SCHRIEVER SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. -- U.S. Space Force Master Sgt. Stephen Lescroart, 74th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron cyber intelligence section chief, recently won the 2023 Cyber Operations Integrator/Contributor of the Year award.
Lescroart was one of 16 Cyber Operations Functional Award winners announced April 16. The annual awards program recognizes Guardians for their outstanding contributions to the USSF’s space and cyber operations missions.
“In the Space Force, intelligence, cyber, space and acquisitions all play a vital role in achieving the mission. Take away any one of those jobs and the mission fails,” Lescroart said. “As an intelligence professional, my job is to get the right information to the right people for them to make the most informed decision possible.”
Lescroart spends his time understanding cyber threats from a blue — friendly forces, and red — hostile forces, perspective. That includes understanding what vulnerabilities blue systems currently have and how an adversary may target them from a cyber perspective. Being able to articulate relevant information to cyber operators and leaders is vital for Lescroart so operators can adjust day-to-day operations to minimize or eliminate vulnerabilities, ensuring the United States has and maintains its full range of space capabilities.
“Cyber touches nearly every aspect of our lives,” Lescroart said. “As a digital force, the Space Force relies on our cyber capabilities to execute all missions. Simple things like getting GPS directions to the store rely on space.”
The 74th ISRS is a unit within Space Delta 7 - Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, which provides for missions that integrate multiple authorities — Title 10 of the United States Code, entitled “Armed Forces,” and Title 50, entitled “War and National Defense.” The warfighting authorities derived from Title 10 and the signal intelligence capabilities derived from Title 50 allow DEL 7 to provide tailored intelligence production and analysis, ultimately passing along indications and warnings for space domain decision-makers.
The 74th ISRS provides tailored threat intelligence to support tactical-level space and cyber operations. This means that operators need to understand the blue systems and the red threats to those systems for space and cyber to have a complete picture, ensuring mission resiliency.
Lescroart contemplated the nature of his award and emphasized the importance of teamwork and collaboration.
“To me, the Cyber Operations Integrator/Contributor of the Year award shows how the Space Force values the combined efforts of all jobs and how we embrace each individual contribution to the fight,” Lescroart said. “This achievement shows that my intelligence efforts, but more importantly my team’s hard work and dedication, have made the cyber mission more robust. The specific efforts that secured my win were identifying a problem set with how intelligence and cyber interact and setting down a path to make that relationship better. The support from my leadership allowed my team and I the freedom to take that risk to try something new which will continue to pay off well into the future.”
When asked what advice he has for future Guardians, Lescroart had this to say:
“Although initially a joke amongst our team, ‘ain’t no law, but yeehaw’ has become the cyber intelligence team’s motto,” Lescroart said. “This means that we need to exhaust every option we have before saying ‘we can’t.’ Embrace the new and unknown and make bold decisions. Don’t let failures deter you. Put yourself into uncomfortable situations where you force yourself to grow. And most importantly don’t limit yourself to what you think you are capable of before you get started.”
For more information on DEL 7, visit www.petersonschriever.spaceforce.mil/SpaceDelta7/