Fragments from Iraq

From February 2005 to March 2006, Navy trauma surgeon Zsolt Stockinger served on a forward operating base in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, where he treated more than a thousand casualties and performed hundreds of surgeries. Throughout his deployment, he recorded his thoughts and experiences in a journal that he occasionally sent to his wife as a way to stay connected. Stockinger’s diary offers a unique account of daily military life in Iraq from a surgeon’s perspective, from the intense action of rocket attacks and emergency procedures to the creative and often lighthearted ways of filling tedious stretches of down time. Illustrated with 47 photographs, this work provides a realistic portrait of life on base and a powerful perspective on the human carnage of war.

Zsolt T. Stockinger, M.D., is a Navy trauma surgeon, now deployed as chief of trauma at the NATO Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He has been deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star with the Marine Corps in Anbar Province, Iraq, during the time of this book’s writing.

Zsolt T. Stockinger, M.D.
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 255
Bibliographic Info: 47 photos, glossary, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6951-2
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9059-2
Imprint: McFarland

Prologue      1

Glossary      3

I. FIRST TOUR OF DUTY

1. February 2005: Welcome to TQ!      5

2. March 2005: We Lose Our First Patient      23

3. April 2005: “There’s a grenade in his pocket…”      43

4. May 2005: Outside the Wire      63

5. June 2005: They Came by Pick-up, Humvee and Bradley Tank      80

6. July 2005: “The guy is full of holes…”      97

7. August 2005: The Probing Finger of Death      113

II. SECOND TOUR OF DUTY

8. September 2005: Breaking In the New Team      131

9. October 2005: A Helluva Save      148

10. November 2005: Sniper in the ’Hood      172

11. December 2005: The “Sundays with Psych” Show      185

12. January 2006: The “Overflow” from Ramadi      200

13. February 2006: A “No Shit” Head Injury      222

14. March 2006: The Turnover      238

Epilogue      245

Index      247

“Vivid stories share the type of surgery performed on soldiers and civilians”—Reference & Research Book News.