In the year 2003 the Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) at Aldershot Garrison received referrals of two soldiers, a sergeant and a lance corporal, who presented with a complex picture of neurological and psychiatric symptoms. Both had been investigated very thoroughly by neurologists who, owing to the mainly negative results of their investigations, were unable to make a diagnosis. Of the two patients one had also been assessed as a psychiatric in-patient in a civilian hospital and had been referred to the Aldershot DCMH for continuing care. The other had been transferred, after investigations, to the Defence Services Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DSMRC) at Headley Court but, failing to make progress, was also referred for psychiatric assessment. Both patients were obviously unwell but the nature of their illnesses remained obscure. Within a few months both had died and the diagnosis of one of the human transmissible spongiform encaphalopathies (TSEs), vCJD, was made at autopsy in one of them, but both were registered by the National CJD Surveillance Unit (3) with a diagnosis of vCJD. The circumstances were so unusual and prompted the writing of this paper by one of the psychiatrists involved.