Major Clint Cox, in this first of two interviews, talks about serving as the assistant operations officer for 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division and as commander of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry in Afghanistan from December 2001 through August 2002 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He recounts deploying to the Middle East right behind the advanced party, being based primarily out of Kandahar with time spent in Bagram and several trips to Gardez and Khowst. He was involved in Operations Anaconda, Eagle Talon II, Apache Snow and Tiaha, which entailed working with coalition Special Forces. He notes that no training could have fully prepared them for the difficult terrain, foreign culture and variable weather they encountered in Afghanistan. Cox explains that the environment was very austere, describing it to his wife as "biblical," with a limited support infrastructure at the military's disposal. Only after several months in Afghanistan did military translators appear, part of the tactical human intelligence teams, and no native Afghan interpreters were available to the rifle companies. While primarily focused on finding and destroying remnants of the Taliban, some effort was put into security and stability operations and there was interaction with local people, albeit it was often quite brief. According to Cox, the working relationship with non-governmental organizations was very good, saying, "From a historic standpoint, I'd say it was pretty good, or better than it ever had been. There was significantly more cooperation than probably ever before." Cox closes this interview by stating that the vast majority of Afghans could not differentiate Americans from aliens, did not who the Americans were, why they were in Afghanistan, and did not care as long it did not affect their family, their tribe or their sheep.

The views and opinions expressed in these interviews are those of the interviewees themselves and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Combat Studies Institute, the US Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, or the Department of the Army as a whole.