In this September 2014 interview, MAJ Brian Canny, US Army, Infantry, discusses his deployment to Iraq as a company executive officer (XO) and logistics officer (S4) for 573d Calvary (CAV) out of 3d Brigade, 82d Airborne in 2006 through 2007 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). MAJ Canny talks about his missions as XO and logistics officer at two different locations in Iraq. He describes his pre-deployment training and talks about the differences in living conditions and threat levels at their two locations. He discusses some challenges he faced and shares how morale varied depending on location. He shares a specific memory of the mass casualty loss of Soldiers and discusses the handoff to the incoming unit. MAJ Canny closes his interview by stating, ". . . think about what your worst day is going to be like. Your worst day individually. Your worst day as a unit and prepare for, rehearse in your mind and if you can do a rehearsal with your unit about what your worst day is going to look like. . . Think about and if you can, if there's time, think about multiple worst days and what you're going to do individually and as a leader to effect that in your unit. I think the units that are successful think about that at the leadership level, organizational level and they also get their subordinate leaders to think about that. It's not easy and I don’t think there's anybody that enjoys doing that, but I think it's pretty important to keep in mind that there's probably going to be some bad days. If you prepare for them and think about them ahead of time, the bad days and the backside of those bad days gets easier."

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