For the first two months of his July 2004 through June 2005 tour in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Major Rene Ybarra served as the future operations engineer officer for Combined Forces Land Component Command's C7 engineering cell. For the remainder, he was assigned to the C35 as the future operations engineer planner. "The C35 was sort of the crisis action team for the commanding general," Ybarra explained. "If there was a short fuse tasking that came out that we needed some kind of order or op plan written in a short amount of time, that's where C35 would come in. So my main job title was to provide engineer expertise to those planners." Based throughout at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Ybarra discusses his work on several "Kuwait contingency plans" and specifically the "relocation of the sea port of debarkation" from Ash Shuaybah to the Kuwait Naval Base. In addition, he talks about his chain of command, a variety of force protection issues, the personalities of the different commanders and staff personnel with whom he had contact, and various engineering operations in both Kuwait and Iraq. Ybarra also offers general observations about his tour, equipment used, as well as the command and control, personnel, administration and morale of the C3 staff.

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