The executive officer of 1st Battalion, 325th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Iacobucci deployed from February to July 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In this interview, he discusses the valuable predeployment training his unit received both in Kuwait and off its coast on Failaka Island; the planning and preparation for a contingency air assault on Baghdad International Airport; being released as a reserve force to V Corps and his battalion's mission to secure lines of communication; "three distinctive fights" they had in and around As Samawah; as well as number of insights he gained in conducting urban operations and, as he termed it, "the beginnings of the type of insurgency we would [later] see in Baghdad." In addition, Iacobucci talks about the (at times problematic) transition from Phase III combat operations to Phase IV stability and support, and also his battalion's emergency redirection to Fallujah in late April. Reflecting on the lessons he learned from this experience, Iacobucci stresses the importance of "having a good command climate and establishing sound morals and values." As he explains, "If you're going to go into this business of exchanging blows with people and taking their lives, it can very quickly erode into something very messy. It's only values and morals that keep everything together."

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