A veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan as part of 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) - the first from January to August 2004 as the 1st Battalion, Charlie Company operations sergeant, the second from June 2005 to February 2006 as an operational detachment alpha (ODA) team sergeant in 2nd Battalion - Master Sergeant Michael Threatt, in this wide-ranging and introspective interview, comprehensively and expertly discusses a wide range of subjects and issues related to his Operation Enduring Freedom experiences in Regional Command-South (the Kandahar area) and in Regional Command-East (the Paktika Province's Bermel District). During his two tours, Threatt was involved in everything from security, reconnaissance, air assault and other direct action missions (both mounted and dismounted) to advising and training the Afghan National Army and border police, and doing a variety of civil affairs, counterinsurgency and psychological operations. He discusses a number of these missions against (and ambushes by) al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in varying degrees of detail according to operational security restrictions, and is remarkably informative, as well as candid, when it comes to dealing with interpreters; the rapport building process and working (and fighting) with indigenous forces; his unit's role in Afghan elections; and what to do - and just as important, what not to do - when interacting with local nationals. "America is all about taking terrain," Threatt said. "But in today's world, especially in Afghanistan, that population is the terrain because the bad guys can't operate without them. So every good gesture you do towards the population, you win them over a little more to the coalition side and you take them away from the bad guys." Threatt also speaks at length about the battlefield integration of conventional and special operations forces, an area in which, he argues, there's "a lot of room for improvement." "I believe I've heard this 1,000 times over the last two years from conventional guys," he added. "They say we're just a bunch of rebels, that we have no control and no focus on what we're doing - and that's really nowhere near the truth. They just don't understand what we're doing and how we do business." Based on his on-the-ground experiences and additionally his work at the Combined Arms Center's SOF cell, Threatt offers a wealth of insights and constructive advice on this important topic, as well as many others of relevance to today's current operating environment.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited