The operations officer and, later, executive officer of 3rd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Isom deployed to Camp Victory, Kuwait, in late April 2003 and by mid May was in Iraq, having conducted a relief in place with elements from 3rd Infantry Division. Shortly after arrival, his squadron took responsibility for Zones 15 and 16 in downtown Baghdad and then, after a change of mission, reported to Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in the Green Zone - which he takes either the credit or "the blame" for naming - and assumed three significant static security missions: CPA headquarters, the Baghdad Conference Center and the Al Rasheed Hotel. "In terms of urban terrain," Isom observed, "this was a fairly broad geographic area to own and provide security for. We then found out that our main mission was to provide security for CPA personnel as they moved about Baghdad." For this, his squadron ran over 5,000 patrols - many of which came under attack – until April 2004 when the unit was ordered to Al Kut, then to Najaf, to conduct combat operations amid the Mahdi militia uprising. Following this, Isom himself took K Troop to Diwaniyah, coordinated (to the extent possible) with coalition Spanish and Dominican Republic forces, and continued the kinetic fight: “My guys, at this point, were very seasoned, battle-hardened combat veterans,” he said, “and when people shot at them, generally they died.” In addition, Isom speaks at length on cultural relations, the training of indigenous forces, and negotiations he conducted with Iraqi civil and religious figures. Having to be always ready and able to “extend your influence beyond your unit,” he added, was one of the most important things he got to “experience first hand and exercise.”

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