Part two of the interview with US Marine Corps Major Daniel Coleman focuses on his second deployment as the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines logistics officer in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, this one from February to September 2005. Based this time in the city of Ramadi - and with an eye back towards his prior 2004 tour in the Fallujah area - Coleman said that, "The types of operations and the AOs were so remarkably different. It was almost like night and day. The threat in Ramadi was so much greater." 1/5 Marines was tasked with defeating the insurgency in Ramadi AO and also with standing up the Iraqi Army. "When we were in Ramadi," Coleman said, "it was such a running gun battle in many respects that you couldn't implement those counterinsurgency type things to stabilize the environment. Another problem we had was that we were very undermanned. They put a lone infantry battalion in what was essentially the western half of Al Anbar's capital. We just didn't have enough people." His battalion never lacked anything substantial in a material sense, Coleman reported, and he had high praise for the US Army units in their vicinity, which he describes as "extremely helpful." Looking back on his two deployment and his three years with 1/5 Marines, Coleman said that he was fortunate to have been able to work with true professionals and also to do what he came into the Marine Corps to do. "I was out there fighting the nation's battles and I was doing it with some of the finest people out there. There was tragedy but there were times when you felt purpose. When you feel that, everything becomes so clear. There were a lot of other guys who just helped make the tour what it was."

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