Thursday, September 07, 2006

"Four Horsemen" in Iraq

This story is from Military.com:

The Soldiers call themselves the Four Horsemen as they barrel down roads with nicknames like "The Widowmaker," staying alert through the night on a mix of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and adrenaline, hoping to find roadside bombs before the bombs find them.
"There's always some out there. There's a threat every night," said Sgt. Brian Parker, 36, of Mankato, Minn., part of a four-Humvee convoy escort team based at Camp Adder, about 200 miles southwest of Baghdad.
Guarding convoys remains one of the most dangerous assignments in Iraq despite billions of dollars spent armoring Humvees and developing equipment to detect and evade bombs. Insurgents constantly use new ways to hit the troops on their long supply routes, and the Soldiers struggle to keep pace with the changing threat.
In keeping with their biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse theme, the Soldiers' Humvees are named War, Death, Famine and Pestilence. "You mean I'm riding with Death?" asked a truck driver they were protecting.