From March to May 2003, Major Michael Doherty served as the Headquarters Support Company (HSC) commander for 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Once in northern Iraq working with the Kurdish Peshmerga, the battalion's mission was threefold, according to Doherty: "one, to secure lodgment in northern Iraq; two, link up our guys with the Peshmerga and get down to the Green Line to fix the Iraqi divisions down there; and then three and most importantly was dealing with the Ansar al-Islam threat because the Kurds had a significant number of their forces aligned around that pocket and kept them occupied. They would not move down to the Green Line," Doherty explained, "which is what we needed to happen, until after that threat had been dealt with." In this, Doherty's main responsibility was being in charge of the Support Center, making sure the companies and operational detachment alphas got all the support they needed. In this interview - the first of two regarding his OIF deployments - he discusses the full range of support he provided, his interactions with Kurdish forces, as well as his assessment of operations overall in this northern region of combat.

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