MAJ David Conner served as a liaison officer (LNO) and in current operations with Task Force Olympia in Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq and Forward Operating Base (FOB) Freedom, Mosul, Iraq during 2004 and 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and as commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment in Zabul Province and Paktika Province, Afghanistan during 2008 and 2009 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). In this January 2010 interview, MAJ Conner discusses the 2005 Iraqi elections, the challenges of the deployment to Afghanistan, and the loss of one of his soldiers in February of 2009. With respect to Afghanistan, MAJ Conner observed: "When I got to Paktika Province my focus was on those three lines of operation; my focus really was on the people. The only way I saw the US could leave Afghanistan, and hence my unit's objective, was to make the people as sustainable as they could be on their own. We knew that the people were our center or gravity. We knew we had to engage them directly and bring the government closer to them. We knew we had to set up institutions as best as we could as a company to encourage them to develop and sustain themselves."

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