During the first six months of his December 2004 through December 2005 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Mark Coble served as executive officer of the 224th Engineer Battalion, Iowa National Guard, and then, for the remainder of his tour, was the battalion's operations officer. In this interview, he begins by discussing what he terms the essentially "reactionary" and non-mission-specific nature of the predeployment training received at Fort Sill, and then moves into enumerating the 100 percent organic equipment they deployed with, 100 percent of which, he says, was unarmored and 100 percent of it old - a difficult situation indeed considering the 224th would be doing among the most dangerous jobs in Iraq: route clearance and convoy escort missions in the volatile Al Anbar Province. In direct support, variously, of the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions, Coble's battalion was forced to rely on the Marines until quite late in their tour for up-armored vehicles. "Up until about September/October" of 2005, he said, "we received zero up-armored equipment from the US Army. Zero." Fortunately, the 2nd Marine Division commander, Major General Richard Huck, was able to take "from other Marine elements up-armored Humvees and other up-armored equipment so we could do our job more effectively," Coble said. "He knew we had a very difficult and deadly job and that we needed the very best stuff to do it with." Coble - tasked primarily with ensuring the Ramadi-based battalion could support itself and accomplish its missions outside the wire - also provides some very interesting insights into the "action/reaction, counter action/counter reaction" cycle the 224th went through with insurgents bent upon employing improvised explosive devices to maximum destructive effect. What's more, he talks about how the legacy of Saddam Hussein's "tribal socialist economy" - and the coalition's failure to fully grasp its (albeit inefficient and often corrupt) workings - made the conduct of an effective counterinsurgency campaign all the more difficult. Additionally, Coble discusses and analyzes the 224th's performance in terms of finding and clearing IEDs, the psychological impact on the battalion's soldiers that such a job made, as well as what unique skills their being National Guardsmen brought to the mission. In closing, Coble praises the Marine Corps units and individuals he worked with. "They treated us as brothers," he said, "when the active duty Army folks were looking in the other direction. I hate to say that because I love my service but, 'Semper Fi.'"

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited