A U.S. Army reservist and, at the time of 9/11, an assistant district attorney in Clarksville, Tennessee, Major Lance Baker deployed to Karshi-Kanabad, Uzbekistan, then later Bagram, Afghanistan, with the 10th Mountain Division from December 2001 to June 2002. Often working 20-hour days in the Analysis and Control Element (ACE), he participated as a planner, staff officer, intelligence analyst and eventually collection manager, briefing the 10th Mountain commander, General Franklin Hagenbeck, and working closely with personnel from Task Forces Dagger, K-Bar, 64 and 11 on a number of operations, mostly notably Anaconda. In this interview, in fact, Baker provides a wealth of significant information on the planning and execution of this operation, discussing many of the key leaders as well as the unclear picture coalition forces had of the enemy situation in the Shah-i-Kot Valley. Then, from February to December 2003, Baker deployed again - this time to Kuwait then Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division – and served as the G3 operations officer with the division rear. In addition to his usual staff officer duties, Baker served as an ad hoc composite battalion S3 for forces tasked with protecting Mosul Airfield. These forces included an armor/mech infantry company team from the 4th Infantry Division, a platoon from the 101st’s Pathfinder Company, and companies of Albanian commandos and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers.

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