Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

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There's a slow leak in Jacksonville, and soon it could be as it was during Desert Storm in 1991: a ghost town. Already a flower shop has closed, a car shop has gone under, and a big grocery chain has decided not to build. But for the locals, it feels a little different this time around. A couple of cupfuls short of patriotism. And urgency. And sense. "There's something unpredictable about this war," says Beeda Ruth Wensil, who runs Saigon Sam's, a huge military-surplus store. "The boys don't know where they're gonna go or what they're gonna do. Iraq or North Korea? They don't even know what to pack."

So next time you need reminding that it's people's boyfriends and soccer coaches who will be bleeding, come listen as the tattooist sends her meat-tagged Marines off with these words, always these words: "For God's sake," she says, as she sees them to the door, "keep your head down."