In this first of two interviews, Major Todd Terral talks about commanding the 109th Transportation Company in Kuwait and Iraq from March through September 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He discusses the predeployment training which focused entirely on the Cold War model, the leadership challenge of having to deal with his entire company in one place, the difficulty of getting anything done in Kuwait, and having to begin convoy operations without any crew-served weapons or communications equipment. He also talks about the quickly declining operational readiness rate of all of the vehicles, the convoluted and changing command relationships among the transportation units, the relative ease of working with the Marines, and the people skills it takes to keep soldiers from hurting themselves and units functioning. Terral closes the interview by stating that this deployment has made him cynical and always looking for ulterior motives in any presentation.

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