Tom Ricks's Inbox

The e-mail below reminds me of sitting in a Humvee in Iraq at night, listening to some wiseacre spin a tale as we wait to go out on patrol. Everyone listening knows that his story probably isn't true, but we're all grateful to him for breaking the monotony.

I called USAA Insurance claims earlier today to file a claim for my camera. It's a kick-ass camera too, a Canon PowerShot SD450. . . . The nice lady on the other end asked me what I needed to file a claim for.

"Yes, my digital camera was damaged three days ago beyond repair, I need to file a claim for it."

"No problem sir. . . . Okay, so can you tell me how it was damaged?"

"Sure, it got hit by a rocket propelled grenade three days ago."

Silence. . . . I decided to let her wrestle with the idea of somebody in Average, U.S., having a camera destroyed by a random rocket propelled weapon. But then again, for all she knew I could have been in Detroit.

"Ah, I see. . . . So, it got hit by a rocket . . . propelled . . . grenade?"

"Yeah. I'm on a tank see, and we were out on a mission, we got attacked, and the RPG hit the stowage box that I had my camera in. It didn't shatter it or anything, it just broke the LCD screen."

"I see. . . . Okay, let me get this form started . . . so you are in Iraq . . . which city?"

"Ramadi. . . . R-A-M-A-D-I."

"Okay . . . and do you have a street that this occurred on?"

"The streets here don't really have actual names. We give them code names and stuff, but there aren't any official street names. That won't be a problem, right?"