positions and performing exceptionally outstanding work."
Garcia's citation says he "distinguished himself by exceptional meritorious service while serving as the Senior Technical Advisor for the Naval Reserve Space and Naval Warfare Headquarters unit.... Captain Garcia demonstrated unsurpassed cryptologic expertise and experience while providing ... training to joint service military and civilian professionals....
"He authored and exported more than 21 cryptologic courses locally, saving significant travel and enrollment costs for more than
600 students.
"Through his distinctive achievements, Captain Garcia reflected great credit on himself, the Unted States Navy, and the Department of Defense."
At ISI, Garcia focuses on the field of military Information Operations (IO), composed of three major areas: Intelligence, Network-Centric, and Content-Centric Warfare.
"The digitization of battlespace information, collection and exploitation presents an opportunity for gathering and acting in real-time on intelligence of the opponent's decision processes," his mission statement notes. "In addition, defensive techniques provide the ability to detect an attack, predict its impact, and develop successful preventive and counteractive scenarios."
Garcia was born in El Paso, TX and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University, an MS in engineering from the University of Central Florida, and an MS in electrical engineering (with distinction) from the Navy. He continues to serve as a Naval Reservist with the rank of Captain.
