When word came down in November 2004 that the 138th Signal Battalion's Alpha Company - part of the 38th Infantry Division, Indiana National Guard - was going to be sent to Iraq for a 2005-2006 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Captain Keith Paris learned that as many as 40 percent of the soldiers were going to be taken from the company he commanded at the time - Bravo. "Although I had put in for being selected to lead the company," Paris explained, "the Alpha Company commander had OIF I experience and it was his unit, so obviously he was selected. Due to medical reasons, though, he was returned to the States and I was selected to replace him. I came in about five weeks after everybody else had already deployed. I showed up and they were already involved in a lot of training at the mobilization site." At Camp Shelby, Paris recalled being frustrated in his dealings with the National Guard brigade combat team that was his higher, as the staff often overlooked separate companies such as his. "Many times we were just sort of pushed to the side and had to fend for ourselves." As far as predeployment training was concerned, his signal company was very rusty on its equipment - and it showed initially - but they were quickly able to dust off the cobwebs and distinguish themselves, to the delight of their evaluators. Paris then discusses the full range of comms equipment that his mixed company deployed with and moves into a discussion of the types of comms-related support activities they performed while operating in Iraq's volatile Anbar Province, which included providing and constantly troubleshooting the brigade's computer and telephone network. "Because our network was extremely stable," Paris said proudly, "our nickname at the brigade was 'the phantom network in the wild, wild west' because we didn't go down." He also tells of a harrowing moment when 12 mortars dropped into his area in normally comparatively safe Taqaddum. Paris closes by discussing the family separation issue and observes the fact that he and his first sergeant had different personalities was actually a positive, as they both didn't get "blindsided by the same things."

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