The convoy commander, 2nd Lt. Benjamin Kiley, craned his neck in the passenger seat but didn’t appear to see what Gooding had spotted. Boom! Boom! Boom! Clang! Gooding fired off three rounds from the .50-cal., a burst that was interrupted when the weapon’s blank-fire adaptor separated from the barrel and landed several feet in front of the vehicle with a loud “clang” as it hit the hard-packed dirt road.