Part two of the interview with Lieutenant Colonel Ed House covers his January to June 2005 Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment as the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division S3, during which he was based in Ba'qubah (FOB Warhorse) and worked under the 42nd Infantry Division, New York National Guard. Describing this area of operations, House says that there was a "very volatile mix of Shi'a and Sunni" and that his brigade's main effort was to build up the Iraqi Security Forces in order to "train our way out of a job" - a task made a bit less daunting for them by having three "very good" Iraqi Army battalions in their area. He discusses their capabilities and the types of operations they conducted at length, and also stresses that, with respect to the Iraqis' struggles in terms of battalion and brigade leadership: "In their defense, it took the US Army 16 years to grow me to command a battalion and we have a pretty extensive training regimen and requirements to be selected to command a battalion." House goes on to explain the nature of the enemy threat in his brigade AO and explains why they were careful to differentiate between terrorists and insurgents. In addition, he talks about the often excellent rapport and strong bonds that were formed between US soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts. Regarding the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters, House says that while they had "challenges initially on planning and disseminating orders and operations to subordinate brigades," they nonetheless brought "an enormous set of skills that aren't typical to an active duty Army" to the fight. House gives tremendous credit to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division soldiers who preceded his brigade for laying a solid training foundation for the Iraqi Security Forces they inherited. In closing, House said of his interview: "I think if this gets captured somewhere and someone actually reads it 50 years from now, small unit leadership and training is the backbone of our Army. If you say, 'Why are we the best army in the world?' The answer is because we have lieutenants and captains who understand leadership and can mass combat power, whatever that might be, against whatever the decisive operation is - whether it's a humanitarian mission or major combat operations. They're just good at what they do."

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