In this October 2012 interview, MAJ Renato Angeles, US Army, Infantry; discusses his second deployment to Iraq as a company commander and brigade assistant operations officer (AS3) for 1-25 SBCT in 2008 through 2009 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). MAJ Angeles talks about his role in working alongside of the Sons of Iraq and describes how he was able to provide them mentorship. He describes the interaction he had with the Sons of Iraq and talks about how he was able to mitigate some conflict between the Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Army. He talks about the Iraqi elections and details a difficult challenge he had to overcome with respect to cultural awareness and understanding. MAJ Angeles recalls a specific memory of one of his Soldiers losing a leg in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack and closes his interview by stating a lesson learned, "My take away from [my deployment] is to understand your current operational environment. When you're coming back you also have to prepare for coming back as it is not just something you can wing on the fly."

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited