On the morning of April 9, 2004, exactly one year after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Pfc. Jeremy Church, an Army Reserve soldier with Wisconsin’s 724th Transportation Company, was driving the lead vehicle of a 26-vehicle convoy from Balad to the airport in Baghdad that included 17 fuel trucks operated by defense contractor KBR. It was an emergency fuel mission, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The unit had made the trip many times before. But about five miles from the airport, Church and the other soldiers began to realize that something was off: The road, which was usually bustling with traffic, was empty.