Contractors Killed in Iraq

"You can't stop because of the possibility of an ambush," he said.

A Humvee near the front of the convoy honked at a taxi partially blocking the convoy, then bumped it to make it move out of the way, he said. The taxi swerved into oncoming traffic, hitting the contractors' SUV, he said.

-- Renae Merle

Vincent Foster Cochise Consultancy

Even as a child, Vincent Foster was fascinated by toy guns, according to his mother, Susan Foster. After joining the Marines in the mid-1990s, Foster was recruited for a sniper unit, where he impressed the platoon commander, Eric Blondheim. "I said to myself, 'Who is this kid?' " Blondheim said. "There are formulas you have to understand for precision shooting, and he had it down."

After years in the Marines, Foster's family persuaded him to try civilian life. He studied computer science at the University of Nevada in Reno, but his mother said he struggled with the math. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred during his junior year, and his marksman skills were in high demand.

A security company called Surgical Shooting Inc. recruited him to teach Navy sailors how to handle firearms and to conduct training exercises, said his stepfather, Sandy Ress. Foster later did similar work for Blackwater Security Consulting.

Last year, Foster decided to join the Washington Army National Guard. But before he was sworn in, he heard that Cochise Consultancy, a Valrico, Fla., security firm, was hiring people with military experience to guard Iraqi weapons that were being destroyed.

The National Guard would have required a year of training, but as a Cochise employee, Foster could go to Iraq in less than a month. Foster accepted a six-month contract with Cochise and deployed with a few friends. "I didn't want him over there. I think I cried for two weeks," his mother said.

Foster arrived in Iraq in January. His e-mails home were short and reassuring. "He loved it," she said. "Every e-mail I got from him, he was happy."

-- Renae Merle