They were in the Iraqi boondocks, in the rural countryside 10 miles from the city of Tikrit, when they saw the boots.
Old, worn and black, they were on a table next to a small pit from which Saddam Hussein, the once omnipotent ruler of the country, had been extricated at gunpoint by coalition forces four days earlier.
Sam and Justin — two military intelligence officers with the Utah National Guard who prefer, for security reasons, to use only their first names — spent some time exploring the Butcher of Baghdad's final hiding place. He had been in this location for about two weeks before his capture on Dec. 14, 2003. Saddam loyalists in a nearby farmhouse had provided the digs, consisting of a small outbuilding with a bed and, next to that, the pit, featuring a camouflaged shoulder-width entrance that led to a 3-foot-by-6-foot hole that Saddam burrowed into whenever enemy troops were reported in the vicinity.
"He had a reading light at one end and a fan at the other end, to circulate the air, and a little tube connected to the outside," recalls Sam. During his visit, Sam juxtaposed Saddam's housing situation with the quarters he and his fellow soldiers had taken over at one of Saddam's government-built palaces in Tikrit. "We had marble bathrooms and brass plumbing, and he was living in squalor. He didn't even have running water and his toilet was a hole in the ground. That's what struck me, the terrible living conditions for somebody who was supposed to be so high up there."
The circumstances of Saddam's departure hadn't left him time to pack, accounting for the leather boots on the table.
Assuming they were Saddam's and he wouldn't be needing them in his new incarceration, Justin picked them up. Four months later, when he and Sam left Iraq, they brought them back to Utah and gave them to their commander.
The commander gave them to the Fort Douglas Military Museum, where they went on display Saturday.
Beyond being a symbol of the successful removal of Saddam Hussein from power, the dictator's boots provide insight into the tremendous contributions of homegrown guardsmen on duty in Iraq.
As intelligence officers assigned to cultivating relationships with potential informants inside Iraq, Sam and Justin were directly responsible for identifying three Iraqis who started the information chain that led to Saddam's whereabouts.
"We were actually looking for another individual. His name was Izat Ibrahim Al-Duri and he was the King of Clubs," says Sam, referring to the deck of cards identifying the most-wanted fugitives from Saddam's regime.
"Our intel told us that if we found three individuals, they would be able to lead us to this guy. We passed on the names of the three and shortly after that we heard they were picked up. They led to another person in Baghdad who took (the army) to the position where Saddam was hiding."
Instead of the King of Clubs (who Sam says is still on the run) they got the Ace of Spades.
Sam remembers lying in his bunk in the Tikrit palace in the early morning hours on Dec. 14 when he heard cheering and a soldier came in to announce they had Saddam. The entire brigade combat team that Sam and Justin were assigned to got credit, and plenty of slaps on the back, for capturing him.
It was four days later, after the commotion settled down, that Sam and Justin and eight other soldiers drove to the boondocks to see the scene of the capture.
"We wanted to see the place where they picked him up," says Sam. "We wanted to see the end of our labors."
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.