In this first of two interviews, Major Gerd Schroeder discusses commanding Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, and later the Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), in Baghdad and Iskandariyah from April 2003 though July 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In preparation for the deployment, his company emphasized things like gunnery, marksmanship and close-quarters battle. He was also fortunate in that he had an Arabic speaker within the company who could give basic language instruction to his soldiers. Schroeder states that he wishes his unit had more military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) training and more realistic MOUT training prior to deploying. He describes the unit's move from Kuwait to Baghdad as, "My worst experience ever," in which vehicles broke down, serials were mingled, and the time on the road was too long. Their initial handoff went poorly as the unit they were replacing learned they were being extended and sent to Fallujah, and so took everything from the forward operating base (FOB) with them. Conducting cordon and search operations, Schroeder determined not to cause casualties among innocent civilians and adjusted their tactics, sometimes relying on information from the locals to get the right individual. On one such operation, they accidently raided a safe house run by the Central Intelligence Agency, highlighting the need for minimal coordination between organizations. Although generally pleased with the quality of his interpreters, he had to go to some lengths to ensure that there were no miscommunications. As HHC commander, Schroeder dealt primarily with the security and quality of life on their FOB, particularly reliable electrical power. Their FOB had been one of Uday Hussein's compounds, giving him opportunity to note strange things like several suspected man-eating lions and thousands of meticulously kept receipts. When they were extended and moved to Iskandariyah, they replaced a battalion which had stopped patrolling the area, treated them poorly during the handoff and were mortared on a regular basis. The HHC suffered two deaths there, both of which he blames on his battalion commander for traveling the same route twice. Upon leaving, they were replaced by the same unit they had originally relieved, leading their commander to exclaim, "Screw them. They screwed us coming in." Schroeder closes by saying that insurgency and subversion will be what the Army has to face in the near future but they need to strike a balance between the skills for major combat and counterinsurgency operations.

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