MAJ Jeffrey Wagstaff served as company commander of the 89th Transportation Company, 6th Transportation Battalion, 7th Transportation Group in Tallil, Iraq during 2003 and as division operations (G3) plans officer in Baghdad and Balad, Iraq during 2008 and 2009, both in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this December 2010 interview, MAJ Wagstaff discusses the stress of multiple and long deployments on Soldiers and their families, the importance of active Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) and the changes in tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) in the five years between his deployments. MAJ Wagstaff concludes his interview with the observation,, "One thing I wasn't aware of is that there is help now being offered -- I don't know why I didn't get the message -- but there is help being offered where you can talk to someone one-on-one and you're information doesn't get back to the command group. There are a lot of counseling opportunities available that I think we should instill in the Soldiers to take advantage of. It really helps just to talk to someone, even if it's just a perfect stranger. It's good to talk to someone that can tell you, "Okay. Let me hear your problems." They don't have to give you an answer but just to talk to someone, especially with our high suicide rate now we need to continue to instill that it's okay to have a problem. Let's talk to someone and get it fixed."

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