Major Jason Kerr supported the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom as commander of the US Army's 101st Chemical Company in 2003. Graced by the deployment of the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters to Afghanistan, Kerr was essentially unsupervised and able to train his company as he saw fit, concentrating in equal parts on decontamination and warfighting tasks. Without any prior notice, Kerr and his company were given less than 18 hours to pack all their equipment and be ready for deployment. Despite the short notice for movement, his unit sat around waiting for aircraft until a friend helped him bump the unit up in priority. Upon arrival in Kuwait, Kerr found that half of his vehicles had been pilfered, CONEXs had been broken into, sensitive items were missing, and all of his CONEXs containing his nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) equipment were missing. Through great effort by him and his noncommissioned officers, he was finally able to recover most of his gear, saying, "I hold the movement control teams fully responsible and accountable for the problems." The 101st Chemical Company, with the addition of a Marine decontamination platoon, was attached to the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion for the duration of their stay in theater. Kerr task organized his company to deal with the Marines' equipment, NBC resupply and casualties, noting that he had never seen a group take NBC as seriously as the Marines. He also explained that the Marines use many fragmentary orders, expect a high degree of flexibility and emphasize teamwork, resulting in many short-notice nonstandard missions for Kerr's company. After reaching Baghdad, his unit was given its own area of responsibility, interacted with local Iraqis and provided help with electricity, the hospital and food. Kerr's unit was also called on to do several sensitive site surveys, including one which had yellowcake on the ground and a building full of barrels putting out too much radiation to safely enter. He explains that, as an Army unit attached to the Marines, a constant problem was getting supply from either, and administrative support was impossible. He always treated his unit as Army ambassadors to the Marines and so endeared himself that I MEF did not release them until they had redeployed home. Kerr states that the biggest thing the Army could learn from the Marines is their emphasis of teamwork, and that the move to modular brigades may be a big move in this direction, while the Marines could learn from the Army's deliberate orders process.

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