CPT Raychad Vannatta served as company commander of Bravo Company, 1-137th Aviation Regiment at Joint Base Balad (JBB), Iraq during 2008 and 2009 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this December 2009 interview, CPT Vannatta discusses...
CW4 Sawyer notes in his opening remarks that he had just recently returned from a deployment to Iraq while serving as a fixed wing aviator. During the course of his interview he offers several discussions and contrasts of his pre-mobilization...
CSM Thomas relates some of the challenges his battalion had in conducting maintenance in theater. He describes the National Guard maintenance system, where full time maintainers are wage grade Federal Technicians performing maintenance support for...
In this interview CPT Rodney Gervais discusses his unique challenges in planning for and conducting pre-mobilization training. In peacetime, Company C is home stationed in Shelbyville, Indiana and is normally Operationally Controlled (OPCON) to...
CPT Mathews discusses conducting a pre-mobilization Network Exercise (NETEX) at Fort Indiantown Gap. The NETEX included training on the Joint Network Node, call manager and other network components. He describes how he felt the training was...
Chaplain (CH) Dunn discusses his pre-mobilization Religious Support training. He notes his dissatisfaction with "too many PowerPoint briefings and not enough hands on training". Dunn relates that a mock memorial ceremony training block was...
In this interview Mr. Graves relates his experiences arriving in theater as an individual deployer due to his attendance at his Warrant Officer's Basic Course (WOBC). Mr. Graves describes learning the United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) transition...