MAJ John Cherry served as the operations officer (S3) with the 2-395th Field Artillery (FA) battalion during 2004 and 2005 at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this October 2008 interview, MAJ Cherry discusses in detail his equipment, his movement into Baghdad and the operations tempo (OPTEMPO) while there. MAJ Cherry considers the holding of BIAP and the fact that operations never slowed there to be a major accomplishment of this deployment, and was especially proud of his unit's mastering of counter-MANPAD (man-portable air defense system).

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