WEBVTT

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now again as we start to withdraw some

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of our forces . Um and as you know ,

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when you start coming back and you wrap

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up your tour there , looking back ,

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looking back at this tour , Looking

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back at your tour in the beginning ,

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what is it like for you personally ?

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What are you taking away from this

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experience ?

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Well , uh I think it will be

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interesting when this tour is over to

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uh look back , I was you know , being

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here in the first year and then what

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looks like to be the last year and see

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uh all the different stages uh of

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conflict that we had in in those six or

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seven years . It will be interesting to

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compare um you know , when we first

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came here , there was no Iraqi security

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forces , uh we're basically doing

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everything on our own and just trying

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to figure things out . And now as we're

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leaving , we have a we have a well

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defined end state and we have Iraqi

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security partners that are very good

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and they understand what the end state

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is and then just working together and

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cooperating , it'll be uh it'll be

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interesting to uh compare those as uh

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as as we redeploy at the end of this

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year deployment . Now , you also served

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in Afghanistan , correct ? And how long

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were you in Afghanistan ? I was in

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Afghanistan for one year and that was

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what ? 2005 ? 2000 . That was

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March . That was March of 2005 until

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March of 2006 . Okay . Do you do you

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think that your do , I mean ,

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what was your experience like and now

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that's becoming the focus of sending

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our troops and what was your experience

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like in Afghanistan ? What did you see ?

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Yeah . My experience in Afghanistan was

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very different even though as a fire

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support officer , I was doing a lot of

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the same things . The experience was

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different just because of the

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difference in the two countries in

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terms of in terms of their

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uh just

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not just their culture , their culture

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really is it's very different .

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And I think a lot of times we tend to

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think of , you know , we we just say

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the Middle East and we think it's all

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one culture and to me that the

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difference in the cultures and how

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different the two countries really were

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and how to deal with the people . Um I

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think that was the biggest difference

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and Iraq was overall

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far far further along in the , you know ,

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they have infrastructure and stuff like

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that that uh in Afghanistan , uh I

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think they're behind . So as as we work

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uh that non lethal side that I work

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here , as far as projects and stuff um

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in Afghanistan , there's a lot more

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very big infrastructure type projects

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that need to be done to help them out .

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And I think that's the difference now

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you bring up the cultural differences

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and that's something that I think we

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have probably have yet to discuss more

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and our reports and what was maybe a

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few things that you notice is as big

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differences between the Iraqi and

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Afghanistan culture that may be that

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our understanding of , you know , there

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was something that we needed to

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understand in order to make progress in

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those areas . I

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believe the difference is that

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Afghanistan culture is a bit more

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tribal and Iraqi culture .

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While while they have some

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they do have uh tribal affiliations ,

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it is not as much as uh as in

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Afghanistan . And so the people

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that we try to leverage uh that the the

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host nation people that we try to

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leverage in order to help us , that

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that's who we have to figure out is is

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who who is the key players and and who

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who can help us accomplish our mission .

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Do you see yourself going to

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Afghanistan or would you want to be a

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part of that reconstruction effort ?

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I'm not sure what what's in store for

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this unit once we redeploy , but I

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would gladly go wherever wherever the

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mission sends us and uh and do my best

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as would any soldier in uh In the five

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or 5th ? Yeah , Captain to me is if you

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want to , you know , what would you

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like to say about the way your soldiers

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have performed in Iraq during this tour ?

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I'm extremely proud of the soldiers

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that I that I served with every day .

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Um the things that the

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soldiers have done uh in this war , I

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think is uh it's pretty incredible to

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take a with with the way

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the world is so interconnected now .

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There are , there are 20 year old

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privates that can make decisions that

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really become strategic decisions ,

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which is , uh , I think before this war

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has , has never really happened . And

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the fact that they are able to deal

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with that every day and deal with it

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very well is to me is very humbling .

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And I am just very proud to to just be

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here and serve with them . Great sir ,

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Is there anything else that you want to

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add about the mission ?

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Uh , in what terms ? Just any , any

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final thoughts on your tour in Iraq ?

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Well , it's just a , we've been here

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for three months now and I think we've

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accomplished a lot and it helps that we

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have very good Iraqi Partners in

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8 to National Police and for One

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National Police . And uh , I'm very

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proud of the work we've done in just a

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short time and look forward to the next

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nine months and seeing how much more we

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can enable the Iraqis . So that as , as

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the mission here is done , they're able

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to sustain themselves . Great , sir .

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Thank you very much . Thanks for

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talking with us . No problem .