Penguins of Afghanistan

If a man says he does not want to go into the system, that’s fine.  But in return for entering into the system they will be issued an ID card.

Staff Sergeant Jason Hughes sees great value in the HIIDE system and he was also very helpful in writing this dispatch.  It was easy to respect SSG Hughes.  After all, he had been “burned” in a recent Army Times article by the esteemed author Sean Naylor.  SSG Hughes said that Mr. Naylor was accurate and responsible in his portrayal but nevertheless fallout had cost SSG Hughes his job as squad leader.  Many people might have been angry with “the press” after something like that.  Maybe it was all the combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, or maybe Jason Hughes is just not your average man (that much is clear), but he wasn’t afraid of the pen.  There are generals and colonels and command sergeant majors who are afraid of the pen, maybe after having been burned a time or two, but that’s part of the war.  When you get into the fight, you are going to get cut.  Bottom line: keep rolling.  Staff Sergeant Jason Hughes gets it.  He got bucked off and busted up and jumped right back on.

Jason’s first tour in Iraq was with 506th Regimental Combat Team, 101st ABN (Air Assualt), and he was in Baghdad stationed at FOB Rustimiyah as an Assistant Team Leader on a Recon Team from November 2005 to November 2006.  That was all he needed to say and I knew he had seen a lot of combat.  Bad place, bad time.  He came back for more, and now in Afghanistan seems to have the COIN manual memorized and is always ready to talk counterinsurgency, for which he seems to have an intuitive grasp.  After 8 years in the Army, Mr. Naylor’s story came out SSG Hughes was “tactically reassigned” as the NCOIC (noncommissioned officer in charge) of Charlie Company’s Intelligence Support Team, and that’s how he ended up with a HIIDE system in his hands.   SSG Hughes seems dead set on entering every Afghan possible.  That might not help out this rotation much, but the culmulative effect of building the database can generate enormous benefit.

Unfortunately, this is another fragmented dispatch with no clear trajectory other than to mention HIIDE and Charlie company.  Research got cut short after General McChrystal’s gang suddenly broke a written agreement and ended this embed.

My war gone by.

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