In this third part of a three-part interview concerning his experiences in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Tom Hough discusses his 2004-2005 deployment to Iraq as the commander of F Company, 51st Infantry - the long-range surveillance (LRS) company for the XVIII Airborne Corps - during this his second tour as the corps LRS commander. Hough begins by explaining the deeply introspective discussions that were going on in the corps LRS community prior to this OIF deployment. As Hough noted, looking back on their previous rotation and looking towards their next one, "The question asked was, 'Is our METL relevant? If we go back to Iraq for another year working for the XVIII Airborne Corps as the MNC-I, is our METL relevant to our higher headquarters? Are we of value?' "Our assessment was yes," he said, "but we had to change things." This resulted in the development of some new TTPs as well as the formation of a corps intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) task force - known as Task Force Phantom - made up of LRS, SIGINT, HUMINT, MASINT, imagery and access to other national-level intelligence assets, which, all together, greatly enhanced the effectiveness of coalition intelligence-gathering efforts. In this interview, Hough discusses this process and its practical execution in the form of Task Force Phantom in great detail. He also talks about LRS missions his company conducted in support of MNC-I in Baghdad; missions in the Iraq-Syria border region; being tactically controlled by Task Force Freedom and working closely with the 3rd ACR under Colonel H.R. McMaster; and the conduct of Operation Odin. Hough closes his interview by detailing his principal lessons learned in the areas of both command and personal relationships, the essentialness of creative and unconventional thinking, and the equipment procurement process.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited