CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq — It is a familiar outcome for the legions of young minor league players chasing their major league dreams.

A team executive sits a player down and tells him he is not good enough. The player’s bags are packed, and he heads home to start a sustainable livelihood.

Josh Holden, a broad-shouldered, speedy outfielder, chased that dream from the field in Oklahoma where he tried out for the Cincinnati Reds to the baseball backwaters of Montana to the last day of spring training in 2008.

But when Holden’s bags were packed, he did not head back to pumping gas or selling insurance. The end of his baseball career meant something far starker: back-to-back tours in Iraq.