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Interview with MAJ Scott Himes

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From March through May 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Scott Himes served as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander for 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. As part of the division's offensive during the initial ground campaign, he led a ground assault convoy through Najaf, Hillah, Baghdad and Haditha Dam before finally arriving in Mosul in mid-April, upon which his company began supporting battalion operations there. In addition, Himes said, "We established regional information centers and then we did presence patrols, although we were not really sure what our mission was and not really sure what our task and purpose was." Nonetheless, he added, "we established a presence and maintained law and order in a place where everything was dissolved and kind of chaotic." Shortly thereafter, on 20 May, Himes became the aide-de-camp for the 101st division commander, then Major General David Petraeus, and remained so until he redeployed in February of the following year. Upon being selected, Himes said he instantly went "from the world of very limited exposure at the company level to being Major General Petraeus' aide. It was probably the most stressful time period of my life," he admitted, "but looking back on having done it, I wouldn't trade it for the world." Sharing his remarkable insights into the celebrated division commander's stewardship of his area of operations, Himes reflects on Petraeus' impressive "energy and foresight" and recalls that it was "amazing to watch him balance combat operations, the political reform, electing a new government, the diplomatic rapport-building with the Kurds up north, and then flying down to Baghdad to meet with his boss." Himes also shares his visibility on the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein and discusses his brief return to Iraq in March 2004 when he accompanied Petraeus on a leader's recon for the general's follow-on assignment as commander of Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq.

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From March through May 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Scott Himes served as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander for 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. As part of the division's offensive during the initial ground campaign, he led a ground assault convoy through Najaf, Hillah, Baghdad and Haditha Dam before finally arriving in Mosul in mid-April, upon which his company began supporting battalion operations there. In addition, Himes said, "We established regional information centers and then we did presence patrols, although we were not really sure what our mission was and not really sure what our task and purpose was." Nonetheless, he added, "we established a presence and maintained law and order in a place where everything was dissolved and kind of chaotic." Shortly thereafter, on 20 May, Himes became the aide-de-camp for the 101st division commander, then Major General David Petraeus, and remained so until he redeployed in February of the following year. Upon being selected, Himes said he instantly went "from the world of very limited exposure at the company level to being Major General Petraeus' aide. It was probably the most stressful time period of my life," he admitted, "but looking back on having done it, I wouldn't trade it for the world." Sharing his remarkable insights into the celebrated division commander's stewardship of his area of operations, Himes reflects on Petraeus' impressive "energy and foresight" and recalls that it was "amazing to watch him balance combat operations, the political reform, electing a new government, the diplomatic rapport-building with the Kurds up north, and then flying down to Baghdad to meet with his boss." Himes also shares his visibility on the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein and discusses his brief return to Iraq in March 2004 when he accompanied Petraeus on a leader's recon for the general's follow-on assignment as commander of Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq.

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