In this April 2013 interview, MAJ Robert Holenchick, US Army, Aviation, discusses his deployment to Iraq as a company commander for 15th Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion in 2009 through 2010 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). MAJ Holenchick talks about his mission of providing signal intelligence. He describes how he juggled three different companies due to the capabilities based rotation. He discusses some challenges he faced and shares how he was able to boost morale for his Soldiers. He discusses the handoff to the incoming brigade and shares his reintegration with his family. MAJ Holenchick closes his interview by stating, "I would say take the lessons learned that they had over the last ten years, 12 years of doing these deployments and make that initial deployment like the last deployment. I guess it’s the ability to have some of those services and things like that that you have at the latter part of a deployment at the beginning."

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