My Coins - Counter Intelligence

This is one of my favorite coins. It was presented to me by a group of civilians who work on a Counter-intelligence team. My shop had to support these folks by trouble-shooting and fixing automations issues for them. On one particular occasion, both myself and my Lieutenant worked a lot of hours and essentially performed a miracle for these folks. It was in February, 2011 and the DSTB had reorganized some of its staff members. The S-6 NCOIC had moved over to become the Operations Sergeant and the S-6 had moved to C Co to take over a platoon there. The other NCO in the shop had to leave theater to take care of a family emergency. One of our technicians had been moved over to assist the S-4. That left a new Lieutenant (well, new to us) as the S-6 and promoted me to the position of S-6 NCOIC. The move also left us with just one technician.

Well, on the occasion in which I earned this coin, said technician was on leave. That left just me and the LT in the shop. A policy had been pushed down by USF-I (United States Forces Iraq) that required optical scans of all computers and servers on the network. If any "unauthorized" media was found, then the computers would have to be wiped meaning that users would lose all of their data. Well, I did everything I could to mitigate the issue and get the warning to people. Unfortunately, the Counter-intel folks fell victim because people who had been in theater before this group got there had put some copy-written media on their computers. The USF-I folks scanned the computers and discovered the media and the computers were promptly booted off the network. The only way to get the computers back on the network was to have them wiped and a new image put on. That meant the people currently using the computers would lose all of their data and this data was critical to their mission. My LT and I were able to get the computers and back up the data to an external hard drive before having to wipe and re-image them. It took a lot of hours and much frustration, but we were able to save the day for these folks. For our efforts, both of us were given coins. This is the first time in my career that I had recieved a coin from a civilian agency.

The coin is pretty cool, too. It is shaped sort of like a rounded arrow head. One side has some Latin words, FACIENS MALE MALIS INVENIRE. Now, do not ask me for a translation because I have no clue. Below these words, in a circle are the words UNITED STATES FORCES - IRAQ. Below the circle is a scroll with the words COUNTER INTELLIGENCE inscribed. Hanging from the scroll is a lightning bold crossed by a key with the USF-I patch. In the center of the coin is a torch. Inside the flame, a skull appears wearing a beret with the Counter-intelligence badge on the flash. The other side of the coin has the words TASK FORCE COUNTERINTELLIGENCE COORDINATING AUTHORITY inscribed around the top. In a black circle in the center are the following raised words: THIS COIN IS PRESENTED BY THE TFCICA FOR EXCEPTIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO COUNTERINTELLIGENCE IN THE IRAQ THEATRE OF OPERATION. The bottom of the coin has a number plate with 144, meaning that these coins are limited-editions. Most coins aren't numbered. Above the number plate, but below the black circle is my favorite feature of this coin. The words MAKING BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE SINCE 2003 are inscribed.

This is one of my favorite coins because it is unique. I also like this coin because the Counter-intel people were some of my favorite people to work with. These folks understood the limited man-power that my shop had and were often very patient, whenever they needed our assistance. These guys were also a lot of fun to shoot the bull with. I believe all of these folks were former military, so unlike many of the civilians I dealt with, these guys knew the kinds of issues I dealt with and they were more than willing to play ball by the rules. I will never forget these guys.