From May to September 2002, in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Shenk (then a major) served as a battalion operations officer with the 101st Aviation Regiment, an assault helicopter unit of Blackhawks and Chinooks. Then, once Operation IRAQI FREEDOM kicked off, he deployed again, first as an S3, then as battalion executive officer. In Afghanistan, his unit acted as the "physical maneuver response" for both conventional and special operations forces, conducting missions ranging from resupply and reconnaissance to interdiction and the delivery of kinetics. In Iraq, during major combat operations, Shenk - a veteran, too, of Operation DESERT STORM - helped conduct the longest air assault in history by seizing key terrain used as rearm/refuel points. Later, his unit was tasked with reconstructing Mosul University. "From the bigger picture," observed Shenk, a former West Point professor, "if you have 20,000 disgruntled college students, it's generally not good for nation-building.” In this interview, he also discusses the importance of retaining deep-attack helicopter capabilities; the utility of combat simulation software; countering anti-aircraft threats in both the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters; and his thoughts on how to create and train leaders who are “flexible, adaptable and imaginative” and able to conduct truly full-spectrum operations – to “kick down a door on Monday, then meet the imam on Tuesday, identify a bad guy on Wednesday, then pay a guy on Thursday.” “Stop fighting the ‘Krasnovians’ on the plains of Kansas in scenario,” Shenk further advises, “and start fighting in the city of Atchison.”

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