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March 31, 2010 in City
Fairchild noncommissioned officer earns Bronze Star
Hughes trained Afghan police
Hughes
(Full-size photo)
If U.S. forces are to depart from Afghanistan, they are going to have to leave behind a better police force than they found there in 2001.
To that end, Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Jimmie J. Hughes, a member of the 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron, has done his nation a tremendous service by showing Afghan National Police “a better way.”
The 47-year-old noncommissioned officer from Thousand Oaks, Calif., will be presented the Bronze Star Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service” today at Fairchild Air Force Base.
According to his citation, Hughes developed and fielded 17 mobile training teams and provided training to 54 police units while attached to the logistics embedded training team at Camp Eggers in Kabul under the command of the U.S. Army.
“Every time you change one person you change the society,” Hughes said.
Among the challenges he had to overcome in Afghanistan were a military in which officers did not even speak to noncommissioned officers, and a top-down procurement system the Afghans inherited from the Soviet Union.
He said he had to convince Afghan security forces to think about what they needed and ask for it.
By the time he left in October 2009, “We actually had sergeant majors empowered to sign for a pair of boots,” Hughes said. “Before, it might have taken 47 different signatures.”
He said he spent many hours on the road talking to Afghans and learning their culture before attempting to convince them “the new system was not only better, but would make them better, too.”
Hughes, who has served 24 1/2 years in the Air Force, has completed two tours in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq.
He will be presented with the Bronze Star by Col. Tom Bush, 92nd Air Refueling Wing vice commander, during a 3:30 p.m. ceremony in the Fairchild base theater.
Rights panel poorly understood 
MrNatural on March 31 at 9:21 a.m.
Way To Go!…and thank you for your service to our country
Truthbtold on March 31 at 3:55 p.m.
It is courageous men/women like you who give me the right to be free! :)
I thank you and pray for all our men and women in the Armed Forces!