A cavalry team chief with 4th Brigade, 87th Division (Training Support), Fort Stewart, Georgia, Major Brian Kerns conducted training and assisted the mobilization of National Guard units deploying to Afghanistan and, later, Iraq from April 2002 through May 2004.A former cavalry platoon leader, executive officer and tank company commander, his primary focus was the 48th Enhanced Separate Brigade, especially Echo Troop, 108th Cavalry Regiment. Recognizing, particularly in post-major-combat Iraq, that units weren't going to be conducting large-scale offensive or defensive operations, he and his fellow trainers "ended up getting Humvees and started doing patrols. We still did some training on the tanks and Bradleys, but we started doing things like close quarters combat, small arms marksmanship: those kinds of skills that you would need in an urban environment doing stability and support operations." Kerns discusses new equipment challenges, cultural awareness issues, problems he saw with physical fitness, and the differences in the training received by combat arms and by combat support and service support units. He gives his assessment of the training infrastructure at Fort Stewart and the National Guard soldiers he worked with. “It’s almost like the higher up you go, the level of knowledge widens between what I would consider being an Active Duty guy and a guardsman. It’s not true in every case,” said Kerns, “because there are some guys that are just sharp and pick things up faster and read a lot more, but I’d say overall there is, as you go up, an inverse pyramid.” In addition, he reflects on his own deployment to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and service as a current ops battle major for Combined Forces Land Component Command.

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