As the plane taking me home rose and banked to the west, it crossed the Mississippi River. Just a few days before, this striking landscape held little meaning. Now, looking down, I recognized the great span of bridges connecting the Illinois towns of Rock Island and Moline with Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa—known collectively as the Quad Cities.
And there between them, flanked on either side by the forked channel of the mighty river, was one of America’s most historic military arsenals: Rock Island.
