In December 2002, with war looming, I learned I would be called up to the 98th Combat Stress Control (CSC) to deploy to Iraq. Several others had been ahead of me in the Professional Offcer Filler System (PROFIS) position slated for deployment. One by one they dropped out. My anxiety increased as I moved up the priority list to become one of the remaining names able to deploy. My supervisor at Madigan Army Medical Center, near Seattle, was looking for another psychiatrist, and with his list growing short he informed me that I would be going. I was not looking forward to this deployment and leaving family and home but was willing to do my duty. My anxiety was increasing. I was lamenting leaving family and was increasingly scared about going into combat. I was not alone in terms of working my way up the list to deploy; CPT Mike Cole ,a young Army psychiatrist, was moved to the 98th as well. Mike and I headed dutifully off to the 98th and 62nd Medical Detachment Conference in January, 2003. Our mission was briefed to us: land in Turkey, convoy to a rally point near the port, drive 4 days across country to an assembly area, and then follow the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) across the border into Iraq. Our entry point was to be just east of Syria. We were to follow the 4th Infantry Division across the Euphrates, and then move southwest to Tal Afar. That city is just 30–40 km west of Mosul. Here we would be based at a secure airfeld doing combat stress operations and other medical support.