Coming Apart
After 9/11 transfixed America, the country’s problems were left to rot.
Chris Berman quit Blackwater after his friend Scott Helvenston died in Falluja—television networks broadcasting the Mitsubishi Pajero riddled with bullets and engulfed in flames. Waiting for the coffin, Berman began drawing on napkins: designs for armoring vehicles. His timing was perfect. The most violent phase of the war was just beginning.