AP Photo

LIVERMORE, California — Just hours after the first death in the 2001 anthrax attacks, Tom Slezak was told to gather his team, collect his gear and get on a plane.

The longtime Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory biodefense researcher landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside the nation's capital and immediately realized he was on the front lines of a new type of war.

"We were met by a colonel in the Army," Slezak recalled. "He said, 'Our nation is at war. And you've been drafted.'"