My Journey of Service as a Dentist in the Military – Part 2

By early 2003, I thought I knew what my Army Reserve experience would look like — weekend drills, two weeks a year of training, and opportunities to help the underserved like my time at Rosebud Reservation. I was still a full-time associate dentist. I was even a faculty volunteer at Tufts School of Dental Medicine. But the call I received later that year changed everything: I was being deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The benefits I received from the Army were numerous. The most significant benefits were the price of family health insurance and my school loan payment assistance. I was still a young captain, new to military life, a wife and two young children, and suddenly I was stepping into the unknown. The war had just begun. Like so many other Soldiers, I packed my duffle bags, promised my family that I would see them soon, and prepared myself for a world I had only seen on the news.

I was attached to the 380th Medical Company (DS) Millington, TN as part of the first dental Army Reserve unit to be deployed.

Our unit landed in Kuwait before pushing into Iraq. The heat, the sand, and the cold nights were another world I had never experienced before. Dental care in combat zones isn’t just about fillings and extractions— it’s about keeping Soldiers in the fight, treating injuries under pressure, and being ready for emergencies far beyond routine dentistry.

What struck me most wasn’t just the dentistry needed; it was the people. Young Soldiers, many barely out of high school, with enormous responsibility on their shoulders. They looked to us officers not just for care, but for calm, for guidance, for confidence that everything would be okay. That was a vital part of our leadership responsibility both to our own soldiers in the unit as well as the soldiers we treated.

I would love to say that we were in a safe zone, but having several mortar attacks a day, running for shelter, and the constant weight wearing body armor reminded me otherwise. The near miss of shrapnel really hit home. I was in war.

In those months, I learned more about leadership than any classroom or textbook could ever teach. I learned the value of resilience, of staying steady when the world around you doesn’t make sense. Fortunately, finding purpose in service to others kept me grounded. The deployment tested me in ways I could never have imagined, and it shaped the officer, dentist, and person I would become for the rest of my life.

It was time to go home and return to my civilian life and back to my family, my job, and the Army Reserve.

In January, I’ll conclude my blog series by sharing the next chapter of my dental career—highlighting the path toward my 2010 deployment and the evolution of my journey into dental education.