Lieutenant Colonel Troy Perry deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in April 2003 as the operations officer (S3) for 1-68 Armor Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and later became the brigade S3. In this interview, Perry discusses the division's movement into the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad and its transition to Phase IV stability and support operations. He explains in some detail his brigade's area of responsibility, the means of command and control used by the brigade commander and staff in that large AOR, and the type of enemy its soldiers faced. Perry also addresses the balance between kinetic and non-kinetic operations in his unit's AOR. In talking about his brigade's actions, Perry describes the critical role human intelligence played in its operations. He also documents his unit's involvement in reconstruction operations, the establishment of local Iraqi government and the training of Iraqi security forces. Perry describes the forward operating base concept and the proper ways of basing US forces in Iraq. Finally, he discusses the practice of full-spectrum operations in Iraq and its implications for the US Army.

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