A plume of black smoke builds in the distance and cars speed by as Sgt. Michael Drake, a military policemen assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, walks along a road outside Camp Taji, Iraq, during a dismounted patrol Dec. 2. The MPs rolled out long before sunrise to patrol roads outside the camp to ensure the safety of 2/82 convoys traveling through the area from Baghdad. The 2nd Brigade is the last brigade in Baghdad and is facilitating the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq. Drake is a native of Virginia Beach, Va.