i think this came to light actually a couple years later when they had a soldier sato donald rumsfeld, you know, "why don't we have great equipment?" and he said something like, "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish for." some comment like that, i remember. and i think at that point, that opened up a lot of people's eyes to what soldiers are dealing with in the united states army. things have gotten better, but we aren't there yet. >> hinojosa: let's go back to 2003. so you still were kind of like, "all right, i'm going to kuwait, but i'm going to be the backup force." because you're a cook. >> mm-hmm, i'm support. >> hinojosa: you're support. and then they come in and say, "we're going on a convoy." >> yeah, "we're going to iraq." >> hinojosa: and you said, "yes, sir"? >> yeah. at first i was like, "huh? what are you talking about?" and they were like, "we're going to iraq." i said, "why?" i questioned it, i'm not going to lie. i was asking questions, "why are we going?" >> hinojosa: who did you ask? >> i asked my immediate supervisor, my nco. and he was like,