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The videos from Iraq arrive every few days in Scott Holloway's e-mail account.

They show vehicles vanishing in a bomb blast, plumes of sand and ash rising from the ground, fire licking at steel.

From his office, Holloway studies the nature of this war, the men and women under attack, and the trucks -- especially the trucks. How to make them fast enough to outrun trouble and strong enough to withstand gunfire, maybe even a roadside bomb.

Holloway once planned to make armor-plated SUVs for celebrities and rap stars. The war in Iraq turned his vague idea into a booming business, sending him to some of the world's most dangerous places, where his $250,000 trucks -- think Abrams tank with the soul of a sports car -- are used by private security firms working alongside the military.

The war has changed the former 3M research scientist, too. With his shaved head and earrings, Holloway, 37, looks the part of an international security expert. He explains it this way: "The industry's full of people with strong personalities." Plus, he adds, "I look cooler."

But Holloway no longer blends in easily in the neighborhood that he and his wife and two sons call home.

"He's transformed," said his wife, Darcey.

His 48th address

First, something to know about Scott Holloway: He lives in a house that he counts as his 48th address. He attended 16 schools before graduation as his mother moved from town to town. He often lived with his grandmother. His father, absent from his life since Holloway was a toddler, might be dead. Holloway's not sure. They last spoke two years ago.

"He didn't come from a super-stable background," Darcey said. "I think that Scott has a greater tolerance of risk than the average person."

Maybe it was his patchwork background, or maybe Holloway was always destined to be his own boss, but his journey to Iraq began the day he walked away from his job at 3M, trading the security of a pension for the thrill of becoming an entrepreneur.

The Holloways met at a night club in Ohio. Scott was still in high school, Darcey a college sophomore. They were married before a year had passed.

Darcey is an analyst for 3M Global Trading, and she provides the health insurance for the family these days. She calls her husband brilliant, but admitted: "I've had to challenge myself to expand so I'm not inhibiting him in what he's wanting out of his life.

"Would I have chosen this route? No, because it's stressful."

The offices of Mojave Laboratories Inc. in Oak Park Heights are a 5-minute drive from Holloway's home in a planned neighborhood on the outskirts of Stillwater. If it's strange to imagine armored trucks in the back parking lots of Mojave, across the street from the high school, know that Holloway is just one of 84 defense contractors in the state, according to the Defense Alliance of Minnesota. The contractors range from people who build things such as brake parts in their private workshops to corporate behemoths such as Honeywell and Alliant Techsystems.

Walk inside the office and you might find Holloway at his desk, a pile of computer parts and other high-tech gear piled nearby. At 3M, he experimented with ceramic fiber technology. At Mojave, he has learned about trade barriers, the import-export business, venture capital and how to FedEx something to Anbar Province, Iraq.

Holloway designs the trucks, figuring out how to turn his concepts into reality. Using a 3-inch-thick window that weighs 180 pounds, for example, also means coming up with a way to make it possible for a driver to roll it down. "I'm the techie guy who likes to put fun stuff in trucks," he said.

The first U.S. Marines to rush into Iraq drove mostly unarmored Humvees, trading the safety of heavy armor for the speed and agility of an unarmored vehicle. It was thought early on that soldiers would need to step out of their vehicles frequently to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. It was only months into the war that the military view on armor began to shift.