From April 2003 through April 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Major Tim Cyprian commanded the 813th Replacement Company - a US Army Reserve unit out of Gordo, Alabama - and was based in country at LSA Anaconda. In this interview, he discusses his leadership style of talking to NCOs more than officers; the readiness of his company for the deployment; the task of building a replacement center from the ground up at Balad; his practice of seeing his troops working in Baghdad as much as possible; as well as the challenge of going through five different battalion commanders while he was there. Cyprian also talks about the lack of adequate communications assets; the night in which Iraqi Army soldiers started a fire by failing to follow basic safety rules; and also the principal accomplishment of his company's tour, namely moving some 150,000 total people with just 50 personnel of their own. He closes the interview by recommending "you have the amount of soldiers you need to do the mission before you deploy overseas if at all possible, without having to bring troops from different states to integrate into your company or battalion."

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