The operations officer for 17th Field Artillery Brigade during his unit's April 2003 to April 2004 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Najera and his unit "deployed with the task organization of two MLRS battalions and an M109 battalion under V Corps Artillery" - initially, he said, "having the mission of providing artillery fires. Once we arrived in country, though, that mission changed to a captured enemy ammunition mission and later developed into several other basic soldier skill missions along the way." In this interview, Najera discusses these various missions in great depth, which also included helping do a theater-wide assessment of all ammunition sites and setting up a demilitarization site. He recounts a number of communications difficulties, talks about transitioning to convoy security and cordon and search missions, and the training assistance provided to Iraqi security forces. "The greatest challenge I faced," Najera said, "was daily troops-to-task. We were constantly getting new missions. We were looked upon as, 'These guys can basically do anything we ask them to.' Outside of infantry companies doing infantry stuff, engineers doing engineer stuff," he added, "the artillery guys were looked upon as being able to do anything. So it was a constant battle for me to report up on daily troops-to-task to show, not that we were tasked out, but how we were keeping busy."

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