An Iowa National Guardsman with Delta Company, 234th Signal Battalion (a corps mobile subscriber equipment asset) Captain David Broomhall - a first lieutenant at the time - served as the movement officer during the unit's 2004-2005 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "The battalion's mission was to support the tactical communications plan for 22nd Signal Brigade," he explained, "and Delta Company's responsibilities were really in Camp Anaconda, the Baghdad Green Zone and Baghdad International Airport. We supported everybody from Ambassador Paul Bremer in the Joint Operations Center to government agencies based at the airport, to tactical units in Balad. We ensured they had secure internet protocol router (SIPR), non-secure internet protocol router (NIPR) network connections and that they had military tactical phones as well as combat net radio capabilities." In his capacity as the movement officer, Broomhall "ensured that all the vehicles and equipment were maintained, brought over to theater, prepped for combat, moved into the theater of operations, maintained during the deployment, brought back to the consolidated staging point in Kuwait to be loaded on ships and then brought back home." In this interview, Broomhall discusses in general terms the support his unit additionally provided the CIA, the FBI and Special Operations Command, as well as detailing the extensive "expertise in commercial communications" that his fellow Iowa Guard soldiers brought to the mission - expertise that enabled them to always ensure that "those warfighters kicking in doors on a raid or patrolling the streets had a clear pipe of communication." What's more, being dual branched infantry and signal allowed Broomhall to support the warfighters all the better. At length and with a great deal of feeling and thoughtfulness, he discusses the manifold contributions of National Guard soldiers to America's wars from an historical perspective and, specifically, relates a number of personal examples of the skill, sacrifice, dedication and ingenuity of today's troops, particularly those hailing from the Midwest. Broomhall also strongly emphasizes the "importance of leadership taking responsibility for the training of their soldiers" and talks about how this deployment has changed him both personally and professionally.

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