By C. Todd Lopez
WASHINGTON (Feb. 23, 2026) -- The War Department's chief information officer, Kirsten Davies, today recognized more than a dozen individuals and teams for delivering information technology capabilities and management practices that advanced warfighter lethality, readiness and network efficiency during the 2025 War Department CIO annual awards ceremony at the Pentagon.
This year marked the 25th iteration of the awards.
"It's important today and every day that we recognize all of the efforts that are happening across our technology and cybersecurity ecosystem at the department," she said. "This is a time of significant change for the department, and it's only going to be successful if we have innovative individuals and teams like you to drive transformation."
Two months into the job as the DOW CIO, Davies said President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have given her a mandate to take bold action with the department's IT and cyber portfolio. The ongoing work of this year's award winners will be an important part of how that bold action is implemented across the department.
"[We have] the potential to truly transform the way the department operates and provides capability straight to our warfighters," she said. "Our challenge is to deliver capabilities to the warfighter that have operational impact but are also secure and delivered at speed and scale; not a small task. The secretary has accepted acquisition risk today to decisively reduce operational risk tomorrow. And we're going to follow [in the] footsteps there."
Davies noted that this year's awards program covered four broad areas: cybersecurity; the information enterprise -- including cloud modernization, network, transport and software; command, control and communications; and a broader area that includes, among other things, financial and management audits, a cyber budget and electronic records management.
As part of the ceremony, both teams and individuals were recognized. Those honored include:
Individual Gold Winners
Air Force 1st Lt. Diego Castanon
Marine Corps Sgt. William Smail, U.S. Special Operations Command
Air Force Maj. Jean-Luc Duckworth, Defense Contract Management Agency
Individual Silver Winners
Air Force Master Sgt. Kenneth Bricker
Aaron Ford, Army
Individual Bronze Winners
Air Force Capt. James Lockatell
Richard Edwards, Defense Health Agency
Navy Cmdr. Matthew Manship, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Joshua Small, U.S. Special Operations Command
Team Gold Winners
Europe Infrastructure Services Team, Defense Information Systems Agency
Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record Program Management Office Team, Defense Health Agency
National Nuclear Security Administration Assured Communications Team, Energy Department
Black Ansible Team, Office of the Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering/Navy
Enterprise Business Systems Convergence Capability Requirements Team, Army
Team Silver Winners
BLANKTELEGRAM Team, National Security Agency
DCI Information Command, Control Communications and Computers Networks Team, Marine Corps
Information Command Active Defense Campaign Team, Marine Corps
J6 Spectrum Branch Team, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Digital Advantage Division SQAD Team, Space Force/Air Force
Zero Trust Tactical Team, Navy
Team Bronze Winners
607th Air Communications Squadron Team, Air Force
Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System Cybersecurity Inspection Program Team, Defense Intelligence Agency
Customs and Border Protection, Office of Information and Technology, Team Awareness Kit Team, Department of Homeland Security
0648 Spectrum Manager Military Occupation Specialty Mod Team, Marine Corps
MyAuth Team, Defense Manpower Data Center
After recognizing the winners, Davies thanked both the winners and those who recognized their contributions.
"Let me thank the leaders who nominated you, as well as each of you here, as individuals and as team members," Davies said. "I speak on behalf of the secretary when I say, thank you for all the hard work you are doing every day. You're seen, you're appreciated and your work matters to our warfighters."