Major Kellie McCoy served as the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 307th Engineer Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division and was the division main engineer for the base in Ramadi, Iraq, from July 2003 until March 2004. At the time of her deployment, the predeployment training was not a prescribed training program, which gave the unit flexibility to add training in addition to the guidance they had received. While she believes the unit could have benefited from air assault training, they devised and scheduled their first live-fire convoy training, which greatly benefited the unit's confidence when it came to handling and using their weapons in real situations once in theater. Once in Kuwait, the unit received repetitive and additional training, to include an orientation to IEDs and UXO. The theater did not have the necessary equipment for McCoy's unit to take possession of once in theater. McCoy's unit took approximately 100 pieces of rolling stock, to include trailers and generators, to be divided among 10 FOBs once in Iraq. Once the equipment was marshaled from port, the unit drove north from Kuwait into Iraq and divided personnel and equipment up once they convoyed to Baghdad. The company was divided among Baghdad, Fallujah, Champion Main, Ramadi and several small cities south of Baghdad. In addition to McCoy being the company commander, she was the division main's engineer in Ramadi. McCoy was entrusted to keep the base camp running at all times, to look after her soldiers and ensure the logistics functions were being taken care of within the 10 FOBs. While she could not be with her soldiers all of the time, she maintained a good working relationship with other company commanders stationed at the FOBs, which assisted her in taking care of her troops. Adjusting to how the construction equipment was able to withstand the environment was a challenge and a lesson learned as to which machinery was able hold up the best. Their Humvees were unarmored for convoys, however McCoy's unit was able to fabricate much-needed Humvee mounts which allowed a gunner to be present for each vehicle while on convoys. Their FOB was a challenge to secure because it bordered the Euphrates River with a highly traveled bridge across the dam, another side was a very busy road that was across from the former Ba'ath Party headquarters, and farm land made up the remaining side. A National Guard bridging unit utilized their boats to provide security on the Euphrates River. The base camp at Ramadi suffered penetration of a VBIED, which resulted in one KIA. Afterwards, the physical security of the camp was drastically changed.

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