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Yet Coffin was tapped to lead truck convoys ferrying troops and materiel across the 400 miles from Kuwait to Baghdad, which involved a dangerous passage, and then spend days or weeks in Baghdad between trips. "He told me his biggest concern was, 'I want to make sure I get all my guys home,'" Betsy says. "'I want to make sure I don't have to look a wife or mother in the face and tell her I didn't bring their son or daughter home.'"
By and large, when the soldiers of Operation Iraqi Freedom complain, it is not about the scorpions and tarantulas they must evict from their boots as they dress in the morning; not about 110ยบ heat that requires extra changes of T shirts so their sweat does not poach their skin; and not about purified water that tastes like boiled Windex. It is about the new challenges of their mission for which they were not prepared. Like knowing how to contend with a 12-year-old girl with a rifle. How to check whether the soft-drink stand has been booby-trapped. How to capture the hearts and minds of a population that seems to be riddled with people who are trying to kill them. "It's really hard to know who your enemy is," the soldiers say, especially when bystanders clap as soldiers are killed.
Chris didn't like the traffic. His job was to protect convoys, but he was sharply aware of the risks of an ambush, and he didn't like the way the traffic snarled, trapping you in a web while the spiders descended. "He said there were big traffic jams in the larger towns and cities that made him nervous," says Sorber. "There would be blown-up vehicles on the side of the road and all these locals crowding around them. He said it was very, very scary." And yet he would always end his e-mails to Sorber in the same way: "Be careful." "I found that astonishing," says Sorber, "considering where he was. But he cared a lot about those around him."
June 3 was the birthday of Chris' twin nephews Jon and Nick, 16. He had mailed off a pair of Army Ranger hats with their names embroidered in English and Arabic. And he sent them a message. "I got back into Kuwait from Baghdad yesterday," he e-mailed. "The convoy was long, hot and dusty, and just a wee bit scary in a couple of spots. Thankfully we made it through the three trouble spots without being ambushed. Possibly because we had all our weapons 'locked and cocked' and in plain sight so they knew we were ready for trouble. It looks like I will be going back up north in a few days. Probably for a couple of weeks. Rumor has it we might get out of here in early fall. I really hope so."
So what actually happened on that last run? Did Chris swerve off the road--or was his vehicle blown off the road by a bomb? The Pentagon can't say whether he was in a truck or a humvee or even whether he was driving or not. And the official statements that were released do not begin to tell the whole story.