"The ride out of Balad and onto Route Tampa was uneventful. Farms and fields of sunflower stretched out into the darkness.

We were the last truck in the formation. The rearguard for a convoy that needed to be escorted south. I could hear the turbodiesel idling through the static of the headset as we waited to turn onto the MSR.

A streak of red light pierced the night from right to left. Then another followed by a bright flash. Everything ground to a halt. Then confusing flashes of white light up ahead. Voices erupted on the net. A truck had been hit. It wasn't good. And we would be turning back. Two more men lost their lives in the vicinity of the now infamous and deadly Checkpoint 59 Alpha."
Chapter: War