Hughes was born on September 19, 1942, in Great Falls, Montana, but shortly after birth his family moved to the small town of Manhattan, Montana, in the Gallatin Valley near Bozeman where he was raised and schooled. During his formative years Hughes was active in sports and school activities and held a variety of jobs from a young age. He often spent summers in Riverton, Wyoming, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where his Father worked and lived. He graduated from Manhattan High School in 1960.
Hughes enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 2, 1962, and subsequently was trained as a Medical Specialist (911B20), rising to the rank of Specialist 5 (E-5). He was assigned to the 5th Medical Battalion, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and the 249th Helicopter Ambulance Company (H-21), a United States Strike Command unit, at Fort Carson, Colorado. During his 3-year enlistment he participated in large-scale military exercises "We Will," "Swift Strike II", "Swift Strike III," "Desert Strike," "Coulee Crest," and "Gold Fire I." Following the completion of his enlistment in 1965, he attended Montana State University and subsequently was commissioned as a Regular Army (United States) (RA) officer in the U.S. Army Infantry. During this period he was selected as a Distinguished Military Student (DMS) and Distinguished Military Graduate (DMG). Hughes remained in the U.S. Army Reserve during most of his time at Montana State. He completed his bachelor's degree work in June 1968 and following commissioning he reported to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for duty with the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Devils in Baggy Pants), 82nd Airborne Division, as a platoon leader in Company B and later as Battalion S-1. During this period he served as a "security cordon" officer in Washington, D.C., during the first inauguration of President Richard Nixon on January 20, 1969, during a time of some turmoil in the United States (Nixon inauguration).
Next assigned to the Army's Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for IntelligenceArchived October 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (ACSI), at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., he served as a Foreign Liaison Officer from June 1978 to May 1979; as an Intelligence Doctrine Staff Officer until March 1980 and as Assistant to Director of Army Staff, Office of the Chief of Staff until March 1981. During this period Hughes was able to travel widely in connection with his duties, including time in Israel and Egypt, and he participated in activities associated with the Camp David Accords." At the end of this assignment he was recruited for reassignment to the 9th Infantry Division and the Army's High Technology Test Bed (HTTB) which was just forming up at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Back with the 9th Infantry Division (United States), Hughes filled a number of billets, to include Executive Officer of the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion (Combat Electronic Warfare & Intelligence – CEWI) from June 1981 until September 1982. He then served as commander, 9th Operations Support Detachment until he became the 9th_Infantry_Division_(United_States) Division's Assistant Chief of Staff, G2, in May 1983. From there, Hughes took command of 109th MI BattalionArchived June 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. During this nearly 5-year period all of his assignments were directly connected to the HTTB effort, and included the initial use of computers in a tactical unit and at the Division G-2, the application of "dune buggies" in a variety of combat and combat support roles, the application of "state of the art" electronic warfare and electronic intelligence gathering capabilities, advanced camouflage, cover, concealment and denial and deception operations, the application of an experimental airframe and aerial intelligence gathering that formed the initial tactical applications for crewed and uncrewed (crewed test platform) battlefield airborne surveillance (Project Mercury Green), the field testing of new shelters and associated equipment, the testing of digital data input devices, the application in a field unit of long range electro-optic imaging systems and forward looking infrared systems, and numerous other similar activities.
In July 1986, Hughes was selected for a 2-year Advanced Operational Studies Fellowship (AOSF), at the United States Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After completing the first year of the fellowship[5] – including travel all over the world and being part of one of the first U.S. military groups to visit the People's Republic of China – he remained at the school as a strategic studies research professor until April 1988.
On February 16, 1996, then-Lieutenant General Hughes was appointed the 12th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. During Hughes's tenure, the Defense Intelligence Community faced an explosion of technology, changing international and institutional relationships, and resource challenges. The nature and conduct of warfare was in transition. To support DIA's primary mission of providing intelligence for the war fighter, the Agency emphasized the use of information technology and the development of military intelligence information systems. Information had a central role for national defense and Joint Vision 2010 —America's Military: Preparing for Tomorrow, the joint war-fighting strategic plan, recognized information superiority as the basis for joint war-fighting doctrine and concepts. The vision for information technology was information superiority through global, affordable, and timely access to reliable and secure information for worldwide decision making and operations.
