Attached to the 10th Special Forces Group during two separate deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom - the first from March to May 2003 with 2nd Battalion, the second from January to June 2004 with 3rd Battalion - Major Steven Nosbisch was a civil affairs team leader, coming from Delta Company, 96th CA Battalion. For his first tour, he was located in Dahuk and Mosul and participated in the initial entry into the latter, was involved in the battle of Ayn Sifni and also worked closely with the Dahuk government. "We were doing assessments of projects and short term humanitarian stuff which we could have an effect on," Nosbisch said, "but we had no pool of money to draw from and little humanitarian assets available as far as I could tell. I don't know what the big picture was at that time, but we did assessments and then transitioned to the 404th CA Battalion. I think that was a known problem, that there really weren't assets available to have an impact on anything." During his second tour, Nosbisch's team ended up attached to a Special Forces operational detachment alpha (ODA) and began doing short term school and water projects and worked with local leaders in the Mosul, Tall Afar and Sinjar areas. Discussing a wide range of CA-related issues and commenting at length on its employment and effectiveness in Iraq, Nosbisch said: "The one thing I think we lacked was an overarching strategy. Depending on what area you're in, you could tell people were operating differently. Some people were doing a lot, some people were doing nothing, and I think if there had been an overarching strategy for all priorities, it would have been better. We were doing the best we could with what we had, but I think having an overarching strategy is better than just relying on the talents of the commander in that area." He also observes that, "at that time, there was a lot of 'Just do something' and hopefully something good would come out of it." A better way, Nosbisch argues, would be to "focus on getting clear guidance and then, before you do anything, actually have the resources to do it. CA is wasting its time if we don't have the resources to follow through."

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