There's no place like home ...

MILLERTON — He may not be a native son of the village of Millerton, but William Campbell, grandson of lifelong resident John Campbell, is probably as close to it as one can get. The Army captain has been visiting his grandfather this past week with his young family, fresh from a 12-month deployment in Afghanistan. He is, understandably, glad to be back in the United States.

“I was really excited to come back home,� he said. Home is in Fort Lewis, Wash., where Campbell is stationed. “I got to come home to a 4-month-old baby and a wife. I was really excited.�

“This was his first deployment and we had just gotten married,� said his wife, Katheryn. “I had gotten into a routine without him and now it’s an adjustment to get into a routine with him. But it’s nice to have him home, that’s for sure.�

Soon after returning home, the 28-year-old military man packed up his wife and their baby, Grayson, and headed east, to visit Grandpa John in Millerton.

“It makes me proud,� said John Campbell, who himself served in the naval reserves for 12 years during the Korean conflict. “It makes me feel better yet when they get home.�

The Campbell family is accustomed to military risks. William’s parents were both in the Armed Forces and raised him at bases around the world. He spent the majority of his formative years at a military base in Indianapolis, Ind. After college he said he felt compelled, that it was his “duty,� to join the Army. He made sure, however, that the tradition of visiting his grandfather in New York remained routine even after he enlisted.

“I love coming out to Millerton,� he said. “When we are home we try to come out once a year. It’s one of my favorite things to do because it’s so relaxing. Sometimes we would get to come for a couple of weeks when I was younger, now though it’s usually just week-long trips.�

Memories and anticipation both made Campbell look forward to such visits while he was overseas. But there was not always time for such thoughts, as his missions demanded his full attention and preparation.

“We were trained well, so I wasn’t really surprised about anything we had to deal with,� he said. “If I had to say anything was a big surprise, it would be our focus, which was more on the developmental stage than on security. We were in Afghanistan at a border town, and we ended up building up that border to make preparations for the surge, and for all the equipment and vehicles going through that town. We helped build up facilities for the Afghans and trained them how to operate the border facilities, which were like customs here in the U.S. for us.�

Campbell said one difficulty was working through translators, who were “very proud� of their culture; the U.S. forces tried hard not to offend those translators during their dealings. Being so immersed in Afghanistan, however, helped, he said, as one “can’t train for that,� any other way.

Living conditions were poor, initially, as when arriving at any war zone. His troop was first sent to a central hub at the Kandahar air field in southern Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban. It was overtaxed with too many soldiers and not enough room.

“The accommodations were kind of poor,� Campbell said. Then his outfit moved to Spin Boldak, in southern Afghanistan. “Then we headed down south and had to build our own base. Once we got there we had a great supply person and headquarters troop commander and eventually had rooms with air conditioners and electricity, so we had great accommodations — better than expected, since initially I thought we would be living in our vehicles for 76 months.�

Campbell said he thought the situation in Afghanistan was “shocking� at first glance, but that it’s getting better daily.

“I would say it’s improving, every day it’s improving,� he said. “We’ve got some great leaders in place to help move us in the right direction. I would like people to know that there’s still a job to be done over there. A lot of people think we don’t need to be there, but the Afghan culture is very poor and there are a lot of struggling villages that don’t have a lot like we do. The police force is very corrupt and untrained. The focus of what we’re doing once we push the Taliban out is we need to train the local police and army, and once they’re ready to go we’ll be ready to leave.

“People think once the Taliban is pushed out we can go, and I think that’s a large misconception,� he added. “They need to at least have a security force out in place so they can secure themselves before we go or in 10 years we’ll be dealing with the same problem.�

And Campbell is ready to do his part to help bring such matters along. After his Millerton visit ends he will return to Fort Lewis for six months and then he will take a captain career course for six months. At that point he will learn where he is stationed next. From there, he said, he hopes to command a company level of 80 to 100 soldiers (while in Spin Boldak he was second in command of a 90-soldier reconnaissance troop).

While there are challenges to being a soldier — “the most frightening part is the threat of attack while on patrol,� according to him — there’s also a reason why those who join the military do so.

“I really think it’s the Army values — honor, integrity, duty — that draw people to join,� he said, adding that his main objective in life these days is to be safely at home watching his children grow up.

But there’s another purpose in William Campbell’s life as an Army captain, too. It’s to pursue a philosophy he holds dear: “The idea of being able to sacrifice for the greater good.