ABSTRACT
Working with US soldiers, civilians and Iraqi and Coalition partners, the science advisors who deployed in support of the Field Assistance in Science and Technology (FAST) mission have addressed many capability gaps and helped to generate a wide variety of potential science and technology (S&T) solutions to forward theaters of operation. The chapter discusses some of the human system integration (HSI) issues and challenges issues that three civilian scientists and human factors specialists addressed during deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) from 2003 to 2009. During this time period, the pace of the conflict was fast and placed a heavy demand for rapid human factors assessments in lieu of the more formal assessment process. The chapter focuses on the unceasing demand for professional human factors consultation during material development, production, and deployment to the battlefield. Day-to-day operations in Iraq in 2009 continued to reveal the extreme adaptability and improvisation on the part of soldiers to maintain mission effectiveness.
