? ?Dr. Matthew,? aka ?Doc.? A tightly wound, precise man in his 30s, with short, thin blond hair, Doc had worked as a military-police investigator before becoming a reservist. A senior interrogator at Balad, he was considered an intellectual, though his honorific was an exaggeration: He had earned two master?s degrees, one in international relations and another in management. Between jobs, he surfed. ? ?Matt.? A slender, dark-haired active-duty Air Force technical sergeant in his early 30s, Matt liked to pre?sent himself as a simple country boy, but was not one. He was from the Midwest and liked to race cars. ? ?Mike.? A commercial pilot from Nebraska in his early 30s, he had joined the Army because he wanted to be involved in the war effort. Extremely energetic and gung-ho, Mike had less experience than most of his colleagues, but was quickly regarded as a natural. ? ?Nathan.? Tall, wiry, and dark-haired, Nathan was one of the few gators who could speak some Arabic. A civilian contractor, he once got in trouble with the unit commander for stretching even the Task Force?s loose apparel standards by wearing a bright Hawaiian print shirt to the mess area. ? ?Tom.? A veteran of Bosnia in his late 40s, Tom was unlike most of the others in that he was married and had children. He was short and round and balding, and was always slightly unkempt.