LTC Christopher Dessaso served as deputy planner with the US Army Central Command - Forward (ARCENT-Forward) future operations (FUOPs) team tasked with the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan during 2011 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). In this September 2011 interview, LTC Dessaso discusses how he was tasked with this essentially logistics mission as an Armor officer, the challenges associated with such a large undertaking at such a high staff level, and how his professional education at the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) helped to prepare him for the mission. LTC Dessaso concludes his interview with the observation, " That was probably the hardest job I've ever done. Before then I probably would have said the hardest job I had was -- I don't know -- maybe the military transition team (MiTT); I probably would have said that. This was much more difficult than fighting in persistent combat in Baghdad. There was something about that where, I don't know, just getting up and moving. There is something about going on a combat patrol that's dangerous and tiring but you always had time to recharge your battery. You stayed healthy and you were around people. There is something about 18 hours a day of staff work that is grueling. That's a very difficult job. You definitely need great leaders as part of that and you also need schools like SAMS and Intermediate Level Education (ILE) and wherever people can get a leg up on coming up with ways to pull together information."

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