United States Air Force MAJ Casey Bartholomew served with the 1st Expeditionary Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron, Engineers (RED HORSE) Group in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2005 and 2006 and in the International Zone in Baghdad, Iraq during 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). In this December 2011 interview, MAJ Bartholomew discusses the makeup and unique role of the RED HORSE groups, the challenges of working heavy construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan while relying on the local economy for essential materials, and his duties as a construction manager in Iraq during his last deployment. MAJ Bartholomew concludes his interview with the observation, "[RED HORSE] was used to fill the role of a heavy construction battalion, which don't get me wrong, on paper they possess a lot of similar capabilities but I believe it was the wrong choice. They did a lot of work, a lot of really good work, and I've only heard positives from every Army commander that was exposed to RED HORSE or Air Force Engineers, but I personally think that it was an improper utilization of a capability that was bigger than the mission that needed to get done."

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