It’s now November. With the exception of a few guys on their second tour the replacements are brand-new to the war. And it’s our job to show them the ropes. It’s the last mission I conduct in Iraq. I am driving the last gun truck in a convoy of eleven vehicles. SSG Robert Gasparotto is my A-driver, and our gunner is Zerega. There are two guys from the replacement unit in the backseats among gear, water, and ammo cans. They didn’t convoy into Iraq like we did because they didn’t bring any of their own equipment. Our unit is handing all of our equipment over to them, which for us, is a good thing. This means when we fly back to Fort Bragg, we won’t have to stay and get all the equipment off the navy ships. We can simply out-process and go home. But right now we sit at the gate of Anaconda waiting to go on our last mission. I look back at the new guys. One is a bit older than the other, and he looks a little more calm. The other one, the kid, looks scared shitless. “So you guys just drive through an attack?”
