At the peak of Iraq's midday heat Specialist Luis Santos methodically pumps out push-ups. A group of sergeants sit in the shade watching and chatting about creating a cleaning schedule. Sergeant Joseph Garcia pauses for a moment so he can tell Santos to rest for a moment and then start doing sit-ups. Santos isn't exercising, he's getting "smoked."

Sergeant First Class Greer, the platoon leader, seems to take note of Santos for the first time and asks, "What's going on with him?"

"Santos and Hunsuck are kind of like brothers who have a love-hate relationship," chuckles Garcia. Before explaining further, Garcia asks Private First Class Brian Hunsuck, who's been sitting with the sergeants watching Santos get smoked, to leave.

Hunsuck and Santos, who both work on Garcia's humvee had gotten into a petty rivalry. A clever, passive-aggressive guy, Hunsuck had taken to finding ways of indirectly bringing Santos' faults to the attention of the sergeants who would then punish Santos.

Santos retaliated by giving Hunsuck, who never outgrew his baby fat, the nickname "Hungry." Soon everyone in the platoon called Hunsuck "Hungry." The situation finally boiled over when Santos added "ungry" behind the "H" on all Hunsuck's ammunition magazines.

After getting smoked for ten minutes, Santos promised Garcia he wouldn't tease Hunsuck again.

Half way into their deployment, personal conflicts between soldiers simmer to the surface. In the States soldiers can go home after work and escape office politics, but deployed in Iraq, living together in close quarters, soldiers have no way to escape work-related frustrations.

Within a platoon humvee crews compose the core-operating group for soldiers. The crews range from three to five men and do almost everything together. Aside from spending entire days crammed together in a humvee, back at base soldiers pull guard shifts with the same people from the their truck. Crews often eat meals together in the dining hall so one person won't get left behind if the crew has to leave suddenly.

This type of closeness can build strong friendships, but it can also cultivate intense feuds. Hoping to improve platoon relations, Captain John Hintz and Sergeant First Class Mike Greer decided to rearrange the personnel on each humvee.

After nearly five months on Staff Sergeant Jon Foster's humvee, platoon medic Private First Class Matt Graham became convinced that Foster harbored a deep-seeded resentment towards Graham and all Army medics. "Sergeant Foster hates me," complains Graham.

Though Graham can't exactly explain why, he and Foster simply don't get along. "I remember in basic training, my drill instructor said there'd always be at least one guy in your platoon you'd hate," says Graham. Six months into the deployment the sight of Staff Sergeant Foster irritates him. After moving to a new humvee Graham says that he and Foster still aren't buddies, "But now I'd say about 50% of the time we have friendly interactions," says Graham.

In an even more extreme case, Staff Sergeant Andy Overgard and Staff Sergeant Chris Edwards changed platoons, which meant the two off them had to move to entirely new bases. Overgard and his platoon sergeant suffered from several personal disagreements. Edwards had originally been part of Overgard's platoon, but for operational reasons he and several other engineers were attached to Stalker platoon. When the conflict arose between Overgard and his platoon leader, Overgard and Edwards were ordered to switch places.

While Overgard and his platoon leader's disagreement was more or less a dispute among peers, low ranking soldiers begin to wallow in yet another layer of frustration as they find themselves unable to escape their bosses, the sergeants.

"You forget that this is a war," says Private First Class Brian D'Archangelo complaining about the excess menial tasks assigned to privates and specialists.

"That's the problem. There's so little fighting to do that we just drive around and then we come back [to base] so [sergeants] can look for stuff for us to do," says Specialist Tony Chicoine commiserating with D'Archangelo.

"They should rename this war 'Operation Private Freedom,'" jokes D'Archangelo.

While privates have probably complained like this for as long as armies have existed, low-ranking enlisted soldiers feel that the excess of trivial chores required of them are further reflection that Iraq is anything but the all out war they'd imagined. Instead soldiers find themselves getting worried about the mundane aspects of life.

After a mission, platoon leader Sergeant First Class Mike Greer calls together the entire platoon for a meeting, a rare occurrence. No one's certain what issue the meeting will address as they crowd together in the base's common area and wait for Greer to start the meeting. When everyone has come together Greer begins the meeting.

"I'm tired of finding shit streaks in the toilets. There are brushes next to every toilet for a reason," says Greer. He goes on to explain the filthy condition of the bathroom--soiled boxer shorts behind toilets, pools of water on the floor--and threatens to make soldiers take turns standing guard over the bathroom wearing all fifteen kilograms of their equipment if it ever happens again.

"Hoohah!" Grunts the platoon, using the Armies enthusiastic battle cry and universal sign of acknowledgement to affirm their newfound commitment to streak-free toilets.