“That sticks with me because it’s not something that you see every day on television or read about in the newspapers,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.

Samuel Amos III sat safe in the living room of his family’s Louisa County farmhouse a mere month after standing in a turret on a gun truck with three machine guns and an assault rifle, protecting convoys on the mean streets near Baghdad.

“It wasn’t a walk in the park,” said Spc. Brian Jette, the 23-year-old from Burke, noting that when there was violence, it came and went quickly.

Monticello Guard expected home at 4 p.m.