AK worker turns to Army, again
Saturday, May 17, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — When Steve Charles was locked out of AK Steel Corp. in February of 2006, he got what he thought was a brilliant idea.
Join the U.S. Army. Again.
Extras
Columnist Rick McCrabbWhat Charles, 42, of Middletown, forgot to realize was that since he left the Army in 1998, the military changed and he aged.
"It was a lapse in reason," he said Friday, May 16, with a laugh.
Nearly one year after he re-enlisted in the Army, Charles was deployed to Iraq. The bachelor went from living on Ellen Drive, working as a water dispatcher at AK since 2000, to fighting for his life in the 1st Infantry Division.
"It's not the same as I remember."
After graduating from Middletown High in 1984, he joined the Ohio National Guard in Middletown. He joined active duty in 1990, and served as an intelligence analyst for eight years.
He started working at AK in October 1998, and joined the National Guard military police for two years.
He's back in Middletown, visiting his parents, Tom and Nancy Charles, for three weeks, then reporting back to Fort Riley, Kan.
On Sunday, Charles will be honored at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The Sunday School students there have been writing and sending care packages to Charles.
"It's time to pay them back," he said.
He signed a three-year contract with the Army that will expire in nine months, but he's concerned the Army will deploy him to Iraq where he will serve an additional 12- or 15-month deployment. Then he'd be assigned for 90 days of post-deployment duty.
That three-year contract could stretch to nearly five years.
"That has happened to a lot of people," he said.
He was deployed to Iraq on Feb. 4, 2007 — Super Bowl Sunday — and returned to Middletown on April 11.
When asked to describe those 14 months, Charles said: "It sucks over there as you can imagine."
In other words, it's no fun when the enemy is trying to kill you. And don't believe all the news reports about the improved conditions for our military in Iraq.
"It never was safe," he said. "It's just less dangerous."
That's because insurgents set up remote-control roadside bombs and then detonate them as American troops patrol during the morning.
"Man, it's frustrating," Charles said. "They blow up our vehicles, and when we get out to fight, there is nobody to catch or fight. You are fighting nobody."
He said some of the bombs are found, but it's like the war on drugs: "For every one you catch, two get through," he said. "No matter what you hear, nothing explains what's going on over there unless you see it first hand."
He hopes he has seen the last of Baghdad, but he doesn't really "see an end."
Contact this columnist at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
