Shipping Out

"Okay," he replied. "Let's go."

"It wasn't like she made us," Kurt, a 23-year-old sergeant, says now. "We wanted to. We wanted to serve our country and protect the people we knew. We were going. As soon as we were running around as kids, we were wearing Army clothes. We'd go up in the woods and pretend the trees were the enemy and beat the hell out of them."

Sabens considers military service an elemental act of patriotism. She also liked the idea that her boys would collect their own paychecks, attend college tuition-free and, in boot camp, "grow up and become men."

"I told them throughout their early life I didn't care which service they joined," she said, "as long as they wore a pair of boots."

Simulated Chaos

To prepare for duty protecting military convoys in Iraq -- scouting routes and escorting supply trucks through the gantlet of roadside bombs -- Indiana soldiers training at Fort Knox sat at large computer consoles that simulated the view of Iraq from inside a Humvee. A driver and a radio man sat next to a gunner operating a .50-caliber machine gun whose trigger and sight were linked with the events on the screen.

Vehicles and people appeared, variously innocent and suspect, as the driver worked the accelerator, brake and wheel. The anxious gunner faced decisions -- when to shoot, when to hold his fire. Soon enough, a trainer operating the master controls made an insurgent's rocket hit home, blasting the Humvee's mock windshield and spattering it with red video blood.

The computers are programmed to simulate convoys, patrols and ambushes, explained Rick Talbott, a retired Army reservist who manned the control consoles and led the soldiers through after-action discussions. He pointed to his video screen, which tracked convoys moving from desert landscapes and airfields to labyrinthine city neighborhoods in ever more complex maneuvers.

"They learn from their mistakes," Talbott said. "Take out one of their vehicles, we see how they react to it. You can't sit there and be totally engulfed by fire from the roofs. They have to plan an exit strategy."

Across the room, in near darkness, another set of computers allowed soldiers to maneuver on foot through urban landscapes alongside their squadmates, each with a 360-degree view of the battlefield. Beyond a partition, trainers at consoles of their own played the roles of guerrillas, typically hurrying through the streets carrying AK-47s or satchel charges.

Squad members called out their positions and movements in voices steadily louder and more urgent.

"Keep your eyes open for strange vehicles, strange packages, people running away from a vehicle! Scan your rooftops, too," Sgt. Benjamin Bennett instructed. A soldier yelled to a buddy: "Turn around! You've got a guy crawling up behind you!"

Boom. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded on the screen.