Major Greg Nardi is currently an analyst in the Science and Technology Division of the Unit of Action Battle Lab at Fort Knox. He was deployed to Iraq from March 2004 until March 2005, serving first as Headquarters Company commander in 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry - part of 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division - then as a planner on the 1st Brigade staff. The brigade replaced the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and moved initially to Camp War Eagle where 1-12 CAV assumed responsibility for Zone 30 northeast of Baghdad. Headquarters Company was converted to create another maneuver element, thereby making Nardi a motorized infantry company commander by using organic Humvees. Prior to deployment, 1-12 CAV received a substantial amount of relevant lessons learned from units already in Iraq. As a result, training was augmented to include cultural awareness, live convoy fire, ambush reaction, and Army Combatives Program skills. Once they arrived in Iraq, Nardi's soldiers began aggressive day/night patrolling, established relations with local governing councils and imams, and started training Iraqi army forces. Eventually the 305th Battalion of the Iraqi Army took responsibility for Zone 30. 1-12 CAV had assumed that its area of operations would be more secure and, as a result, had left its armored vehicles behind at Fort Hood. By April 2004, though, as the insurgency escalated, the battalion commander decided to bring the left-behind tanks and Bradleys to Iraq after all. As its tour wound down, the battalion began closing camps, and with every transition tried to create a smaller footprint and to give more autonomy to the Iraqis. Nardi gained a unique strategic perspective, when, as a planner on the brigade staff, he helped develop the transition plan in which 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division replaced 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

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