Rethinking the US Army

[Cavguy]

Ski,

Thanks for the props. I did two tours for a total of 29 months in Iraq based out of 1/1 AD "Ready First". (Although proudly cross-attached to 2ACR in OIF1) The brigade was in Baghdad most of OIF 1, and then re-took Najaf(2ACR) and Kerbala (1/1 AD) during the Sadr Rebelion. The last rotation began in Tal Afar and shifted to Ramadi.

If you're interested in more detail on Ramadi, I began a pretty detailed thread on Ramadi here. An interview with my former BDE Cdr is here. A great article on Travis's effect (and many other articles) done by a UK newspaper is here. Page 2 has the link to his article.

Travis was a very smart, energetic, humorous, and light hearted guy. He did see the beginning of his success, but was killed by an IED in December after dropping some reporters at a company outpost. A huge loss we were unable to fully replace. He was so revered the local sheiks named the new police station in west Ramadi after him. THAT's effective COIN when the locals name things after you.