Interview With MAJ Larry Burris, Part I

Major Larry Burris commanded Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Commanding for 22 months, Burris deployed his company to Kuwait attached to 1st Battalion, 64thArmor for an Operation Desert Spring rotation in September 2002. Charlie Company's call to war came at the end of a valuable training cycle that included a National Training Center rotation and gunnery. Valuable, multi-echelon training continued in Kuwait as Burris' company drew pre-positioned equipment and put it to good use, including live-fires and proctored training under the tutelage of MPRI observer-controllers in situational training exercises. Much of the training also allowed Charlie Company to better integrate with elements of the tank battalion and brigade across a range of tactical challenges, from desert to urban environments. Burris and his company crossed into Iraq in the van of the 3rd Infantry Division's march up to Baghdad. Numerous meeting engagements kept Charlie Company in contact near Samawah and Objective Rams, then Najaf, and then on to Karbala and Objective Peach. Burris' experience was that despite continuous operations, resupply was sufficient, providing ammunition, food and fuel until after combat operations had ceased with the fall of Baghdad. The company also participated in the brigade's first thunder run into Baghdad. Burris and Charlie Company participated in numerous clearing operations in Baghdad, transitioning to stability operations and active patrolling at night. The company's involvement in post-combat operations included these presence patrols, managing long lines for gas for Iraqi civilians, as well as other missions like providing a semblance of security safeguarding banks and the museum. Burris then took the company to Fallujah as part of the relief by the battalion task force of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. After 22 months in command, Burris turned over Charlie Company in Iraq as part of a larger series of changes in command throughout his brigade and the division. Burris felt that this was as hard on him as it was his soldiers. One large challenge for the Army in the Long War, expressed Burris, will involve how the Command and General Staff College and the Captain's Career Courses teach officers how to learn the fundamentals of full-spectrum operations and link these fundamentals to hard, realistic training to face future fights.

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