A NIGHT ON PATROL

With 3d of the 124, Florida National Guard.

Next door, the soldiers have entered the house by going through the pigeon coop, a common fixture in Baghdad homes. It is the size of a large garage, and it gives them the creeps. It is pitch black, full of hundreds of sleeping birds, and their droppings cover the floor.

Down the street, the soldiers from division are finishing their own searches while tanks, armored personnel carriers and Humvees sit parked on the wide boulevard.

The Florida soldiers are lined up to enter another gate, but it is locked, and someone calls for a sledgehammer. A large soldier pounds repeatedly on the heavy lock, making a terrific "clang, clang, clang" on the steel plating of the gates, but the lock won't break.

Finally, they give up on the sledgehammer. Military police in an armored Humvee pull up to the gate and crash through, and the soldiers run in.