Bøger af Jenna Fike

MAJ Terrance Latson served as the battalion logistics officer (S4) with the 2nd Forward Support Battalion (FSB) of the 2nd Infantry Division (ID) in 2004 and 2005 at Forward Operating Base (FOB) TQ, and as company commander of the 226th Quartermaster Company in 2007 and 2008 at FOB Q West, both in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this November 2010 interview, MAJ Latson discusses his pre-deployment training and its gaps, some of the challenges of deploying pre- and post-modularity, and how he directed the training for his second deployment as the company commander. MAJ Latson concludes his interview with the suggestion, "You can no longer train for your conventional tasks. Do not just allow your Stryker Brigades, your heavy brigades, and your infantry brigades to go to a training center. Allow units who are already training an opportunity to get away from the flagpole and actually conduct training at a CTC. Give that commander an opportunity time to make an assessment on what his/her Soldiers [can do] versus conducting that training at home station. I think that would be a good investment. For example, there is no sustainment brigade that goes to NTC or JRTC with the exception of the leadership-training program. How does a brigade actually train to support if they're taking an administrative approach to training; if they're not putting Soldiers on the road and through scenarios and really testing them on how they're going to react in those scenarios?"

MAJ Tim Terese served as the commander of the 4rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Regiment with the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division during 2003 and 2004 in Sadr City, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this November 2009 interview, MAJ Terese discusses the quick-turn training and back-to-back deployments, the fluctuation of the situation in Sadr City between safe enough for soldiers to shop in the market to nearly daily mortar attacks, and his unit's work with the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army. MAJ Terese concludes his interview by observing that on this deployment, he learned a great deal about how to work with all available assets, military working dogs, PSYOPs, etc., for a successful mission.

MAJ Tim McCulloh served as platoon leader with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment in Kandahar, Afghanistan during 2002 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), in the brigade operations (S3) shop with a Stryker Brigade in Mosul and Baghdad, Iraq during 2005 and 2006, and in the plans shop as part of Third Army and US Central Command (CENTCOM) in Baghdad, Iraq during 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this November 2010 interview, MAJ McCulloh discusses his first deployment right after 9/11, the unexpected extension of his second deployment to 15 months, and the changes he noticed in Iraq on his most recent deployment. MAJ McCulloh concludes his interview with the observation, "Hindsight is always 20/20 so you can always say, "Hey, we should have known better. We should have done this. We should have done that." I think, and this has come out a lot in media and professional articles, one of the things we could have done better from 9/11, was act in a better role in advising the civilian government. Ultimately the military is there to do the nation's bidding and to best advise the civilian leadership in terms of how to employ the military. I think there are some critical times when we probably weren't as vocal as we should have been... This is something I've always loved about the Army; the Army is a learning organization. We're very critical of ourselves and ultimately we figure these things out and then we kind of air the dirty laundry and say, "So and so should never have done this. This was a huge mistake. We never should have disbanded the Iraqi Army. We never should have handled the Ba'ath Party the way we did. We never should have done this. We never should have done that." We dialogue about it and we figure out what we should have done and hopefully that knowledge gets maintained to the next time we get confronted by a similar circumstance so history doesn't repeat itself."

MAJ Matt McQuilton served as the battalion logistics officer (S4) in Irbil, Iraq in 2003 and as headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) commander in Mosul and Baghdad, Iraq during 2005 and 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this January 2010 interview, MAJ McQuilton discusses his first four-month, relatively uneventful deployment to Irbil, the unexpected challenges of writing fragmentary orders (FRAGOs) every day as the assistant operations officer for (S3) for the 172nd SBCT, and how connecting non-lethal to lethal operations finally clicked for him in Mosul. MAJ McQuilton concludes his interview with the observation, "I think we spend a little too much time looking at [COIN operations] as combat. We spend a little too much time -- but we've gotten much better. I think we've grown huge leaps since my last time in Iraq and I'm due to go back."

MAJ Karl Wojtkun served in Bagram, Afghanistan during 2002 and 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and in Baghdad, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in various positions in US Army Aviation. In this July 2012 interview, MAJ Wojtkun discusses the various roles of Army Aviation, the roles and capabilities of each of the different aircraft, and the challenges of integration with ground maneuver forces. MAJ Wojtkun concludes his interview with the observation, "I would say a lesson learned that we need to bring in is putting assets toward the development of our officer corps in Army Aviation. It seems that we are pushing officers through the system instead of actually evaluating officers through a system... In order to keep the best leading in battalion commander selection, the Army needs to re-look that and how we develop our officers from the day they join the Army to the day they become senior leaders in the Army, especially in the Aviation community. We can greatly improve the way we evaluate Soldiers, not just in the OER system, but also in the schooling system. It's a great opportunity for someone to look at, "Hey, does he really get it? Does he understand not just his Army Aviation assets, but how he integrates into the fight? Does he understand how his fight then integrates into the BCT that he's supporting and how that BCT supports the campaign plan of all of Afghanistan?" There are far too many officers out there who have progressed through the ranks that don't understand that, and they don't care to take the time to understand."

MAJ Tony Kron served as operations officer (S3) and company commander of 1-67 Armor at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Iskandariyah during 2005 and 2006 and as battalion military transition team (MiTT) chief attached to 1st Infantry Division (ID) in Mosul, Iraq during 2009 and 2010 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this October 2010 interview, MAJ Kron discusses the challenges of serving in an Armor unit as an infantry officer, his mission in the Jurf al Sakhar area south of Baghdad, and his experiences with a MiTT. MAJ Kron concludes his interview with the observation, "If you're going to have teams -- security force teams like MiTTs and things like that -- then it needs to be a skill set in the Army. It does not need to be someone I can pull off the shelf and shove into the job. It needs to be someone who has the appropriate level of training, the appropriate skills for it, and has a desire to do it."

CSM Phillip Johndrow served as the Command Sergeant Major of Multi-National Force - Baghdad in Baghdad, Iraq during 2006 through 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In this July 2010 interview, CSM Johndrow discusses the surge and its successes, what he saw as his role with the Soldiers, and his understanding of the broader picture from his perspective down at the ground level. CSM Johndrow concludes his interview with the observation, " I have total faith in confidence in the American Soldier and Coalition Forces out there. Those Soldiers will keep doing what they're asked to do every day, and we're going to be fine."