Major Shane Celeen, Armor Branch, deployed his company - Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor (2-70), part of 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Fort Riley, Kansas - after a six-month trainup in March 2003. New to the company, his unit had recently returned from a Desert Spring exercise in Kuwait. Predeployment training consisted of platoon-oriented exercises, individual soldier certification and a modicum of gunnery. Packing and taking everything carried by a soldier, Celeen and his men flew to Kuwait to draw tanks and other vehicles. After these activities, the company moved to a tactical assembly area where the unit screened the new-to-them tanks to ensure main gun accuracy as well as to conduct battalion-level maneuver training. Charlie Company crossed the berm into Iraq early on the morning of 21 March. In the van of 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Celeen moved by road march and then heavy equipment transporters (HETs) up to Objective Rams, outside of Najaf. There the company made contact as part of a task force combined with 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry near As Samawah. Within several days, Celeen and Charlie Company received orders to move to Tallil Airbase, H1 New, and attach themselves to Joint Special Operations Task Force-West (JSOTF-W). From H1 New, the company moved via C-17s to western Iraq after a 75-kilometer road march to Tallil. Once attached to 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment as part of JSOTF-W, Charlie Company interdicted Iraqi lines of communication and conducted raids from 6 to 23 April. During this period, Celeen lost one tank then returned to the vicinity of Baghdad with his worn tanks. The pace of combat operations and repeated road marches took its toll on Charlie Company's tanks. Stability and support operations became the tactical focus of Celeen's company back with 2-70 Armor in Baghdad. Task organization was necessary to apply the small number of Charlie Company's tankers to these missions. These missions supporting reconstruction occupied two months until the unit received orders to hand over their missions and return to Kuwait. In Kuwait at Camps New Jersey and New York, the well-worn tanks and other equipment went into contract maintenance and Celeen struggled to keep morale high and the company engaged. Looking back on his deployment, Celeen felt that better understanding between conventional and special operations forces would help both adapt, appreciating their respective capabilities and mindsets.

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