MAJ Cloyd Smith served as the operations officer (S3) on a military transition team (MiTT) in Baghdad, Iraq during 2006 and 2007 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this March 2009 interview, MAJ Smith discusses the substantial challenges of the assignment, the circumstances surrounding his change of mission, and his experiences working with Iraqis on his second mission. During the course of the interview, MAJ Smith observes, "I don't know why we didn't go through SF for MiTT training. SF has been doing this mission since the 1950s and 1960s. Why didn't we go to them and say, "Hey guys, come tell us how to do this?" They go through the selection process; they go through team-building; they go through language training; they go through all the things that make them really good at what they do. Here we are, the conventional army, the big elephant in the system, the 300-pound gorilla off in the corner, and we didn't ask them for help; and we screwed it up."

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