When Walid A. Hindo joined the Military Advance Surgical Group of the first division in Iraq in the 1960s, he knew he was on his own.

His father was one of Iraq's highest ranking army officials under the old regime, but Hindo went against his father's wishes to serve in the north, where there was actual hostility.

He soon learned that where you ended up in the army was based on your ethnicity, religion, and tribal relationship. Fortunately, he reported to Dr. B. Boghossian, who helped him escape Iraq by granting him a leave of absence to visit his sick grandfather in Syria.

From there, he went to the United States where he began working at a small hospital in Yonkers, New York. As an intern in the surgery department, he had the chance to ride on ambulance calls, earning $15 per ride.

Hindo reveals his unlikely rise to become one of the Unites States' most successful doctors, from his early years in Iraq to his time as chairman of the Department of Radiology at Chicago Medical School in From Baghdad on the Tigris to Baghdad on the Subway.