Major Craig Bukowski is a Medical Service Corps officer with prior enlisted experience as a combat engineer and truck driver in the Army Reserve, the Army National Guard and the Regular Army. On September 11, 2001, he was serving as commander of a main support medical company in Germany and saw immediate impacts from the start of the Global War on Terrorism. In this interview - the first of two concerning his GWOT experiences - Bukowski discusses his post-9/11 move to the National Training Center as an observer-controller, during which he was part of the initial stages of revising the program to incorporate lessons learned regarding counterinsurgency warfare and a more asymmetrical battlefield. After that, he became an instructor at the Medical Officer Basic Course. In December 2003, Bukowski then deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom where he worked in the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan, in the Plans and Designs Team, helping plan and organize the Afghan military health system. "We did everything from design it, implement it, set it into action and have them actually fight while we were there," he said. In this interview, he further discusses his extensive experience working with Afghan officials to build an entirely new medical infrastructure and revamp the training and organization of the military medical force. Included in this were refitting and building hospitals and medical clinics throughout the country. Bukowski shares his insights into Afghan culture and into the medical system in particular, as well as the training of Afghan medics. He redeployed to Fort Sam Houston in June 2004.

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