Charles Magruder in Iraq

Magruder recalls that, for the most part, he had been enjoying the scene, soaking up the local color and capturing as much of it as possible on his digital camera. His companion, somewhat concerned at the chaos, suggested that Magruder put down his camera and prepare his weapon, just in case.

In a car next to them, an Iraqi family with young children watched with alarm while Magruder prepared his pistol.

"Why do you want to shoot me?" yelled the Iraqi driver. "I just want to get to my home."

At that, Magruder swapped the gun for the camera, wanting to avoid upsetting the young children.

"They smiled, and I took a picture," he said.

Magruder always wanted to see the Middle East, so when he was deployed to Kuwait as a preventive medicine officer for an Army medical brigade a year ago, he couldn’t have been happier.

"I’ve always been fascinated by Middle East history," Magruder said, "and when I had an opportunity to travel into Iraq, I was beside myself."

Magruder had flown to the region on a chartered commercial airliner. The flight was a bit surreal, he said, in part because military passengers stored their M-16s in overhead compartments and donned chemical warfare attire upon landing.

A former palace of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit shows damage from bombing.

Magruder was able to avoid injury while in Iraq but experienced a near miss. A vehicle was attacked and the occupants killed in a countryside region just 30 minutes after Magruder had driven through. As far as he knew, that was the closest he had come to being hit, he said. But, he and the medical units had plenty of other things to worry about.

"Naturally, we were concerned about the possible use of biological or chemical weapons, as well as non-battle injuries and infection from such things as leishmaniasis and malaria, both of which are endemic to that area," he recalled. "Another big concern was the potential for heat injuries. In some places, it was 130 degrees, so it was extremely important to monitor heat injuries and make sure commanders and those under their command understood how to protect the troops."

	On the road to the Baghdad Airport, an Iraqi family smiles for a photo.

Magruder already was in the military when he came to HSPH. After completing his residency, he left for Fort Bragg, N.C., where he was named chief of preventive medicine. He remained at Fort Bragg throughout the Gulf War in 1991, assisting with the readiness of 40,000 troops deployed to the battlefront from that site.

In the mid-1990s, Magruder took a position as a medical epidemiologist for the Department of Defense, studying Gulf War Syndrome. Later, he left active duty and returned to his home state of Kansas for a four-year stint as public health chief for Sedgwick County, which includes the city of Wichita.

While in Kansas, Magruder maintained his ties to the Army as deputy surgeon for the 89th Reserve Support Command, now named the 89th Regional Readiness Command, composed of reserve units from the Great Plains region.

Magruder’s vehicle was escorted by another U.S. army vehicle, armed with a machine gun, near Tikrit.

In spite of the painful separation from his family, Magruder said that he developed real affection and respect for the Iraqi people, especially the children. He treasures the photos he took of them when they ran along roadsides to greet the passing Americans, he said.

"I saw the cities of Ur, Baghdad and Tikrit," he said, "and I saw how people lived on a day-to-day basis."

Magruder is back in Atlanta now, working on the Health Alert Network (HAN), part of a federal communications and data management infrastructure related to bioterrorism preparedness. HAN’s mission is to build and ensure capacity for full Internet connectivity and training at all local and state health departments in order to participate in distance learning programs, as well as health alerts, with and from the CDC.

--PHC