Essay --

Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Exploitation Teams (HET), now referred to as Counterintelligence/HUMINT Detachments (CHD), have proven to be highly valuable and effective intelligence collection assets and have provided a significant amount of actionable intelligence during counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, very little HUMINT has been gathered by Marines from the female populations within these population culture. Despite the introduction of female Marines into the Counterintelligence/HUMINT (CI/HUMINT) community in September 2008, it has been difficult to gain access to potential female sources without female CI/HUMINT Marines employed with the maneuver infantry units down to the lowest tactical level. Counterinsurgency (COIN) collection operations hinges on the intelligence community’s ability to locate, contact, and learn from the indigenous population at large in order to glean potentially time-sensitive and valuable information which may save l ives or answer pertinent collection requirements above the tactical level. This task is very difficult for male Marines who are not only ill-prepared and rarely trained to interact with female members of any local community to which they are deployed, but they are also formally and rigidly restricted from direct contact with females in the majority of the Middle East cultures. The employment of Female CI/HUMINT Marines at the lowest tactical level within a counterinsurgency environment is imperative to operational level mission accomplishment. In 2013, the Secretary of Defense overturned a 1994 rule that had previously prohibited women from being assigned to smaller tactical ground combat units. The individual United States military branches have ... ...y combatants or insurgents. Combat experiences allow commanders to operate within a shorter decision-making cycle due to their successes and failures from previous COIN operations. Combat units remain focused on achieving situational understanding of their assigned area of responsibility and thus are willing to employ any and all resources available to achieve mission accomplishment. Units or individuals attached, but not assigned, to combat units provide a capability requested or required by the operating unit to enhance its combat effectiveness and its likelihood of mission accomplishment. The counter-insurgency environments in Iraq and Afghanistan required quality HUMINT collection, to be successful. Ensuring that qualified and dedicated CI/HUMINT women Marines are a fundamental part of the future tactical environment is an imperative that cannot be ignored. Essay -- Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Exploitation Teams (HET), now referred to as Counterintelligence/HUMINT Detachments (CHD), have proven to be highly valuable and effective intelligence collection assets and have provided a significant amount of actionable intelligence during counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, very little HUMINT has been gathered by Marines from the female populations within these population culture. Despite the introduction of female Marines into the Counterintelligence/HUMINT (CI/HUMINT) community in September 2008, it has been difficult to gain access to potential female sources without female CI/HUMINT Marines employed with the maneuver infantry units down to the lowest tactical level. Counterinsurgency (COIN) collection operations hinges on the intelligence community’s ability to locate, contact, and learn from the indigenous population at large in order to glean potentially time-sensitive and valuable information which may save l ives or answer pertinent collection requirements above the tactical level. This task is very difficult for male Marines who are not only ill-prepared and rarely trained to interact with female members of any local community to which they are deployed, but they are also formally and rigidly restricted from direct contact with females in the majority of the Middle East cultures. The employment of Female CI/HUMINT Marines at the lowest tactical level within a counterinsurgency environment is imperative to operational level mission accomplishment. In 2013, the Secretary of Defense overturned a 1994 rule that had previously prohibited women from being assigned to smaller tactical ground combat units. The individual United States military branches have ... ...y combatants or insurgents. Combat experiences allow commanders to operate within a shorter decision-making cycle due to their successes and failures from previous COIN operations. Combat units remain focused on achieving situational understanding of their assigned area of responsibility and thus are willing to employ any and all resources available to achieve mission accomplishment. Units or individuals attached, but not assigned, to combat units provide a capability requested or required by the operating unit to enhance its combat effectiveness and its likelihood of mission accomplishment. The counter-insurgency environments in Iraq and Afghanistan required quality HUMINT collection, to be successful. Ensuring that qualified and dedicated CI/HUMINT women Marines are a fundamental part of the future tactical environment is an imperative that cannot be ignored.