The study group's advance party formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and departed for Continental United States Replacement Center (CRC) training and processing at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 17 April 2003. They established facilities for the main body in the Combined Forces Land Component Command headquarters at Camp DOHA, Kuwait, and began the initial collection effort. The main body, drawn primarily from the Army branch proponents within the Training and Doctrine Command, assembled and led training in gathering data, conducting historical interviews, and archive procedures at Fort Leavenworth 1520 April 2003. The Center for Army Lessons Learned, the 44th Military History Detachment, and the US Army Forces Command historian, Mr. Bill Stacey, supported that training.

Following this training, the study group deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas, for CRC training conducted by the 334th CRC Battalion, US Army Reserve, and returned to complete issue of equipment and training to support research in the field. They returned to Fort Bliss and deployed on 5 May. After initial in-processing in Kuwait, the main body deployed into Iraq to begin collection on 7 May. They completed formal data collection in-theater by 15 June, to include input from several collectors who canvassed the US European Command and key locations within the United States to trace the story back to the source.

The writing effort began on 18 June and delivered the first draft on 15 August 2003. Subsequent drafts followed over the next few months. Concurrently, a data management and archiving team began cataloging and processing the 330 gigabytes of data and transcribing 3,750 interviews. This data forms the basis for continued research.

Retired General Frederick M. Franks, Jr. formed the final component of the study group as mentor and senior adviser to the team. The Army chose him on the basis of his experience in DESERT STORM as commander of VII Corps and because of his role in assimilating lessons learned from that war. Finally, he had also supported V Corps when it faced the possibility of deploying in the late summer of 2002.