With numerous U.S. soldiers wounded and 28 Iraqi policemen dead, Michael E. Philpott ’05 and his men had to completely rebuild their base.It was 8:30 a.m. when the blast went off — a suicide car bomb aimed at a local U.S. Army base in Bayji, Iraq.

This day became a defining moment in Michael E. Philpott’s ’05 life. No day that came before or after compared to the “challenge to yourself that tests your endurance, your willpower, the ability to overcome shock and fear and still be able to win the day together with your soldiers,” said Philpott, a U.S. Army Captain, as he recounted one of the most challenging experiences he faced during his first tour in Iraq.

With numerous U.S. soldiers wounded and 28 Iraqi policemen dead, Philpott and his men had to completely rebuild their base.

“The base itself was devastated. The bottom line is that it was the most difficult day of my life,” Philpott said.

Philpott, then serving as a fire support officer with the First Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry, was first deployed to Iraq in August 2006 for what turned into a 15-month tour. During this time, the U.S. Army changed its strategy and established small outposts in the heart of the population centers, placing Philpott and fellow soldiers in the middle of the chaos of Bayji, Iraq.

While Philpott and his battalion were able to rebuild, he struggled to find the words to describe his feelings after overcoming the attack.

“It’s not a satisfying experience because war is not a satisfying experience. You have a lot of that Hollywood misconception of what it means to be a soldier and the kinds of people that soldiers are, the attitudes that we have,” Philpott said. “We are not conflict hungry at all … we would like to end that conflict as soon as possible in a way that puts us on the winning side.”

Beginning with his commission as a lieutenant, Philpott traced his military service since graduating Cornell and the ROTC program in May 2005. After spending the summer as a junior recruiter on campus, Philpott trained to be an artillery lieutenant in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before joining the 82nd Airborn Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina as a fire support officer.  Philpott’s responsibilities included running a team of about eight soldiers to support the company in coordinating indirect artillery fire.

In that position, Philpott was first deployed to Iraq in August 2006 for 12 months, which was extended to 15 months when the surge was declared during his deployment.  The adjustment from living in the United States to being deployed in Iraq was drastic, he said.

“You grow up very quickly,” Philpot said. “When you get your first assignment as a lieutenant, there’s still a little bit of college guy or college girl lingering around…But when you go on a deployment, you have to leave that behind pretty quick. The responsibilities seem to grow every day around you and you have no choice but to measure up to them. There are very few second chances to get it right.”

In that position, Philpot mainly managed air assets, including reconnaissance and cover missions with helicopters, while also working on with nonlethal managing of projects such as trash collection and school repair.

After returning to the U.S. in Nov. 2007, Philpott was based at Fort Bragg and joined an artillery battalion as a staff officer, assisting with training and operations.  

Philpott left for Baghdad, Iraq in Dec. 2008, serving as the battalion plans officer before becoming the battalion intelligence officer — a role that Philpott had envisioned from the beginning of his career.

“Intelligence officers basically manage all the intelligence analysts and professionals who work in that section of the battalion staff  … His job is to find the bad guys,” Philpott explained.

Returning from this 12-month deployment, Philpott attended a Military Intelligence Captians Career Course in Fort Huachuca, Arizona to pursue his dream of being a military intelligence officer.

“I wanted to have combat arms experience while I was still young at the beginning of my career and be able to take that experience and understand what the guys on the front lines need,” Philpott said. 

The end of the course brought Philpott to his present day assignment as a captain in the training resources and oversight branch of the Intelligence Directorate at the United States Army Europe Headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. Here, he ensures that subordinate units who are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan have all the proper training necessary to be successful.

Philpott has another year and a half left in Germany before he needs to decide his next move.

“I have done a lot of things in these short six years in the army and a lot of it has been gratifying — some of it has been difficult — but in many ways I have lived the dream,” Philpott said.