In this December 2010 interview, MAJ Scott Hamilton (Part I), US Army; Civil Affairs (CA) discusses his deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in 2007 through 2008. MAJ Hamilton starts his interview by discussing how he the Army switched branches from Armor to CA. He talks about his deployment to Diyala and Wasit Provinces during the surge with 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division (ID) as a CA team leader. He describes his pre-deployment training and talks about his first few days in country. He describes the relationship he had with the city manager of Salman Pak working on various programs. MAJ Hamilton talks about intelligence gathering and closes his interview by stating an observation about his deployment experience, "I would say it was more beneficial than I was afraid it was going to be."

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