In this March 2013 interview, MAJ Mark Katz, US Army, Military Police, discusses his deployment to Iraq as a company commander for the 561st Military Police Company in 2008 through 2009 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). MAJ Katz talks about his mission of partnering with three separate districts within the province of Salah ad-Din as a police transition team (PTT). He describes how he distributed his Soldiers between the three stations they were responsible for and talks about how hard it was to deal with one very corrupt Iraqi police chief. He discusses some challenges he faced and shares how he was able to boost morale for his Soldiers. He shares a specific memory of the bond he developed with is Soldiers and discusses the handoff to the incoming brigade. MAJ Katz closes his interview by stating, "That probably the biggest takeaway and I've had that takeaway previously with my initial deployment to Iraq. Another thing is that you encounter many situations when you're in theater, when you're in Iraq, when you don't necessarily want to do the right thing. Some can associate that with self -- not self-prevalence -- self-preservation. You try and recognize the strategic context and you understand the operational context, but at the tactical context things can seem different. It is kind of like a push and pull type of effect. It is very easy to get wrapped up into doing the wrong thing, because you let your emotions get the best of you. In spite of what happens in theater, you have to remain calm, cool and collected and you have to remain in charge of your emotions. You can't let them get the best of you, because once you do, you're going to do the wrong thing. I witnessed that on a couple of occasions during that recent deployment."

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