In July 2003, Brandon transferred to the California National Guard, Department of the Army, Bravo Company, part of 1/160th Mechanized
Infantry Battalion, Riverside, California. The company was activated January 2004 for an 18-month overseas deployment in support of "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Doyel was one of about 2000 California guardsmen who were activated at that time. He was a member of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry
Regiment, based in Orange, California, known as the "Maddogs." They were bunkered down in Baghdad's mortar-pocked International Zone, the heavily
barricaded sector in the capital's center housing foreign embassies and Iraqi government buildings, formerly known as the Green Zone.
Their mission was to escort embassy personnel, supply trucks, prisoner transports and cash deliveries. Every day, the Maddogs rode shotgun on Iraq's
busiest and deadliest roads. They were peppered with machine-gun fire and targeted by insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades. Operating in five
platoons of four Humvee gun trucks each, the Maddogs traveled throughout Iraq, rolling through such hostile zones as Baghdad's Sadr City, Fallouja
and Baqubah. The Iraq deployment is the first time since the Korean War that the 1/160th--as well as National Guard units nationwide--had gone to war.
While fighting in Iraq, Doyel received the Combat Infantry Badge for "being engaged in active ground combat." There are basically three requirements for award of the CIB. The soldier must be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties, must be assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat, and must actively participate in such ground combat.
Manning Monitor Article on Brandon Doyel, Chris Wegner & Jason Knueven.