1st Infantry Division Headquarters
Story by Sgt. Cody Harding
09.27.2010 BASRA, Iraq – With the beginning of Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom is now one for the history books.
And those histories will be extremely detailed and accurate, thanks in large part to the work of military history detachments as they document unit history while it happens.
Maj. Terry Hawn, the 48th Military History Detachment commanding officer, pauses for a picture with an Iraqi Army soldier and villagers in Musayyib. The 48th MHD travels throughout United States Division – South to collect interviews and data to create a complete historic record of the 1st Infantry Division’s part in Operation: New Dawn. (Courtesy Photo)
History cannot write itself, and that’s where military history detachments come in. Since the beginning of OIF, and continuing into Operation New Dawn, the history detachments have been recording U.S. efforts and interviewing soldiers in Iraq for over nine years.
For the 1st Infantry Division and United States Division – South, the 48th Military History Detachment, an Army Reserve unit out of Indianapolis, fills that role by covering the entire scope of the Big Red One’s mission in Iraq.
“The fact that because an MHD is only three personnel,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Niesen, the noncommissioned officer in charge of data collection for the 48th MHD, “and that’s at full strength, we have to be capable and comfortable with interviewing anybody in any job, any rank and any position.”
Collecting the history of a unit as large and diverse as the 1st Infantry Division takes several steps to ensure a complete record. The first step for the unit is to go directly to the soldiers and officers for interviews.
While the typical historian units collect data from 100 to 200 individual interviews in the course of a 12-month tour, the 48th has collected over 500 individual interviews since their arrival in theater Jan. 26, said Maj. Terry Hawn, the 48th Military Historian Unit commander.
“These guys are leaning pretty far forward in the saddle,” said Hawn, a Traverse City, Mich., native. “That’s why we’ve been so successful. That’s why we’ve probably exceeded four times the normal amount any other MHD has done.”
Even the best of interviews can only give one soldier’s view of events, which is where data collection fills in the void. The unit collects as many electronic forms and documents as they can to ensure an accurate record is kept of the era, providing a factual background for the historic events taking place.
Sfc. Joseph Niesen, right, interviews 1st Sgt. Philip Trainer, the Headquarters Support Company, 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, for historical data. The 48th Military History Detachment has conducted over 500 interviews during their deployment to Iraq, well over the standard set by other MHDs. (Courtesy Photo)
The 48th MHD has led the progress in data collection during the deployment with a new collection system designed by Niesen, a Gas City, Ind., native. The system collects documents and other items in the Big Red One online data sharing website, or SharePoint, to create a fully functional replica of the site during the timeframe, allowing historians to browse through the information just as it was when it was online. This makes the process much faster than in the past, where paper records and individual files would bog down a system.
The system used by the 48th MHD is now currently in use throughout Afghanistan and Iraq, allowing historians from around the service to increase their data collection capabilities, said Hawn.
For the MHD team, their job can mean a lot of long hours and challenges, but it is rewarding when they see the efforts of their work, said Niesen.
“It’s something that two, three, five years down the road, when the official histories are coming out, we’re making sure what Joe Soldier on the ground was doing is preserved, and he’ll be able to look back and say, ‘This is what I did,’” Niesen said.
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