MAJ Michael Stump served as assistant operations officer (S3) and fire support officer (FSO) in Taji, Iraq during 2003 and 2004 and as battery commander in Al Anbar, Iraq during 2006 and 2007, both in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this April 2011 interview, MAJ Stump discusses the confusion of the initial push into Iraq, the constantly changing mission and duty position and why he preferred that, and how the last mission on his first deployment prepared him for his second deployment. MAJ Stump concludes his interview with the observation, " Empower your subordinates; just learn to trust them and make sure that trust is built beforehand. If I talked to my bosses now they'd probably say they trusted me but I didn't get that feeling when I was doing it and I'm probably just as guilty too. You have a lieutenant who you know is real forward thinking but he has a patrol to do -- you gave him that patrol. If the rest of the Army sees him as being fit to lead Soldiers then you have to trust he's going you do the right thing. If there is anything the military or the Army needs to do is to empower your subordinates and make sure you conduct exercises to build trust with those subordinates."

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