BELLAIRE — As a seemingly typical guy who had no real plans after graduating high school, Christian Carter Fields took a few courses at the University of Akron.

But the Bellaire native soon determined he wanted more.

He found it in the U.S. Army, when what seemed like it would be a three- to six-year enlistment turned into a 20-year career — including a two-year stint with the 101st Screaming Eagles.

He joined up in 2002, not long after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which he said influenced his entry into the military.

There were other reasons for enlisting, such as wanting to get away from the area where he grew up to experience something else. His brief stint at Akron U just didn’t fullfill that need and, after he crossed paths with a buddy who influenced him, he signed on.

“He talked me into going in and he got out after three years,” he said of that friend, adding that the money he earned was good and that meeting new people is what kept him going. He said he is content with his decision to leave the military, despite the timing of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

“But I don’t feel like the United States is going to get too involved in it,” Fields said, speculating that the U.S. will only be providing aid from a distance. And that’s just fine by him after he put in three tours in Iraq and saw combat each time.

During Fields’ first time going into Iraq, he was stationed in South Korea.

“The Army, they … put different units on rotation and stuff so you go over for a year and then you have to be back for at least six months before they send you again,” Fields said, adding that three tours were not a lot compared to others who were deployed much more often than him.

“I didin’t get a whole lot of sleep out there, I’ll tell you that much,” he said of his deployments to Iraq. Some of his missions focused on clearing improvised explosive devices. Not all of them were readily detected, and some in his convoy triggered their share o bombs.

“The three times I went there was a lot of IED explosions as we were driving down the road,” he described. “It wasn’t fun but it was good pay while I was over there.”

Fields said the enemy became adept at placing IEDs where the Americans couldn’t always find them, with some being 10 feet under the road and covered by concrete.

The reception of the people was good, he said – at least by the ones who weren’t trying to kill the American soldiers. Some Iraqis would invite them in for tea or bread and were genuinely happy the Americans were there, he said.

“There was quite a few times we’d have like people that really supported us being there and they loved us over there, and they’d invite us into their homes sometimes, give us their bread to eat …” Christian said. “There was some good people there.”

And yes, he lost friends.

“Yeah, I lost quite a few,” he said. “There were sad times over that.”

Fields said the Army has changed and is not as “intense” as it was when he first joined. He doesn’t feel that soldiers are as prepared for war as they once were. He said that was one of the reasons he wanted to get out of the military. He said politics and the edge taken off preparedness turned him off. And he said the military isn’t immune to taking political sides, because that’s what he was seeing within the ranks.

Fields hasn’t been back in Bellaire long enough to really compare the community to when he left, except for the fact that he said he noticed a lot fewer people in the area now. He did manage to come back home about twice per year for visits while he was serving.

“A lot of people I went to school with moved to either Pittsburgh or Columbus area,” Fields said.

Fields retired as an instructor, sergeant 1st class, and his plans are to move to West Palm Beach, Florida, to study golf management at Keiser University College of Golf for a career in groundskeeping and the manicuring of golf courses.

Fields looks back and, without hesitation, says is glad he joined the military.

“I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t,” he said.