Class of 1992

CHRISTOPHER PRIOR makes a difference in Iraq.

"There was just a mortar explosion, so I may have to run, let me check." So ends the first e-mail message from Army Capt. Prior, director of ambulatory and emergency medicine at the 228th Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, Iraq. Thirty minutes later another message materializes: "Sorry about that—we'll see what happens. The hospital is essentially the safest place to be—it has already been hit with a mortar and survived."

Prior shipped out for his second deployment of Operation Iraqi Freedom on Christmas Day 2004, three months after being stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, where he is the director of primary care sports medicine at Darnall Army Community Hospital. He served in Kuwait for six months in 2003, living and working in nuclear and biological protective suits for 60 days, but reports that Iraq is a more difficult assignment. "The variety and severity of injuries is simply unbelievable, much more severe and in greater numbers than the last deployment," said Prior, who runs the hospital's emergency and trauma rooms.

This yearlong deployment is also more difficult for his wife, Suzanne (Spencer) '92, and their daughters Casey, 3, and Brianna, I. Casey suffers from extreme separation anxiety. "It's still hard to make a 3-year-old understand these things," says Suzanne.

Prior is proud that his unit has "has saved so many lives and impacted so many people." However, he adds: "I really do not want to report the carnage that I see on a daily basis—no movie comes close to showing what I have seen here.

War is devastating. Future generations will have to decide if it is worth it."