By David Mac Dougall & Marcia Biggs, Baghdad Bureau

We’ve got the perfect patriotic story running tonight on Special Report at 6pm eastern. More than 1,200 military men and women, choosing to re-enlist on Independence Day: and our Baghdad bureau cameras were there to capture the whole event.

It gets pretty crowded in the al-Faw Palace west of Baghdad… but somehow organizers found just enough space to squeeze everybody in. General David Petraeus, the senior US military commander in Iraq, acted as master of ceremonies - and he knows how to whip up his audience! General Petraeus called out to each of the branches of the armed forces, getting their members to shout back at him. I’d say the loudest yell came from the US Marines who were present, but that’s not a scientific measurement or anything!

The ceremony itself is a pretty solemn affair: the names of each American state are called out, and then General Petraeus and the assembled audience recited their oath of enlistment.

Afterward, there was cake (the military sure do love the combination of ceremonies and cake…) and more interestingly on a culinary level, real Chicago pizza - shipped to Iraq by a former US Air Force Sergeant who wanted to provide a true taste of America on July 4th (my friend Jeff Goldblatt in the Chicago bureau did a story about the pizza earlier this week as it left Illinois).

We got the chance to talk to a lot of the people who re-enlisted. It was fascinating to get a cross-section of people telling us their reasons for signing up. Some do it for the benefits, for the (often substantial) re-enlistment bonus, or for the education opportunities the military can provide them with. Other people have made the military their whole career, and this was the chance to stay in a job they love.

The most unique reason for re-enlisting came from Sgt William McEndree of the 74th Military Police Battalion. Seems like while he’s been in Iraq, his car burst into flames as his daughter was driving it. Sgt McEndree told us the $15,000 re-enlistment bonus he received would go towards buying a new car. No word on whether his daughter will still be allowed to drive it!