In this June 2013 interview, COL Thomas Closs, US Army, V Corps, discusses his deployment to Afghanistan as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Joint Command (IJC) Deputy Director Future Operations (FUOPS) in 2012 through 2013 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). COL Closs talks about the rebuilding of V Corps and the train up before the deployment with international partners. He describes how V Corps senior leaders traveled to a variety of different international training situations. He discusses the mission of IJC and the development of an operational-level campaign plan. COL Closs closes his interview by stating, "I'll tell you, and this is likely the biggest lesson learned. We have got to be cognizant that we're in coalition warfighting environments now. We need to train with our coalition partners because that’s who we’ll be fighting with. You have to build those relationships and you have to stick to theater security cooperation and not just do it in name only. You have to understand that that is the way that future wars and stability operations will be fought and carried out. You have to train that way. You have to build the relationship and train with them and understand them or you're going to learn difficult lessons in the middle of trying to fight and that's not very effective."

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