NOVEMBER 20, 2025 – Soldiers and Civilians from Fort George G. Meade hosted the last of the three Hackathon events – a program intended to encourage teen interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), specifically in cybersecurity – at the Odenton Regional Library, Anne Arundel County Public Library.
This is the fifth year the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) hosted Hackathon, and although there was a government furlough, the brigade and garrison Soldiers, all volunteers, flawlessly conducted the events on October 7 and November 4 (the first fall event was held September 22).
The Brigade-sponsored Hackathon centers around a CTF (capture-the-flag) competition, which for the past three seasons has been designed by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joshua Wellman. The CTF is a ‘cyber exercise’ where participants search for flags, using a variety of techniques including reverse engineering, decryption, netcat, and ssh keys; and at the four other stations, completing those challenges contributes to their overall CTF score.
“I think, as a dad, it’s important for me to teach my kids and other kids useful tools in the real world, and so, whether I’m teaching my kids or somebody else’s kids, it’s always a good time,” said Wellman. “But I think for the brigade, we are part of the community here, so, just like we have our military duties, this is like our duty to the community where we can kind of give back.”
The other Hackathon V stations included: a Basic Python table where participants completed python programming challenges; a Publicly Available Information (PAI) table where participants learned to appreciate the perils of posting personal information online and learn techniques for browsing publicly available information; a Logic Games table where participants practiced binary number systems, modulo operations, and Boolean algebra; and there was also a Locksport and ham radio table hosted by the Maryland Mobileers Amateur Radio Club.
“Much appreciation to our partners at Odenton Regional Library, Ms. Sharon Lanasa, Assistant Branch Manager, and Mr. Scott Barter, AACPL. They made coordinating efforts to book library space and equipment seamless. Ms. Lanasa went above and beyond to provide support with advertising the event on the library’s website and reaching out to POCs of the neighboring middle and high schools,” said event lead, 1st Lt. Akinola Vaughan.
“I would be remiss not to mention the dedication to serve that was displayed by all volunteers, especially the station POCs – CW3 Wellman, 1st Lt. Pranav Balan, Maj. Mark Klink, 1st Lt. Nathan Vowinkel, and Mrs. Ashley Rowe,” added Vaughan. “The POCs did a fantastic job with creating/updating the cyber challenges. CW3 Wellman’s effort with setting up the Hackathon server and website was pivotal to the success of the event. Mrs. Rowe added a new flavor to the event by introducing Locksport and Maryland Mobileers Youth Amateur Radio Club, which garnered much interest and engagement with the participants.”
Annually, the brigade supports more than 15 external engagements, most in support of U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s TAIR or Total Army Involvement in Recruiting program; however, other requests for support come through the Fort George G. Meade, Marland; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Joint Base San Antonio, Texas; or Schofield Barracks, Hawaii garrison public affairs offices – installations where the brigade has Soldiers and Civilians assigned; or from our higher headquarters, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command and U.S. Army Cyber Command.
The 780th MI Brigade is unique in that we are the Army’s only offensive cyberspace operations brigade and we conduct cyberspace operations and capability development to deliver effects in support of Army and Joint requirements.
Praetorians! “Ubique Et Semper In Pugna” Latin for “Everywhere and always fighting” – We don’t talk about what we do nor who we are in a cyber ‘knife fight’ with; however we are “Everywhere and Always…In the Fight!”
A huge shout out to Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jackson Wanous who took the November photos and produced the video for his Defense Information School Intermediate Journalism Course project (to see his video and photos visit the brigade’s Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/780MIBDE; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/780mibde_cyber/, or LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/company/79685493/ pages).
Story by Steven Stover
780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber)