The operations officer for 44th Engineer Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel James Raymer deployed with 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in August 2004 for a yearlong tour in Ramadi in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, during which the unit worked under initially the 1st, then the 2nd Marine Division. Particularly challenging was conducting adequate predeployment training from Camp Howze, South Korea, where the unit was based and deployed to Iraq from. "Historically, though," Raymer said, "when people look at the deployment of 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from the Republic of Korea to Iraq on very short notice and the mission they did and the place they did it, I don't think there's another unit in the Army that could have been alerted and deployed as an independent brigade to work under a Marine division in a very tough portion of Iraq and do as well as it did." In this interview, Raymer also discusses the wide range of missions his engineer battalion conducted, from reconnaissance and infantry-type actions to expedient road repair and survivability work around election sites. Eventually, the 44th received a portion of Highway One as its own area of operations and focused on manning static outposts, running roving patrols and improvised explosive device denial missions. About his unit’s working relationship with the Marines, Raymer calls it “one of the most seamless things I’ve ever seen in my life.” In addition, he discusses the impact of modularity and Army transformation on engineer units and offers informed insights into larger geopolitical issues. “The Army seems to be getting more and more focused on fighting terrorists in failed states around the world,” Raymer observes, “and maybe that’s causing us to ignore what might actually be a greater problem and how we might best prepare for it.”

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