Staff sergeant Robert Miltenberger was traumatized on earlier deployment in Bosnia by a desperate mother who chose to walk with her dead baby into a mine field, believing his similar death in Iraq will be heralded by crows as he saw the first time. Responding in Sadr City to such flight, to his baffled mates' astonishment, spares his armored car falling into a trap, but also sees them cut-off from their patrol, further complicating colonel Volesky's dilemma whether to split up rescue further. Cornered men camp in an occupied house, cuffing the inhabitants and even translator Jassim Al-Lani, must deal with mounting anxiety, temporarily alleviated by Young's Great war poetry, one even is disabled by shell-shock under fire which renders the medic sadly busy, and a sentinel is traumatically forced to shoot a kid who playfully handles a found machine gun pointed at the soldier, after his death the father and grandfather who can't control their grief. On the Texan home front, mounting insecurity about deployed spouses renders potential widows desperate, some aggressive calling the official notice policy lies, but the officer wives patiently keep some control despite children crying themselves to sleep.
—KGF Vissers