It was not long after military casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began filtering back into medical centers throughout the United States that whispered talk began of a bacterial “superbug” that wounded soldiers were carrying back with them from the front lines. A series of strange infections with resistant (but still Imipenem susceptible) acinetobacter surfaced on a Navy hospital ship, the US Comfort, in 2003. This was followed by outbreaks at military medical facilities in the USA, the level IV evacuation hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and many civilian hospitals that accepted wounded veterans. What was more concerning what that many of these outbreaks were now found to be caused by a strain of highly resistant acinetobacter, even to the big guns of Imipenem. Rumors circulated that this bug was endemic in the soil and water of Iraq, and was being blown into the wounds by improvised explosive devices. The truth was much simpler: they were catching this “superbug” at our forward military surgical hospitals, like the Ibn Sina facility in Baghdad. The lesson learned here is that even in a “mature” theater of combat operations, the combination of severe wounds with infected and dead tissue, less than ideal sterility conditions, and widespread (and uncontrolled) use of antibiotics is a recipe for infectious disease problems. Some of these factors are beyond your control, but many of them are modifiable behavioral and practice patterns that you and your colleagues can adapt to minimize the chances of your patients becoming another statistic or cautionary tale.