The final frontier

The colder desert night was succeeding the already wintry desert day. Hungry and thirsty after months on short rations, National Guardsman Tony Rodriguez bitched yet again as he kicked the side of the latest personnel carrier to fail.'You think Halliburton got the maintenance contract for these useless contraptions?' he asked the rest of the platoon, who stood looking as if they wished they had the energy to spare to put in a boot themselves.'Nah, Bechtel beat 'em to it,' the sergeant told