Taking the Point

Regardless of their jobs, U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq find themselves "walking point," the infantry term for leading in battle.

Few jobs are more nerve-racking than ferrying supplies across Iraq. Children are everywhere, along with danger. Soldiers in the Army Reserve's 369th Transportation Company, based at Camp Anaconda, a sprawling logistics hub northwest of Baghdad, live with the tension daily. Staff Sgt. Pearce Gilbert III (far right), a squad leader and father of six, worries about protecting his soldiers. When his unit began taking small-arms fire on a recent mission, he was horrified to find himself returning fire over the heads of kids playing in the streets. The memory, he says, will likely live with him forever. Convoy commanders Sgts. 1st Class Larry Boudreau (below left) and Rickey Hill (below right) were injured this summer in separate roadside bomb and mortar attacks. Both resumed working within days. Boudreau's son just finished his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Hill has two sons serving elsewhere in Iraq and another soon to arrive.

Protecting al-Basra oil terminal in the Persian Gulf, a sweltering, stinking platform in the middle of hostile seas, is vital. An abiding terrorist target, the terminal is one of two that export oil from Iraq's southern oil fields. As a Navy official in Iraq observes: "We may or may not win the war right here, but if these two terminals are destroyed, we could very well lose it right here." One member of the maritime protection force, seaman Peter Melendez (right) maintains planes aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy. A New Yorker born on Sept. 11, 1983, Melendez was in the north tower of the World Trade Center renewing his driver's license when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He joined the Navy soon afterward.

Honoring the dead is part of the fabric of daily life in Iraq. A service at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait memorializes Army Spc. Tomas Garcia, 19, of Weslaco, Texas, killed Sept. 6 when his convoy was attacked near Baghdad.

Regime change is nowhere more evident than at Camp Victory, Saddam Hussein's expansive complex of former palaces near Baghdad International Airport, now the headquarters for coalition forces. Camouflage and Burger King reign among the marble-columned arcades, where a soldier waits for the Victory Shuttle to take him to his destination. Elsewhere in Iraq, dust and poverty, the grit of life, overwhelm the senses; at Camp Victory, the atmosphere is one of power and ambition.

Despite the bombs and too-frequent memorial services that punctuate the life of U.S. forces in Iraq, men and women like Lawrence Riles (above) are more focused on the future than the present. Riles, an accomplished pianist, is the lead engineer for the Anaconda Area Office at Camp Anaconda north of Baghdad-one of thousands of civilian employees from the Army Corps of Engineers working to restore Iraq's infrastructure. The roar of exploding mortars from inside a shelter and the drone of a concrete mixing plant make the music he hears now as he orchestrates rebuilding projects in northern Iraq.

For most troops, tours in Iraq begin and end at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, a giant staging area in the desert south of Kuwait City. Army soldiers (from left to right) Spc. Jason Harper from Milwaukee, now on his second tour in Iraq; Spc. Steven Grigg from Atlanta; Pfc. Kaili Spangler from Houston; and Spc. Brian Miralli from Las Vegas share a moment of camaraderie and prepare for uncertain futures.