If Aveno reminded the enlisted members of the Naval officer who commanded the U.S.S. Caine, then their commanding officer was without question the Team’s Captain Ahab. It had been the only other officer assigned to RT Kilo, Lieutenant Ciszak of the US Air Force who had graduated from Notre Dame with a BA in English who first made this comparison. One night, while he was waiting to direct an air strike, Ciszak turned to his driver, Sergeant Holton and commented that Captain Burman’s single-minded dedication to duty, aloofness, and drive to accomplish every mission regardless of difficulty or danger reminded him of Melville’s fictional captain, a processed man who prowled the seven seas on an endless quest. Amused, Sgt. Holton shared this observation with his fellow NCOs who immediately started using nautical terms whenever possible, including, calling out “Thar she blows!” whenever they located a target they had been dispatched to find.

Ignorant of its origin, Captain Burman joined in on what he took to be a harmless attempt to liven up their harsh and monotonous existence. It was three weeks before Aveno discovered, through a slip of his driver’s tongue, the true story behind the adaptation of seafaring clichés. Unsure of how Burman would take this piece of information, Aveno decided to keep that knowledge to himself. With the irritating sand and stress already eating away at Burman’s nerves, Aveno knew that it wouldn’t help to tell his commander that he was the butt of a collective joke.

Adding to the strain of their protracted deployment and the stress that living in the desert placed upon them was a gnawing doubt Aveno had concerning the value of their efforts. Like the Cold War that his parent’s generation had endured, the current war on terror seemed to have no end. To many of his fellow countrymen, people to whom 9-11 was just another news story that was little more than a bad memory, the war on terror had become a distraction, a drain on national resources that some felt would be better spent on social welfare programs, education, or new roads. To them the idea of chasing terrorists and eradicating the threat they posed was a quixotic notion, a foolish dream that could never be achieved. Even Ken Aveno found himself wondering from time to time if it made sense to dispatch a group of highly trained professional soldiers like those belonging to RT Kilo to chase small cells of terrorists and call in bombers to drop high tech precision guided bombs on their tents when they were found.