In this first of two interviews, Major David Novy, United States Air Force, talks about serving as an engineer on the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) engineering staff throughout Iraq from October 2004 through February 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Notified a few weeks prior to deploying, he received no training and relied on a Marine at MNSTC-I, Master Sergeant Barrett, to bring him up to speed on shooting and driving. His initial impression of the engineering staff was that it was populated by a high quality of personnel. The thing that most impressed him of the individuals on his staff was that the chief engineer, Colonel Pete DeLuca, took the time to conduct a professional development program, including a professional reading program, while deployed. He found that his duties changed from week to week, often traveling out of the Green Zone where they were based to places such as Habbaniyah, Taji, Fallujah, Numaniyah and Al Kisik. He recalls that Barrett conducted numerous non-standard convoy rehearsals so they could travel about Iraq with a level of security and he has a good deal of praise for Barrett's efforts to prevent the Air Force personnel from being liabilities. Novy tells of two soldiers visiting to assist with range assessments, a lieutenant colonel and a sergeant first class, and he was assigned to instruct them on their convoy standard operating procedures. The lieutenant colonel told Novy, "I didn't sign up for this," to which Novy thought, "I'm in the Air Force. Do you think I did?" He did interact on occasion with private security contractors, and talks at length of the impressive South African security detail used by Engineering, Compliance & Construction, Inc. Novy formed a positive opinion of most of the contractors providing them with technical services, describing how they would put a Middle Eastern face on their efforts by having an American project manager, Jordanian primary engineers, and local workers. He also talks about working with the local contractors, usually small, family-run affairs, the security risks they ran to do business, the bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome when getting them paid, and the genuine concern they had for the Americans they liked. Novy closes the interview by saying that, for all of the problems encountered, they were able to make progress in rebuilding Iraq.

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