(Note: This transcript has been edited for readability.)

"You’d have a three-lane highway or four-lane highway that the Iraqis made into eight lanes and then they’d converge into two lanes, and so there was a perpetual traffic jam in Baghdad. My biggest concern was when we were in those traffic jams, they would have these men walking in between cars selling phone cards [and] selling water. Our concern was that they would place a sticky bomb or something or pull a weapon on us as they were walking by. So traveling through Baghdad is an adventure. Traveling south of Baghdad is an adventure because when you get on a two-lane highway, we’ve learned when to pass a car and when not to pass a car, [but] they haven’t. And there were times that I literally made the sign of the cross because I thought we were going to have a head-on collision. So you take your life in your hands when you’re riding in a civilian vehicle. If I’m in an MRAP or a humvee, that’s a different story. We were in SUVs, even armored-up SUVs, I was still very concerned driving in Baghdad and throughout Iraq."