Rob Laird is a 28 year old U.S. soldier who has recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He is participating in the race with his wife, Ellie. While Ellie is eager to participate, she has also been hiding the fact that Rob's unit has been reactivated and is shipping back to Iraq. After seeing a news report that a comrade had been killed, Rob calls one of his superiors and finds out that he's missed phone messages and letters over the course of two weeks (all of which were intercepted by Ellie). His unit shipped out without him and Rob is now officially AWOL. In episode 6, Rob turns himself in to the Army at Fort Benning to stand for court-martial, having left his post in order to race.