MAJ Christopher Mahaffey served as the assistant brigade operations officer (S3) with headquarters and headquarters company (HHC), 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (ID) on the initial push into Baghdad, Iraq during 2003 and as a tank company commander with the 2nd Brigade, 3rd ID at Camp Rustamiyah during 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this January 2010 interview, MAJ Mahaffey discusses the chaos of that push into Baghdad, the challenges of keeping an armor company supplied on the unexpectedly quick movement, and the changes he observed between his deployments. In conclusion, MAJ Mahaffey states, "I think it's all a great experience. I definitely learned from my time there and in this course that any time you get into this situation where you defeat a country and you're the only one there, it's yours and you have to figure it out. I learned that the biggest thing is to get somebody from that country, wherever you're at, to take charge and help you with it because you can't do it by yourself."

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