From March 2003 through February 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Anthony New served initially as the commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, part of 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, and then later as an assistant operations officer/planner with 1st Brigade, 101st. In this two-part interview, he discusses the predeployment training his unit went through, the ground assault convoy from Kuwait north to the vicinity of Mosul, combat operations in An Najaf and Al Hillah, as well as steady state operations in Nineveh Province, south of Mosul. New talks specifically about his company's involvement in helping contact Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani; his men being the ones whom Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hughes ordered to "take a knee" in Najaf in order to defuse a potentially dangerous situation; another situation wherein cool heads prevented a gunfire exchange between US and Peshmerga soldiers; his company's control of the town of Ash Shurah; his own elevation to the brigade staff; as well as his two major takeaways from this deployment: the importance of having a disciplined organization and the necessity of good junior leader development. New closes his interview by saying that what they lacked the most was the ability to "understand the people, the culture and the language, just being able to communicate and understand what their background was to better help them."

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