MAJ John Hill served served as the brigade assistant logistics officer (S4) for plans with the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division (AD) and as company commander of Bravo Company 1-16 in Ramadi, Iraq during 2003 and 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In the first of two February 2009 interviews, MAJ Hill discusses building the base camp at Ramadi basically from the ground up, the challenges of maintaining those facilities once they were built, and his transition to company command partway through his deployment and not long after that company had lost several soldiers. MAJ Hill observes, "Commanders should focus units on where they're going, what they're going to be doing, and what they should specifically train on to be successful in that certain theater."

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