THE TENSION: Combat Camera: 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division Soldiers Air Assault Into Iraqi Village

A soldier with the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, pulls security in a village near Tikrit, Iraq, on Oct. 21, 2008. The soldiers searched the village for contraband and aimed to disrupt extremist activity in the area. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A signal soldier with the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division pulls security during an air assault mission on Oct. 21, 2008. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A medic pulls security during an air assault mission near Tikrit, Iraq. The 1st Special Troops Battalion soldiers aimed to disrupt weapons trafficking in the tiny hamlet near Saddam Hussein's hometown. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A signal soldier with the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, scans the barren landscape of the rural Tikrit area, during an air assault mission Oct. 21, 2008. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

Special Troops Battalion soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, air assaulted into a village near Tikrit, Iraq, on Oct. 21, 2008. The soldiers aimed to disrupt weapons trafficking operations by extremist networks in the region. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A signal soldier with the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, watches the sun rise during an air assault mission near Tikrit, Iraq, on Oct. 21, 2008. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A signal soldier with the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, searches the rooftops of a village near Tikrit, Iraq, on Oct. 21, 2008. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

1st Special Troops Battalion soldiers silhouetted by the sun during an air assault mission near Tikrit, Iraq, Oct. 21, 2008. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)

A signal soldier's shadow silhouetted in the sun. (Photographer: Sgt. Richard Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.)