Many U.S. service men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan won’t soon forget the war on terrorism, some for different reasons than others.

For some the memories are ones which they would rather forget, while a much lesser number had the opportunity to see some of the beauty of the country.

Steve Casper, administrator of the Continental Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Blanchester, was one who saw some of the beauty.

Casper attended a conference at one of Saddam Hussein’s castles in Baghdad which had been taken over by our military. “It had a beautiful rotunda with a huge crystal chandelier and the palace was all marble. The detail and the artwork in the marble was really nice.”

A captain with the U.S. Army Reserves, Casper was called to active duty in April 2006. “I had to do some pre-training in New York City, then I went to Camp Atterbury in Indiana, then to Kuwait and Iraq.”

He served in Iraq from August 2006 to July 31, 2007. During that time, he was stationed at Logistical Staging Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. “I was pretty isolated where I was stationed,” he said.

He was only away from his post two times during that year.

Although he was trained as a medical service corps officer in a hospital unit in Lexington, Ky., he was cross-leveled as a transportation officer with a Reserve unit from New York City when he went to Iraq. “My job title in Iraq was movement control operations officer,” he said. “I was assigned to the Highway Traffic Division of the Movement Control Battalion.”

Casper said he was responsible for planning, processing and executing ground movement control operations of all classes of supplies throughout Iraq. “I never had any training for what I did in Iraq. I was surprised with the role that I was put in, but it all worked out in the end,” he said.

The base where he was stationed was in the Sunni Triangle and had indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a movie theatre. “We didn’t get to use them much,” he said. “We worked seven days a week and at least 12 hours a day.”

Casper praised the dedication of the soldiers serving in Iraq. “There are so many men and women who put their life on the line every day,” he said. “Some soldiers have gone there more than once.”

He said the hardest part of his deployment was being away from his family for a year. “Losing a year away from my family was the hardest thing for me. My wife is the rock of the family. She did a wonderful job while I was away.”

He and his wife, Tammy, have three children, Danielle, 19, a Milford High School graduate and a sophomore at the University of Kentucky; William, a freshman at Milford High School; and Phillip, a seventh-grader at Milford Junior High School.

Casper said he was relieved when he came home from Iraq, but it was not as easy as he expected. “It was like a big weight lifted off my shoulders, but the transition back to civilian life was more difficult than I thought it would be.”

While Casper said he doesn’t want to go back to Iraq, he would if he is called again to active duty. “I think the United States is doing the right thing in helping the Iraqi people,” he said.

Casper, who has served over 14 years in the U.S. Army with both active and reserve service, earned the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq.