Dennis and Nancy Noak love cruising around the countryside just about as much as they love cruising on the lake. As the owners of a 1963 Amphicar, a cuddly, finned bit of a car-boat, the Noaks can do both. The Noaks fell in love at first sight. Again. This time with the German-built land and sea cruiser. "Nancy's brother, Tom, and his family live in Madison, Wisconsin and he had two of them, so we ended up with one," Noak says.

According to the International Amphicar Owners Club (IAOC), 3,878 Amphicars were built from 1961 to 1968. Today's estimates vary at about 2,000 still in existence-and of those, an approximate 600 remain seaworthy. "Production slowed down when demand went away, and they also had to deal with EPA laws in the U.S.," says Noak, who is retired from the Fort Wayne Parks Department. (For the rest of the story, check out the July issue, on newsstands now.)

War does not lend itself to explanations or drawn-out commentaries. Battles between nations belong to a timeline, reaching back before the pyramids, that continues with us on July 4, 2009, in Indiana, throughout humanity's progress: slingshots to the bow, from the bow to the sword. Then the bullet. The bomb. The computerized, heat-seeking, laser-guided defense system.

War just is. And because it is, there are those willing to sacrifice. It could be the woman at the post office, the contractor pouring your driveway, the teenager, the old man. You cannot tell by looking which of them accepted the burden. And whether the job was at a desk or in combat, any job in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces comes with a greater risk than most Americans endure in a lifetime. (For the rest of the story, check out the July issue, on newsstands now.)