Tasked with contingency airbase defense during his first two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom - the first from August to December 2003 at Tallil Airbase, the second from May to October 2004 at Baghdad International Airport - US Air Force Major Glen Christensen commanded the 824th Security Forces Squadron. At Tallil, he concerned himself primarily with entry control point and external force protection for all US Air Force, US Army, Dutch, Korean and Italian forces. At BIAP, Christensen said, "We were responsible for the security of the military side of the runway and we also had a portion of the perimeter. Our operations center was the air defense operations center for all of western BIAP and we were the quick reaction force for all of west BIAP as well." Christensen himself also served as an advisor to civilian airport security officials. For his third OIF deployment, he was the operations officer for Task Force 1041, which was "the Air Force's first attempt at offensive ground combat operations to defend an airbase," in this case Balad. Christensen helped target 1st Infantry Division high-value targets, secure the sector for Iraqi elections, interdict supply routes and destroy weapons caches. In this interview, he also discusses working for the Army - which "was actually a lot easier [to do] at times than the Air Force" - shortcomings he saw with regard to human intelligence, plus he offers a wealth of advice on how the expeditionary Air Force can (and should) "change its mindset." For the most part, Christensen argues, "We organize, train and equip for our day-to-day mission and transition to our wartime mission. That's got to change," he insists. "We're basically organized, trained and equipped for our less dangerous mission and we transition to the one that gets people killed. The mindset has got to be reversed. We have to organize, train and equip for our wartime mission - and then if the Air Force feels we also need to do these peacetime skill sets, then we'll get that as an additional duty, not the other way around. To me, that's absolutely critical."

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