Training for Operation Iraqi Freedom begins for the members of the 39th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas. Some of the guardsmen are tested by the grueling physical training, and the unit is warned that Iraqi insurgents will know the newcomers are inexperienced. The Army employs Iraqi and Kurdish-American actors to simulate actual war conditions. Back in Arkansas, their families grow more fearful that these guardsmen, who work in sales, farming and other nonmilitary jobs, could become the targets of Iraqi militia groups bent upon attacking Americans. At the end of this hour, the men leave their homeland for the first time, bound for Kuwait.
