Major Timothy Payment served initially as the Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment commander - part of 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division - then took over Headquarters and Headquarters Company mid-tour during his May 2003 to July 2004 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He arrived in Baghdad in the Green Zone then moved to Rasheed Air Base. He and his unit were responsible for creating neighborhood advisory councils (NACs), including recruiting and holding elections. There was some guidance on how to accomplish this from the Coalition Provisional Authority, but the guidance was sparse at first and slow to come after that. Development of the NACs was part of a larger reconstruction effort. As a company commander, Major Payment was responsible for a particular zone, and his zone's focus was water. There were three other zones, each responsible for electricity, sewage and gasoline/kerosene, respectively. The companies worked in conjunction with the NACs to alleviate these issues in the neighborhoods. The Iraqis serving on the NACs had the responsibility of seeking bids for projects and hiring local contractors. Projects were paid for with Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) funds. One of the lines of operation was to target any anti-coalition forces, which was ongoing throughout this time period. Any suspects were captured, detained and interrogated at headquarters. According to Payment, one of the biggest challenges his unit faced was helping the Iraqis to understand culture and teaching the concept of democracy. Another challenge was creating and working with Iraqi Security Forces, particularly being able to see "the big picture." When setting up the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, they integrated both Iraqis and US soldiers and officers so the Iraqis could learn by mirroring the US forces. Payment felt that one of the most important lessons learned was to establish a "command post that can receive and analyze information and to train young leaders how to think outside the box and analyze situations to make decisions."

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