MAJ Terry Stewart served as the headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) commander for the 37th Engineer Battalion out of the 20th Engineer Brigade in Mosul, Iraq during 2003 and 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this December 2009 interview, MAJ Stewart discusses the fact that he was in Saudi Arabia as an individual augmentee (IA) when he found out his unit was deploying to Iraq and his efforts to join that unit, the challenges of carrying out what was essentially a post-combat operations mission without having had the proper training for that mission, and the difficulties presented by today's instant communications. MAJ Stewart concludes his interview with a discussion of the importance of choosing the rear detachment carefully: "[T]he emphasis in past conflicts had been to put people who weren't capable of performing their duties downrange in the rear detachment. These days I feel as though a commander is really setting himself up for failure if he takes that position. The most important asset you have is your rear detachment, and it's two-fold. It keeps everybody in the rear sane and quells false information, and it keeps the families together and informed. It helps with that reintegration process. It organizes the whole reintegration of the unit back after the deployment and it also acts as a means of helping to supply and inform the unit forward."

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