In March 1996, Hughes assisted by several DIA analysts, produced the first of DIA's "Purple Books" A Primer on the Future Threat, 1996–2010, which were extremely well received by policymakers, the Intelligence Community, and the warfighter. A product he conceived while he was the J-2, the "Purple Book" provided DIA's perspective of the future threat and was designed to stimulate discussion on the challenges facing U.S. interests. It was published in three additional editions in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
In October 1996, DIA celebrated its 35th anniversary of providing integrated and unified military intelligence to war fighters, policy makers, and force planners and modernizers. DIA also received a fourth Joint Meritorious Unit Award and, [William_Perry Secretary of Defense William Perry] proclaimed October 1 as Defense Intelligence Day. During 1996 DIA opened new Defense Attaché offices in Cambodia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Latvia, Rwanda and Slovenia.
DIA started the year 1997 with the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Missile and Space Intelligence Command facility on January 26 at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Mission enlargement and operational support defined 1997, as DIA provided analysis and information around the clock to military operations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Saddam Hussein's efforts to block UN inspection teams from presidential sites in October 1997 led to a buildup of U.S. and allied forces in the Persian Gulf. On March 13, 1997, U.S. military forces were used to evacuate certain U.S. Government employees and private American citizens from Tirana, Albania(Operation Silver Wake). In March 1997 a standby evacuation force of U.S. military personnel had been deployed to Congo and Gabon to provide enhanced security and to be available for any necessary evacuation operations. In May 1997, U.S. military personnel were deployed to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to prepare for and undertake the evacuation of certain U.S. government employees and private American citizens. In July 1997, in an effort to ensure the security of American citizens in Cambodia during a period of domestic conflict there, a Task Force of about 550 U.S. military personnel were deployed at Utapao Air Base in Thailand for possible evacuations. Other smaller operations were also ongoing during 1997, all of which DIA responded to in some way.
1998 began with problems in Iraq and elsewhere in several different regions. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan went to Baghdad in February 1998 and reached an agreement that opened all sites suspected of being related to weapons of mass destruction. However, inspectors were not able to confirm or deny Iraqi possession of ballistic, biological, or chemical weapons. This called for focused intelligence work which continued for many years. During 1998, in response to intransigence and provocative acts by the government in Baghdad, a U.S.-led bombing campaign against Iraq began. Other crises existed in the Balkans, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Ecuador, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire. In June 1998, in response to an army mutiny in Guinea-Bissau endangering the U.S. Embassy, President Clinton deployed a standby evacuation force of U.S. military personnel to Dakar, Senegal, to evacuate from the city of Bissau. In August 1998 the U.S. conducted bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan (codenamedOperation Infinite Reach), including cruise missile strikes on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in August 1998. The attack was in retaliation for the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people (including 12 Americans) and injured 5,000 others. In September 1998 America deployed a stand-by response and evacuation force of 30 U.S. military personnel to increase the security force at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia.
In an historic event, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization took in three new members from the former Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1998: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. DIA was directly involved in this transition from the Cold War period to the modern condition.
DIA lost two people in the line of duty during this period.
The Defense Intelligence Agency's Special Focus Group on North Korea was the recipient of the Killian Award for their work during 1998, the highest form of recognition for a person, group or organization for intelligence work given annually by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, "to recognize those who have focused on foreign intelligence activities that are of critical importance to the national security of the United States."
The Defense Intel Alumni Association[6] was instituted in December 1998 at the behest of key members of the DIA Staff who anticipated the need for an organization that would provide a framework for their continued participation in DIA and intelligence community activities.
In 1999, U.S. military personnel were deployed to Nairobi, Kenya, to coordinate assistance related to the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Activities in East Timor with regard to East Timor Independence also drew DIA's interest and a limited number of U.S. military forces were deployed with the UN to restore peace there. DIA also supported NATO's bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo Conflict(Operation Allied Force).
During this period (1998–1999) DIA began work in the cyber intelligence realm, blazing a trail through what was at that time an unknown "wilderness of electronic mirrors."[7] DIA's work was led by and performed by true "technical pioneers, one of whom stands out against the ambient background of this complex area of intelligence and security concern – Mr. Don Lewis.
On the occasion of the DIA Change of Command on July 27, 1999 – DIA was once again awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award (5th Award) – marking the second instance of this recognition during Hughes' Directorship.
Hughes has also been awarded the Eagle Award[10] and the Minuteman Award[11] from The National Guard Bureau[12] and a similar award from the US Army Reserve,[13] the Director's Distinguished Service Award from the Office of National Drug Control Policy,[14] and the Director's Award for Distinguished Service from the National Reconnaissance Office. He has received recognition for distinguished service from the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the United States Department of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has been honored for distinguished intelligence service by The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.[15]
In November 2003, Hughes was asked to assume duties as the Assistant Secretary for Information (Intelligence) Analysis (IA) at the newly formed Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He participated in the stand-up of this capability at DHS and in the formative period of the Department.
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