This study argues that beginning with large-scale mobilization in 1910 and ending with the formal dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 a period of continuous warfare occurred. This Long World War I of the Ottoman Empire will henceforth be labeled as the Transformational War. This work does seek to show continuities between the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic, but it is not merely a teleology describing the transition from empire to republic. It will highlight the twists and turns; the paths not taken; and the cul-de-sacs of the Ottoman domains’ long and grinding war. Moreover, it will delve into the many lives and identities Ottoman officers and officials experienced in the 1910-1923 period-with Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak being highlighted. It will also delve into the pruning processes and negotiation as these individuals sought to find a sanctuary as the only world, they had ever known fell in around them. Thus, while describing the Ottoman domains’ transformation it will also highlight this individual’s transformation because of protracted warfare and tragedy. Therefore, Çakmak and other Ottoman officers were transformers and transformed. This confounds an older, but still popular Kemalist narrative of Tek Adam, a solitary man, Atatürk as the savior and architect of a new state. He too was transformed, and his ideology is an amalgamation of ideas gained through years of conflict and loss. He went through a process in which he had to react to situations rather than layout a well-thought-out plan. Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak fought in the Albanian Rebellions of 1910-1911, the Balkan Wars 1912-1913, in 1914-1918 he fought in Gallipoli, the Caucasus, and Palestine. He later became involved in the Turkish nationalist movement and was instrumental in the Turkish War of Independence and the early republican government. But he became a different person as he progressed through this brutal trial, his arrival at his position in the early 1920’s not out of desire, but out of acquiescence.