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The pair often hopped on helicopters that whisked them away to wheel and deal with tribal sheiks, navigate the Sunni "death triangle" and visit rural Iraqi farms.
They weren't hardened soldiers but recent Texas A&M graduates with a broad goal of advancing agriculture in the war-ravaged country.
Blaze Currie, 23, and Jonathon Glueck, 22, worked alongside the military as part of The Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M University's mission to create a youth agricultural organization.
The institute supports and implements agricultural development projects around the world.
About half of the desert country's population is under 18, a demographic that officials say will shape the future of the country.
Glueck said he was excited but nervous before taking off for Iraq.
"Just the overall scope of the project," said Glueck, who graduated in May with a double major in agricultural leadership and development and agricultural economics.
"We were in charge of
350 youths, had seven different tribal sheiks looking to us to make sure everything happened."
The pair used the model of the Texas 4-H program. Glueck was a member of the group, judging cows when he was a kid. The values of 4-H transfer well to the community-centric reality of Iraq, he said.
By teaming with Iraqi non-governmental organizations and local sheiks, the A&M-led effort taught Iraqi youth the basics of agriculture. One of the first programs explained poultry, from hatching chicks to marketing the final product. Participants also learned business skills such as keeping records.
The biggest challenge, Glueck said, was convincing the sheiks -- local religious leaders who are held in reverence by community members -- that the effort wasn't just talk. They had experience with people not following through on promises, Glueck said.
The pair created seven such clubs in Iraq at a cost of $24,000. Though the recent graduates are back from Iraq after a six-month stint, they hope the military expands the program.
What gave Glueck the most satisfaction was seeing the delivery of the chickens to the Iraqi youth.
The pair gave a presentation on their efforts Tuesday to a gathering of several hundred in Rudder Theatre at the weeklong Texas A&M AgriLife Conference.
"There's a link between agricultural development and stability," said Currie, who graduated in May with a bachelor's in agricultural leadership and development. "Before Iraq can stabilize in a way where it's safe, there's going to have to be economic stability."
Currie said his encounter with a poor rice farmer in Karbala province illustrates how security and agriculture are connected.
The man kept an empty patch of land beside his house.
As part of the group members' routine assessment, they asked the man why he didn't plant on that land.
"He said, 'I had just moved to the area. I could plant everywhere else, but I flooded that area to disable all the land mines. Then I could pluck the land mines and plant the next season,'" Currie said.
At first, Currie said, it seemed strange to be immersed in poverty yet to see so many Iraqis with satellite dishes.
But, he said, he came to learn that the Iraqis cherish their cell phones, satellite dishes and Internet because they were brought up in a closed society.
Now, they are thirsty to learn.
But they don't have knowledge of agriculture, which is expected to be a big employer in the future, he said.
"That's why we're working in Iraq," he said.
