During his 2004-2005 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, "I was with III Corps," said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Tolmachoff, "which at the time was the base element of Multinational Corps-Iraq." In this interview focusing initially on Operation Phantom Fury (Al Fajr) - the November 2004 combined-joint assault to retake the city of Fallujah - Tolmachoff discusses his role and actions as the deputy C3 (Air) and then shortly thereafter the C3 (Air). In this, he was tasked with ensuring the availability of aircraft for a wide variety of purposes. As an example, "They knew there would be enemy in restricted sites - mosques, hospitals and schools - which were violations of the Geneva Conventions. What they wanted to do was capture that on video or get witnesses to that effect so we could get the message out that the bad guys were doing things that were wrong." Based at Camp Victory, Tolmachoff was also responsible for transporting combat camera teams, Iraqi politicians and members of the media. He further explains that, in order to wrest the city from insurgent control but also to minimize collateral damage, the coalition, in conjunction with the interim Iraqi government, first undertook a major civilian relocation operation, something that required an equally massive information operations campaign. Then, when residents returned beginning in December, a related reimbursement-for-damages program was launched that propelled Fallujah along the path to once again becoming a fully functional municipality. According to Tolmachoff, though, one big question still loomed: Would the city be ready to conduct elections by the end of January 2005? As he explained, the coalition did all it could to prepare and secure voting sites, all the while attempting to keep an Iraqi face on the elections themselves. He talks about a myriad of security measures taken, everything from high-tech biometric identification programs to screen for insurgents and other undesirables to the employment of low-tech fake metal detectors - basically just a computer monitor or TV set placed next to a wooden doorframe - to heighten the public's sense of safety on Election Day. About the Iraqi national elections generally, Tolmachoff described them as the highlight of his entire military career. "To see all the footage over the next days and weeks of these long lines of Iraqis standing in line to vote and showing their ink-stained fingers they used to vote with was phenomenal," he said. "To be able to accomplish this with so little interruption was amazing as well. The bad guys didn't seem to be able to affect much of anything that day."

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