Coming from the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Bliss, where he’d been an instructor, Major Michael Melito - during the major combat phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM - was assigned as an individual augmentee to 1st Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery (ADA) Regiment. He served as battle captain for the battalion’s assault command post. Subordinated under the 3rd Infantry Division, Melito and his unit participated in the division’s initial attack into Iraq. Following destruction of Iraqi forces defending the Karbala Gap, 1-3 ADA was tasked with defense of the division’s rear area and lines of communication, as well as the establishment of enemy prisoner of war collection points. Once the Iraqi capital fell and the rear area was deemed secure, his unit received a new mission to take over security of the northern, western and southern perimeters of Baghdad International Airport. At this time, too, Melito himself assumed an additional duty as the battalion’s civil-military operations officer, a position he held until he redeployed back to Fort Bliss in May 2003 to assume command of an ADA company. Discussing the range of unusual missions he and his unit received and skillfully executed, Melito observed that, “When there’s not an air threat, you’re a combat multiplier for the commander regardless. When you’ve got firepower and you’ve got communications and you’ve got soldiers that are trained … you can use them for a lot of different things.”