In this September 2013 interview, CPT Nicholas Taran, US Army, Field Artillery, discusses his deployment to Afghanistan as a battery commander for 2d Stryker Brigade in 2010 through 2011 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). CPT Nicholas Taran talks about his missions of conducting framework patrols in support of standard wide-area security counterinsurgency operations (COIN) in the Kandahar ground defense area. He describes described the training his unit had and talks about some issues he dealt with training in country. He discusses some challenges he faced and shares how his mentor helped set him up for success. He shares a specific memory of how his previous experience on a military transition team (MiTT) in Iraq helped him Afghanistan and discusses the handoff to the incoming brigade. CPT Taran closes his interview by stating, ". . . a lot of the things I had learned in Officer Basic Course (OBC) and the [Captain's] Career Course, although had not been applied, that as long as I maintained professional education over time and continued to read back and look at how the Field Artillery initially conduct operations, it was fairly simple to transition from a COIN mission, operating in a COIN mission to operating in a combined arms maneuver role."

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