Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is the most important intelligence discipline. The reasons being include, but are not limited to, the fact that we operate to obtain the face-to-face truth without technology, acquire information that other intelligence disciplines may have missed, and support any commander better than any other intelligence discipline. From 2004, when I joined, to the present, the United States Army has significantly increased the amount HUMINT personnel due to unit commanders realizing how much of an asset we are to their mission.
In HUMINT, we obtain the face-to-face truth from different villagers to assess the Area of Operations (AO) from which we are designated. The information requirements that need to be answered comes from us, HUMINT personnel, conducting missions in various villages and/or cities. We talk to as many people, some key individuals, as possible just to be able to provide a fraction of the intelligence information required by the Department of the Army and Other Government Agencies.
HUMINT fills-in the intelligence gaps and enhances the other intelligence disciplines value in the intelligence field. Other intelligence disciplines such as Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) and Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) can only provide pieces of intelligence information that can elevate the situational awareness in that particular AO. HUMINT, however, can obtain vital intelligence information such as where the best avenues of approach are or where the key ambush positions are, which IMINT cannot answer, and what frequency or cellular number needs to be monitored because it is used by a High Value Individual (HVI), which SIGINT cannot answer.
HUMINT provides the ground truth for any commander in whichever AO he/she is given. We obtain the intelligence information that a maneuver unit commander can use to conduct an immediate mission whether it be a capture mission or not.
