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Interview with MAJ James Murray
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| Collection | Operational Leadership Experiences |
| Title | Interview with MAJ James Murray |
| Abstract | A Royal Australian Corps of Signals officer, Major James Murray served at the Australian National Headquarters, Middle East Area of Operations (ASNHQ-MEAO) from November 2002 to January 2003 - co-located with US Central Command's forward deployed headquarters at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar - as the deputy J6 for Australian forces building up in theater in preparation for what becomes Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was also dual-hatted as the commander of a 10-man Australian signals element "that was going out there to physically build and stand up the headquarters in Camp As Sayliyah." Murray was responsible for communications and information systems support to the ASNHQ-MEAO and for planning the same to all Australian force elements to be assigned to OIF, including air, land, maritime and special operations forces. In addition, he planned host nation support and interoperability with US forces and regularly participated in combined planning with the CENTCOM J6 staff. "I had been picked to deploy partly because I commanded the high-readiness deployment signal unit" in Australia, Murray explained, "but also based on my previous exchange and operational service with the US Army. I can speak American and, more importantly, military American - and even a subset of that which is technical signals military American." In this interview, Murray shares the full range of his experiences in helping establish what he called "the largest and most ambitious communications architecture the Australian Defense Forces had deployed to foreign operations." He also provides a wealth of insights into the always complex world of coalition warfare, discussing everything from information sharing among coalition partners to his advice for other international officers who'll be working with American forces in the future. |
| Keywords | Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); Iraq War, 2003-; Royal Australian Corps of Signals; Australian National Headquarters, Middle East Area of Operations (ASNHQ-MEAO); Great Britain; British; Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar; US Central Command (CENTCOM); 101 Signal Squadron; Special Operations Forces (SOF); McNarn, Maurie; General officer; Baker, James; Communications; Cultural awareness; Operation Slipper; Kuwait; Visas; Australian Defense Forces; Secure Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET); F-18; P-3 Orion; Joint Task Force 633 (JTF-633); Command and Control (C2) |
| Interviewee | MAJ James Murray |
| Interviewer | John H. McCool |
| Publisher | Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, |
| Date of Interview | 2006-01-30 |
| Resource Type | Textual |
| Format | PDF; Adobe Acrobat Reader required;13 p.; 301 KB. |
| Original Format | WAV file; 56:31 minutes |
| Distribution Statement | Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited |
| Repository | Combined Arms Research Library |
| Disclaimer | The views and opinions expressed in these interviews are those of the interviewees themselves and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Combat Studies Institute, the US Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, or the Department of the Army as a whole. |
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