“Shit”. It was the first thing Sam said every morning, on waking in the barracks.

Today he injected real feeling into it. Clearly his body found waking to the alarm so horrible, that it was developing the habit of waking him at 5:25. Technically, he had 5 more minutes of sack time, but what was the point? He got up. It was already 90 degrees outside.

He touched the cross around his neck, a muttered a quick prayer. “A good day today, okay?”
That was all the prayer a man had time for in Iraq.

Later, while throwing his meager breakfast into him, his CO came up behind him and clapped him on the back. “Change of plan today. You’re on checkpoint duty with us. Be ready to move out in 10.”
“Yes sir” said Sam. Shoving the rest of the bread into a pocket, he grabbed his tray and left the table. Checkpoint duty sucked, but it could have been worse.

En route to the checkpoint, their CO filled in details for the troops. “We’re relieving Mitchel’s unit. 12 hour shift. There’ll be an expert on site to train and advise.”