Captain Michael A. Hannon's initial experiences with mobilization appeared to set the tone for his entire deployment experience. Hannon received an unofficial warning in October 2004 while he was in attendance at the Signal Officer's Advanced Course. Upon arriving home, he received his official notice in November 2004 that he was to cross-level from his current unit of assignment into the executive officer (XO) position for Company A, 138th Signal Battalion - part of the 38th Infantry Division, Indiana Army National Guard - just prior to the unit going on Title 10 mobilization status. In January 2005, Hannon and a small contingent of senior NCOs departed Indiana for Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in order to undergo soldier readiness processing screening and prepare to receive the main body of the company. During the six-month trainup period, Hannon faced the challenges of handling all the administrative and logistics matters for his company, which had gone from a legacy divisional signal company into a separate signal company supporting the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. There he noted the positive influence of the brigade commander in setting the tone for the entire operation. In contrast, the brigade staff seemed to struggle with handling the transformation from a legacy brigade to a BCT. Upon completion of training, Hannon's company deployed into Iraq in July 2005 and provided signal support to 2-28 BCT elements around Ramadi. There Hannon immersed himself in the day-to-day duties of the company XO - daily mail delivery, resupply operations and daily maintenance needed to keep their signal systems in operation. In mid-tour, Hannon's company commander decided to rotate the company lieutenants to allow each to learn new duties and responsibilities. Hannon therefore found himself working as a signal platoon leader for the last half of his rotation - an experience which further developed his ability to use informal contacts with joint and interagency partners to make improvements and support operations remote from a parent headquarters. Hannon discusses the importance of making regular contacts not only with his higher headquarters but with the higher control element engineering the theater communications networks in order to prevent potentially embarrassing or disastrous network outages.

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