(Note: This transcript has been edited for readability.)

"The first year I was there, I scheduled during Ramadan and everybody was saying 'They’re not going to train.' 'Oh yeah, they’ll train.' They didn’t train. So, you know, I did not follow the advice, but, you know, I learned and from then on in, whenever we developed these long-range training schedules, I made sure that all the Iraqi holidays that we knew of were addressed. Now what you have to deal with is, it could be a Wednesday and the Iraqi government says 'Oh, tomorrow’s a holiday for everybody.' You don’t even know it, you know, until my interpreter would come in and say 'Hey Mark, tomorrow’s an Iraqi holiday.' I’d say 'No it isn’t.' 'Oh yeah, the government just said everybody’s got the day off tomorrow.' So you’ve got to be ready for that."