MBA student earns national award from National Guard

BLOOMSBURG — Bloomsburg University graduate and current MBA student Staff Sergeant Matthew Haberle ’18 was recognized as 2021’s recipient of the prestigious Colonel Carl F. Eifler National Guard award. The award is given out each year to one of 11,000 eligible active-duty military intelligence officers across the nation.

Haberle, of Spring Grove, is a soldier with the Intelligence and Sustainment Company in the National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 28th Infantry Division. He served as mission manager on the Title 10 contingency operation for active-duty operational support orders for U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s Federated Intelligence Program in Pennsylvania (FIP-PA) for the last two years, which helped facilitate real-world reach-back support to the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade's analytical control element. 

 “I think there are three main areas for which I was nominated for and received this award,” Haberle said. "I expanded the FIP-PA from four Army National Guard units and 30 soldiers to over 70 soldiers and airmen across 10 units in the Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard and increased production volume and quality. Under my guidance, Pennsylvania produced over 100 intelligence products distributed to the 66th MI BDE and conducted over 1,500 man-hours of training and production.” 
 
Additionally, Haberle created templates and standard operating procedures that were adopted by Wisconsin, California, and Nevada for conducting All Source Intelligence for the FIP program.  

Most notably, Haberle coordinated to create the FIP program and the country’s first-ever joint Army and Air National Guard FIP program. This program has helped to build connections for Pennsylvania’s FIP program and relationships to use in future Army and Air National Guard exercises. 

The FIP allows National Guard soldiers and airmen to assist active-duty units in a reach back capacity during drill weekends, completing tasks that active duty does not have enough manpower to complete. “This allows the National Guard to have an impact on real-world events versus just going through training exercises on a drill weekend,” Haberle explained. 

“On behalf of the entire Bloomsburg University family, I congratulate Staff Sergeant Haberle for receiving this prestigious award,” said BU President Bashar Hanna. “We are all proud of Matthew and are thankful to him and all our men and women serving in the armed forces. The sacrifices they and their families make to support our freedom cannot be measured, and we are very grateful.”
 
Haberle has mixed feelings about receiving the award. “On one hand, I’m proud of all that I have accomplished to have been nominated and then selected for the award. However, on the other hand, I am humbled because there were so many other individuals who assisted me; there is no way that I would have been able to accomplish as much if not for the support I received from seniors, peers, and subordinates,” Haberle said. 
 
“This award also provides hope,” said Haberle, “Hope that the intelligence field in Pennsylvania will continue to grow and the Pennsylvania National Guard will become a symbol for what intelligence training can be throughout the country.” 

The award is named for Colonel Carl F. Eifler who established and trained a paramilitary unit in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II that taught indigenous people aspects of espionage and sabotage. The unit and its agents rescued more than 200 downed Airmen, sabotaged dozens of railroad systems and cleared the enemy from more than 10,000 square miles. 

The training and expertise Haberle has received in the National Guard has also helped his BU academic career. As an MBA student, Haberle says the Military Academic Credit Review Board (MAC-RB) is one of the main reasons he decided to return for a master’s degree.

The MAC-RB program ensures military service and experience are acknowledged as appropriate academic credit on an individualized basis and in a manner that is most advantageous to the student’s educational and career aspirations.
  
“The process has been stressful; however, I would expect nothing less as the university is looking to see if you truly know the topics before they give you credit for it,” Haberle said. “The program has also saved me a few thousand dollars and allowed me to focus my time on the courses that I still need to take.”