In this second of two interviews, Major Clint Cox discusses his service as the commander of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry in the drive towards Baghdad, and later in the Rabiah area along the Syrian border, through 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In preparing for deployment, Cox's company took advantage of Fort Campbell's plentiful training ammunition every day until someone caught on and placed them on the night-shift loading railcars. Although their initial mission into Iraq was supposed to be an air assault onto a weapons facility in the Karbala Gap, they found themselves moving forward behind the 3rd Infantry Division. The company was given trucks from numerous different organizations to make their way to an actual objective, the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), but the drivers had no prior warning that they were moving into combat, the company was exhausted after a 28-hour drive, a truck drove into an irrigation pond en route, and the Iraqis attempted to ambush the convoy several times. "There were 30 tired, pissed-off infantrymen in the back of each one of these trucks," explained Cox, "and every time they would shoot, there would be 20 guys on one side just killing everything on that side of the truck." After arriving at BIAP, the initial attack through the terminals and hangars went smoothly, but the airport has an extensive network of underground access tunnels through which the enemy counterattacked, and Cox describes in great detail all of the challenges and techniques involved in successfully fighting an all-night underground battle. He also describes the interaction between himself and an A-10 pilot in destroying a concrete cupola before attacking a key objective at the Jockey Club. Following combat operations, the company was responsible for what was known as Zone 39 in Baghdad, an area encompassing maybe two million Iraqis. The company spent most of its deployment along the Syrian border near Rabiah. Cox notes that his relations with the Syrians were always cordiale and that the duties collected at the border crossing allowed him to make all kinds of local improvements. Cox made the local Iraqis responsible for the company's safety, something which the Iraqis took very seriously, and he included all types of notables in the decisions on public services and projects. Cox closes by talking about how he acquired his interpreter, involved his family in the decision to move north with the company, and the enormous dividends a good interpreter pay by making an American commander culturally aware and setting him up for success.

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