In this issue an article and a commentary feature that uniquely human-made menace to population health: war. The article provides lessons by reviewing how the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) survived and assisted others during the war. The authors recount how the CMJ editors learned about the potential of a journal in wartime, and expanded the CMJ's role when challenged by conflict and violence. The commentary provides a public health memoir to aid others who must cope from within neighborhoods plagued by prolonged battle. A physician who came of age during the 17 years of civil war in Lebanon presents the daily challenges to households as seen through his adult eyes, and those of his father – an Associate Professor of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, at the start of the war – a professor emeritus by its close. Both pieces demonstrate how war gave rise to invention as well as misery. The son and father comment also on activities that provided a fragile sense of normalcy, and helped Lebanon's residents cope. By day, when battle lulls permitted, many regularly attended school and work. At moments when electricity permitted, some unplugged refrigerators to reroute the current for ironing clothing or linens, a routine that probably conjured up safer times.