MAJ Charles Milliner served as the assistant operations officer (S3) and fire support officer (FSO) in An Najaf and Mosul, Iraq during 2003 and 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and as commander with 741st Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Salerno, Afghanistan during 2006 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). In this August 2010 interview, MAJ Milliner discusses his deployment to Iraq during the kick-off of OIF I, his branch transfer from Field Artillery (FA) to EOD, and the duties of EOD particularly with regard to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). MAJ Milliner concludes his interview with the observation, "Given the complexity of what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan to sit here and say that there's one particular thing the Army could have done better -- I don't think that's true. I think the military has done fairly well given the circumstances. I think a lot of the decisions that are made are necessarily -- there are politics involved. A lot of times you're not necessarily looking for a military solution. It's not really a military end state but we're definitely players in that environment. I think the Army did okay in preparing us leaders and Soldiers for those missions."

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