324th Airman named 'best active duty intelligence professional in the Air Force' Published June 10, 2009 By Senior Airman Monica Riggins 324th Intelligence Squadron WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Staff Sgt. Raleigh Harris of the 324th Intelligence Squadron was recently recognized in Washington D.C. as the best active duty intelligence professional in the Air Force. The award is named after Maj. Gen. Jack A. Thomas, one of the "early fathers" of Air Force intelligence. As part of the annual Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Award program, Sergeant Harris was also named the Best Air Force Intelligence NCO of the Year. "Staff Sgt. Harris did phenomenal work while deployed in place at National Security Agency Hawaii supporting PACOM. He also excelled during his deployment in Iraq," Lt. Col. Charles Hogan II, 324th IS commander, said. While deployed for 195 days in Diyala Province, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Harris led the intelligence analysis and targeting efforts for the 4th Stryker Brigade's counter-insurgency effort during "surge operations." His keen analytical effort and hard work drove the capture of 330 insurgents and 127 high value targets, achieving a mission success rate of 89 percent, (69 percent higher than the regional rate). His team also discovered three kidnapping rings, leading to the arrests of 30 suspects and subsequently cutting key funding to the insurgents. He developed a standard target package format that was adopted by all support cells in the Baghdad area of responsibility. His stellar work led to an 80 percent drop in insurgent attacks in province. Sergeant Harris spoke highly of his deployed brothers-in-arms, "The Army soldiers of 4/2ID SIGINT Platoon are some of the brightest guys I've ever had the pleasure of working with ... this deployment has truly given me a deeper appreciation for what the Army does."