A long road, but not an unattainable goal. Capt. Riffe's best moment came the day of the January, 2005 Iraqi election. "Leading up to the election, we asked a lot of Iraqis if they were going to vote. They said no, that it was too dangerous. But they lied. They went out and voted, and they were so excited, they were jumping up and down about voting. Talking to them the next day, they were beaming. There's no way to describe what a fulfilling event that was." Capt. Riffe counts among his most treasured possessions an original ballot from the January, 2005 election.

Capt. Riffe's worst moment came the day a member of his platoon was injured by an IED. "About 5 p.m. one day, I was on a landline on the phone with my wife. All of the sudden, one of my guys came running to the phone room and said 'Second Platoon just got hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).' I told my wife, 'I have to go.' She knew instantly that something bad had happened, and I couldn't tell her. The biggest problem is that we have so much communication. Now every time somebody gets hurt, shot, fired, demoted, promoted, the families know within moments. It makes everything that much more complex."

The immediacy of mass media makes Americans impatient for results, but Capt. Riffe urges patience. "The media might spend a whole day trying to find enough news to fill five minutes of TV time, and all we hear is the bad things. But the rest of the day is filled with progress. You could spend all day every day reporting on every good thing that's getting done in that country. We just have to be patient," he says.

Capt. Riffe returned to his wife and seven-year-old son in April, 2005. He considers his time in Iraq lucky -- his 150 troops patrolled Airport Road in Baghdad but took only six wounded and zero deaths. Capt. Riffe now recruits for the National Guard in Minnesota. "People always ask me whether they'll have to go to Iraq," he says. "Here's what I tell them: 'There are more good days there than there are bad.'"

Editor's Note: Your e-mails will be forwarded to Capt. Riffe by Ben Shapiro