- The chapter starts out with the men angry that they've been ordered to paint port-a-potties. They've mostly hung out in Baghdad since they entered a few days before.
- Captain Coles calls the squad into a meeting in the officers' mess tent. The squad is ordered to travel to an area to repair relations with a community whose children were killed when a bomb hit a school.
- Captain Miller resists the plan, saying a smiley face won't help those people.
- They travel to the area and visit the store where the chief works. They try to talk to the chief and offer him money, but he won't take it. He demands to see their commanding officer.
- They get Coles and take him back to the store. The chief has brought over some mothers whose children have died, and lets the mothers yell and spit at them for a while. Then he takes the money.
- On their way back, an ambulance pulls up and men jump out and fire at them. The squad kills them and speeds back to the first checkpoint.
- Birdy tries to sleep but he dreams about guns pointed at him and wakes up. It bothers him that the attack wasn't planned. It was random, and didn't make sense.
- Another letter to Uncle Richie. Birdie talks about being scared after the ambush, and about his parents. He'd asked his dad for photos and his dad sent him a picture of Morehouse College.
- The squad's next orders are to travel to a nearby village called Ba'qubah. The people there have requested medical supplies for their animals.
- When they arrive, they find wounded children instead. All the villagers, including the children, had been ordered to fire at Americans by a guerilla group called the fedayeen.
- Lieutenant Maire doesn't want to help people who shot at Americans or walk into a trap, but Captain Miller insists on staying. So they do, and try to help the children.
- One of the children is too wounded to be helped. Another is dead. Ahmed helps the villagers dig his grave.