MAJ David Short served with the 108th Air Defense Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Regiment in various places in Iraq during 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this November 2011 interview, MAJ Short discusses the chaos surrounding the initial push into Iraq, his experiences working with the Marines, and the make-up and duties of an Air Defense battalion. MAJ Short concludes his interview with the observation, "Humans are much more adaptable, they can take into account those other variables. It's essentially running a program that was designed by an engineer back in the States at some point and the human can say, "Wait a second." Whether you're defending or going on the offense, whatever you're doing, you're always inputting some other chance or variable. It's always important to keep that human in the loop."

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