Colonel John "Mike" Murray served as commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq from March 2004 to March 2005. His area of responsibility began as the Green Zone (later called the International Zone) and included essentially Baghdad proper. Primary duties included the escort mission for the Coalition Provisional Authority/US Embassy. His proximity to the CPA allowed him ready access to various advisors and the opportunity to observe the CPA's and the US Embassy's operational behavior before and after the transfer of sovereignty on 28 June 2004. Predeployment training included cultural preparation trips to Jordan and realistic training at the Joint Readiness Training Center. Murray held a consistent focus on sustaining it in theater by forming and fostering a lot of personal relationships with the Iraqi people and requiring his soldiers to learn at least some Arabic prior to deployment. He acknowledges that there are almost no differences between a National Guard unit and an Active Duty unit … after six months. Various lessons learned evolved during the deployment. First, the Moqtada al-Sadr uprisings resulted in stocking extra quantities of fuel and water. Secondly, primary stakeholders were added to the reconstruction effort by allowing them to help design the scope of work, vote in the bid process and become part of the quality control. Reconstruction efforts focused less on "low-hanging fruit" and more on infrastructure. Murray recognizes certain areas of understanding need to be improved - e.g., the concept of honor and saving face - and that aspects of culture apply differently depending upon the religious and/or ethnic differences of the population. Cultural concepts and behaviors must be related to the soldier in a manner that allows him to appreciate it through force protection. He also had responsibility for the 302nd Iraqi National Guard Battalion which evolved from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. His command set up a leadership academy and developed the concept and importance of an NCO corps. This, in-turn, became the first Iraqi unit for him to turn over terrain to. Above all, Murray stresses that Operation Iraqi Freedom is a marathon and not a sprint.

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