MAJ Matt McQuilton served as the battalion logistics officer (S4) in Irbil, Iraq in 2003 and as headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) commander in Mosul and Baghdad, Iraq during 2005 and 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this January 2010 interview, MAJ McQuilton discusses his first four-month, relatively uneventful deployment to Irbil, the unexpected challenges of writing fragmentary orders (FRAGOs) every day as the assistant operations officer for (S3) for the 172nd SBCT, and how connecting non-lethal to lethal operations finally clicked for him in Mosul. MAJ McQuilton concludes his interview with the observation, "I think we spend a little too much time looking at [COIN operations] as combat. We spend a little too much time -- but we've gotten much better. I think we've grown huge leaps since my last time in Iraq and I'm due to go back."

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited