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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
LIEUTENANT GENERAL PATRICK M. HUGHES
19 September 1942 — 5 October 2024
Born and raised in Montana, Patrick Hughes enlisted in the Army in January 1962 and served until 1965 as a combat medic. In 1965, Spec.5 Hughes transitioned to the U.S. Army Reserve to attend Montana State University’s College of Business. He joined the university’s ROTC program in 1966 and, upon graduation two years later, received his Regular Army commission as a second lieutenant of infantry.
After two years and his first deployment to Vietnam, Hughes was promoted to captain and assigned as the S-1 to the 4th Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. On 2 May 1970, Captain Hughes made the fateful decision to branch transfer to Military Intelligence. He credited that decision to his recent experience with U.S. intelligence personnel in Vietnam and his meeting of retired Col. Lewis Millett, Sr., Medal of Honor recipient and honorary colonel of the regiment, at the regiment’s organization day. Millett, who had had several intelligence assignments during his own career, encouraged Hughes, stating, “there was no better way to serve the nation in the aftermath of war and in preparation for the next conflict…. Put in your papers tomorrow, S-1. You know how to do it.” Captain Hughes did just that.
After training as a counterintelligence research officer (MOS 9666), Hughes’ first MI assignment took him back to Vietnam for a year as a Phoenix program and province intelligence advisor. In 1973, Hughes completed the MI Advance Course at Fort Huachuca and transferred to Japan, where he served as first the deputy and then the commander of the Special Security Office at Camp Zama. He completed Command and General Staff College in 1977 and spent three years assigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. During this time, he served as a foreign liaison officer during the peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel; intelligence operations staff officer; and intelligence assistant to the director of the Army Staff.
In 1981, Hughes began a five-year tenure at Fort Lewis, Washington, with the 9th Infantry Division, the base unit for the High Technology Test Bed experimenting with concepts for a light, fast, and lethal motorized infantry. His series of assignments included executive officer of the 109th MI Battalion (Combat Electronic Warfare and Intelligence [CEWI]); commander of the division’s 9th Operational Support Detachment (a deception unit); Division G-2; and finally, commander of the 109th MI Battalion. During his time commanding the 109th, the battalion refined its organizational and operational concepts to best support motorized operations and also experimented with early UAVs, hardened computers, robotics, and electro-optics platforms, among other technologies. About giving up command of the 109th in June 1986, Hughes wrote, it was “the hardest for me to give up. It was the best command [for me] with regard to ‘military intelligence’ soldiering.”
After two years as a fellow at the School of Advanced Military Studies, in 1988, then Col. Hughes went to Korea to command the 501st MI Brigade. For six months during that assignment, he was dual hatted as executive officer to the commander-in-chief, U.S. Forces Korea/ Combined Forces Command/United Nations Command. His tour in Korea included direct involvement with Korean National Police during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and numerous operations with South Korean intelligence services. Hughes received his first star on 1 January 1992.
General Hughes’ flag officer assignments included commander of the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency (1991-1992); J-2 at U.S. Central Command (1992-1994); and J-2 in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) (1994-1996). During these assignments, Hughes was involved in intelligence operations for Operations DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM in Iraq, Operation RESTORE HOPE in Somalia, in Eritrea, in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and in Haiti.
On 16 February 1996, General Hughes assumed his final assignment as director of the DIA. Over the course of his three-and-a-half-year tenure there, he was credited with encouraging cooperation between the DIA and the Central Intelligence Agency and “masterminding numerous bold initiatives which refocused defense all-source intelligence production, collection, and systems integration” to deal with the challenges of the future. General Hughes retired on 1 October 1999 after more than thirty-five years of military service. He was inducted into the MI Hall of Fame in 2001.
| Date Taken: | 11.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.15.2024 17:35 |
| Story ID: | 485461 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 81 |
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