Into The Cauldron

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To be sure, given their military backgrounds, the four victims were not shy, retiring types. They were in Iraq because they wanted to be there, and they were under no illusions about just how dangerous it could be. Scott Helvenston, 38, was a former Navy SEAL who had appeared on the reality-TV show Combat Missions and was seeking to carve out a life for himself beyond the military, says friend George Ciganik, a former Marine reconnaissance officer. Working for Blackwater was about as close to combat as Helvenston and the others like him could get. "We're adrenaline seekers," says Ciganik, "passionate about freedom and serving our country." Just two hours before he was killed, Michael Teague--"Ice Man" to his Army buddies sent an e-mail to a friend back home in Clarksville, Tenn., saying he loved Iraq and the excitement of his new six-figure-salary job. A former member of the Army's fabled Night Stalkers, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Teague had gone to Iraq just two weeks after his seventh wedding anniversary, hoping to help pay for his son's college education and get back in the thick of things. "This was the kind of work Mike loved," says friend John Menische. "He was a soldier and a warrior." The gruesome deaths of Teague and his colleagues on the road to Fallujah made one thing clear above all: for their former brethren in the U.S. military, there are still battles to fight.