Batalona had eight brothers and sisters, a sprawling family that lived in shorts and flip-flops and said "aloha." They had gardens year-round in the fertile volcanic soil, picked papaya and wild guava, and hunted feral pigs in the dense foliage. They gathered fish with round throw nets, one of Wesley Batalona's favorite pastimes.

Living off the land was a tradition on the Hamakua Coast, and a necessity; the fertile setting never grew many jobs. Tourists headed for the other side of the island, where the climate is dry and the sea calm. Batalona, a combat-hardened former Army sergeant, was commuting to a hotel security guard job there when he heard about big pay in Iraq for people with his skills. Private companies taking over military functions needed more and more contractors who could operate in combat zones.

Military work had started shaping Batalona's life 30 years before.

In high school, he moved in with an older sister, Uilani Shibata, and her husband, Bert, a former paratrooper. Just before Batalona graduated, Bert Shibata sat him down and told him that his best choices were to become a policeman, go to college or join the military. He chose the path Shibata had taken, the Army.

It was 1974, almost a year to the day after the end of the draft, and Batalona was part of the beginning of the all-volunteer military. Melvin Laird, President Nixon's secretary of defense, had pushed to end conscription as the Vietnam War ground to its finish. Before that, Laird had started reducing the size of the military -- from about 3.5 million in 1969 to 2.3 million by January 1973.

Some in Batalona's family had believed the Army was temporary for him, but he took to it.

"I thought it was just a three-year thing, but he turned it into a career," said an older brother, Ka'ai.

'Bata' and the Rangers

Batalona -- dubbed "Bata" by military buddies -- applied to the special school for Rangers, the Army's best-trained light infantry unit. Rangers prepare for arctic, jungle, desert, mountain and amphibious operations.

As for many soldiers of his era, serving mainly meant long years of training.

Batalona was Jeff Goddard's first squad leader when Goddard became a Ranger in 1978. Goddard said soldiers in other units told him they were glad not to be in his squad because Batalona drove it so much harder.

Goddard said they had it wrong. He credits Batalona for molding him into a soldier who became a Green Beret.

"He demanded the absolute best out of all of us in the squad," Goddard said. "Ours was always the last squad in from physical training in the morning, which really made us have to hustle to get showered and changed and over to chow before first formation.

"He would push us to our limits and beyond on everything from road marches to training exercises involving crew drills with our machine guns. He was as tough as woodpecker lips."

In 1989, Batalona's unit was sent to Panama, where it made a parachute assault on an airfield, an operation that began the invasion.

Nearly two dozen soldiers died in Panama, some at the airfield where Batalona fought.

The next year, Batalona was deployed again, this time to the Persian Gulf to fight in Kuwait and Iraq. With him and the other U.S. troops were a few civilian contractors -- often technicians overseeing complex weapons systems.

Contractors were beginning to play a bigger role in the American military, about one for every 60 troops in the gulf war. The future could be seen in Saudi Arabia's military forces -- all of their logistics and support were handled by U.S. companies. And employees of Vinnell, a subsidiary of Grumman, went into battle with the Saudi National Guard troops they had been training.

In 1993, Batalona shipped out for his last conflict in uniform: Somalia, a chapter in American military history best remembered for a botched U.S. Army raid that ended with two dead soldiers being dragged through the streets on camera.

Batalona put in 20 years, the point at which many "lifers" retire. In 1994, he left the Rangers as the global machinery that would one day return him to war -- albeit as a civilian -- was clanking to life.

Going private

In 1992, Brown & Root, a Texas company, had won a $9 million contract from the Pentagon, then run by Dick Cheney. The company studied how private companies might replace American soldiers in combat zones, freeing troops from mundane jobs such as cooking and hauling supplies so they'd be able to fight.

The Soviet Union had collapsed, and militaries that had been on both sides of the Cold War were shedding troops. Smaller conflicts that had been suppressed by the superpowers began flaring, creating a market for advisers to Third World armies and providers of equipment and security.

The stage was set for private contractors to fill that niche in the 1980s, when political leaders, notably British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan, promoted privatizing military functions as well as other government work.

After completing its study, Brown & Root -- a division of Halliburton -- started bidding for, and winning, huge contracts under the Clinton administration.

When Batalona left the Army at Fort Stewart, Ga., he joined a pool of 9 million former soldiers in the United States and the former Soviet Union who found themselves in the civilian job market, often with skills good for little except soldiering.

The decorated combat veteran took a job with a pawnshop.

Batalona, his wife, June, and their daughter, Kristal, stayed in Georgia for six years, until Kristal entered Georgia Southern University. Then the older Batalonas returned to their native Hawaii.

Many people had moved away. Most of their neighbors and many relatives worked in the hotels. Soon, both Batalonas had joined them: June got an afternoon job turning down beds at one hotel, and Batalona took a job as a night security guard at another.

Each evening, he commuted to the Hilton Waikoloa Village, once billed as the most expensive resort in the world to construct. Locals call it "Disneyland" because of touches such as the motor yachts that gurgle into the lobby on a man-made river to ferry guests around the complex. Futuristic, 90-passenger commuter-style trams come through the lobby, and there are huge Asian-themed sculptures, including a life-size bronze of a Thai royal carriage complete with six horses.

Batalona wanted to do more. The former Ranger who had fought in three conflicts was reduced to running off local kids trying to sneak a swim and smiling at the tourists even when his feet were sore.

His father, who was ill, needed money quickly to keep the bank from foreclosing on his house, Ka'ai Batalona said. Other relatives said Batalona, who often informally counseled local kids, also hoped to start a program to help troubled teens.

For either or both, he needed money. Last fall, through his network of former soldiers, he heard of a way to get it.

In early October 2003, he took a job with Vinnell helping to train the new Iraqi army. He picked up new friends, including a younger former Ranger named Jerry Zovko.

The Vinnell contract fell apart, though, and after about a month, Batalona flew home to Hawaii. He wasn't there long.

"Jerry's still there," he told friends. "I've got to get back."

By February, he was back in Baghdad, working for Blackwater USA. And working, again, with Zovko.

SOURCE NOTES

Chapter 2 of "The Bridge" is based on information from these sources:

Batalona family life in Hawaii and Wesley Batalona's childhood: interviews with Wesley Batalona's sister Uilani Shibata, his wife, June Batalona, his brother Ka'ai Batalona and his former supervisor, Presley Hart.

Wesley Batalona's military career: Army personnel records; interviews with June Batalona, Ka'ai Batalona, Uilani Shibata and former Army Green Beret Jeff Goddard.

Batalona's work at the Hilton Waikoloa Village: tour of hotel by reporter Jay Price; interviews with Hart and June Batalona.

Contractors in the first gulf war and the 1992 Brown & Root study contract: "Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry," by P.W. Singer.

Batalona's life after the Army: Interviews with June Batalona, Shibata and Hart.

Batalona at Vinnell: Interviews with June Batalona and Tom Zovko, Jerry Zovko's brother.