Bringing technology to the frontlines as easy as 1-23

Photo By Sgt. Matt Young | Soldiers with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 23rd Infantry Regiment, help one another cross rough terrain while on a foot patrol in the Naib Kalay area of Afghanistan, June 23, 2012.  

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MASUM GHAR, AFGHANISTAN

06.23.2012

Story by Sgt. Matt Young 

117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (Hawaii)

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MASUM GHAR, Afghanistan - Soldiers on the frontlines all throughout Afghanistan are using a device called the HIIDE, which stands for hand-held interagency identity detection equipment, on a daily basis during patrols.

This device can accomplish a number of tasks used to identify an individual. It can scan the individual’s retinas and fingerprints, and also take the person's picture. This information along with personal data such as name, province, district and reason for enrollment goes into a file that can be uploaded into a database to help identify any person of interest.

Soldiers with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company 1st Brigade 23rd Infantry Regiment, here in southern Afghanistan, are one of the many elements that employ the HIIDE during each patrol they go on.

“This patrol was mainly to engage the local populous and talk with them about any insurgent activity and to deny the insurgents the freedom of movement in the area of Naib Kalay and Fukiran,” said 1st Lt. Alexander Wingate platoon leader of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1-23 Infantry Regiment.

The device is light weight, quick and small enough to fit in a soldiers pack without slowing him or her down. It has replaced the ‘old-days’ tactics of a point and shoot camera for pictures and trying to write down information about the individual which was a very time consuming task while trying to conduct missions.

“It helps you keep track of local villagers and lets you know how successful you’ve been as far as engaging the local population,” said Wingate.

Since being integrated into patrols here in Afghanistan the HIIDE has been used to enroll hundreds of thousands of individuals into a large database, making it possible for all military services to keep track of many of the Afghan people. The local Afghan people do not have birth certificates or social security cards, so it’s rare that any of them have any form of identification at all.

“Everyone in the platoon has been trained and is capable of operating the HIIDE, it’s an easy to operate great piece of technology,” explained Wingate.

When a soldier on patrol finds and collects evidence such as weapons, cell phones, bomb making materials or even improvised explosive devices, they are sent off to labs to get as much information from them as possible. Fingerprints are a big help if there is any found on whatever was collected. The fingerprints are stored in a database so that if a person were to be enrolled into the HIIDE system and happened to be a part of any type of insurgency where evidence was collected and fingerprints were taken it would pop up on the HIIDE and that individual would be detained.

“It has become a standard now, that if we talk to someone while out on a patrol we will enroll them into the HIIDE system,” Wingate said.

With the number of individuals being enrolled increasing each day, it is becoming easier for the solider to identify insurgents.

• Date Taken: 06.23.2012
• Date Posted: 07.04.2012 11:12
• Story ID: 91089
• Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE MASUM GHAR, AF