HIIDE

Photo By Sgt. Luke Rollins | Sgt. Nathaniel Spencer, a chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear sergeant with C Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, scans the iris of Spc. Richard Gallegos, a company intelligence survey team member with B Company, during a Biometrics class June 12 at the Joint Readiness Training Center. The class is part of 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division's training operations conducted in preparation for its upcoming deployment to Iraq.  

FORT POLK, UNITED STATES

06.17.2009

Story by Pvt. Luke Rollins 

4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division

FORT POLK, La. — Soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division out of Fort Lewis, Wash., participated in a Biometrics class Friday at the Joint Readiness Training Center as a part of training operations for the unit's upcoming deployment to Iraq.

Biometrics is the science of using a person's physiological features, such as their fingerprints or irises, as a method of identification, said James Langston, the class instructor and JRTC field support engineer.

In the field, said Langston, one of the key pieces of biometrical equipment is the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, which debuted in 2004.

The HIIDE can scan two irises, 10 fingers and take a facial portrait, he said. This information, along with personal data, goes into an identification file called a dossier, of which the HIIDE can hold 10,000.

The data is then downloaded to a larger database that can help identify patterns of individual movement in an area of operations.

"The good thing about using Biometrics...is that it's real time," said Langston. "That means if you're scanning someone, it will give you an answer within a couple seconds."

Spc. Richard Gallegos, a company intelligence survey team member with B Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, said he understands the value of having this technology on the ground. He said he works putting together target packets and working with security and intelligence personnel to neutralize high value targets. The HIIDE system is more field expedient, said Gallegos, as it has three different ways to physiologically identify a potential suspect.

"It's a wonderful tool to identify and enroll; it keeps a database of all those that are enrolled, and the HIIDE system can be used all the way down to the foot soldier," said Langston. "That foot soldier can go out there and identify anybody and everybody, and if they're in the database, it'll come up telling you what you need to do."

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Phillip Matousek, the executive officer of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, said the training he received during the class will help him better understand the mission of Soldiers like Gallegos, with whom he'll be working when the unit deploys to Iraq.

"If you pick somebody up, you arrest them, and then they release him for some reason — and you pick him up again, you can start to track patterns," said Matousek.

"It's a wonderful system. It's in its infancy, it's still getting better, and it's going to get better and better every year," said Langston.

• Date Taken: 06.17.2009
• Date Posted: 06.17.2009 00:26
• Story ID: 35187
• Location: FORT POLK, US