MAJ Shoshannah Jenni served as production control officer of and company commander at Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher and Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warrior during 2007 and 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this February 2012 interview, MAJ Jenni discusses the different types of aviation maintenance, her duties as a production control officer, and her transition to company command midway through the deployment. MAJ Jenni concludes her interview with the observation, "I think that one of the things I appreciated the most, and I was so lucky about, was that I had two different first sergeants. I only had one while I was in theater and my first sergeant and I made a great team and that was a huge, huge blessing. We were very different. I'm the small, kind of feisty female and he's an old, crusty first sergeant. He was very sarcastic but it was so great to work with such a professional NCO. When we were in front of the Soldiers he would say, "Ma'am are you sure?" or something like that but there was never any indication of a disagreement when we were in front of our Soldiers and that was important. The other thing was that whenever anything even slightly negative happened, I had to make sure I was the one -- I always wanted to be the one to tell my commander. I never wanted him to have to talk to one of my warrant officers or Soldiers."

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited