Major Dave May, US Air Force, served as chief of personnel within the personnel section (A1) for Personnel Support for Contingency Operations (PERSCO) from December 2004 to April 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. May had three weeks from the time he was notified of this deployment until the time he boarded the plane. May was very confident in the mission he was given and not much predeployment training was required. After a smooth movement into Kuwait and time to acclimate to the time difference, he received a warm reception and a good handoff from the officer he was replacing. May managed 18 teams with staff ranging from two to 22 people in locations from Ramstein, Diego Garcia, Iraq and Afghanistan. These teams were tasked to keep track of every member of the US Air Force in theater and May was often the person who was first contacted when one of the teams had a question or request. As part of his mission, May was able to travel into Iraq for staff assistant visits and to meet face to face with the teams and leadership who were providing support. May talks about the challenges and most common problems he faced and how he overcame them. May also discusses the challenges of personnel accountability and tracking each member without having geographic location codes for all of the locations. May offers his lessons learned, lessons the Army could learn from the Air Force and lessons the Air Force could learn from the Army.

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