LYNWOOD — A 1985 graduate of Lynwood High School has plenty of stories to tell about the year he spent in Afghanistan providing medical training for members of the Afghan National Police Force.

In an interview this week, Army Reserve Capt. Kenneth Singleton reflected on his experiences in the war-torn country, from having to eat meat that had been left sitting out for some time in order to gain the Afghan people’s trust and other eye-opening adventures he had during his tour of duty.

“The experience that being in the military gives you, you can’t get anywhere else,” Singleton said. “You get exposed to so many opportunities. … It makes you think about what you want to do with your life and it makes you appreciate what you have.

“It opens your eyes. Being in the military, you get to travel to countries that don’t have what we have in this country. … Things like water and a state of police. … Everybody has their problems, but in other countries, crime is rampant … it’s not like anything we’ve ever seen here. People don’t realize how nice it is to be able to walk around in a stable neighborhood, where there are trees and streets to walk through.”

Singleton said he is happy to be back in the community that raised him and is now raising his own family here. A father of six, he is the food service director and emergency disaster coordinator for the Bassett Unified School District in La Puente in civilian life.

His military career began when he enlisted in the Army while still in school in 1984 under the delayed entry program.

His love for the military was something he inherited from uncles and grandfathers before him who had made the military their lives.

After his stint in the Army ended, he joined the National Guard for six years. During that time he was deployed to the streets of South Los Angeles when civil unrest over the jury verdicts in the Rodney King beating trial erupted into a riot.

Singleton had mixed feelings about that ordeal because he considered himself a part of the community. Aside from watching buildings go up in flames, he said the hardest part of it all was having to point his rifle at “our own citizens, who were just like you and me.”

After leaving the National Guard, he joined the Army Reserve, serving as a company commander for the Combat Support Hospital in Bell prior to his deployment in Afghanistan in February 2008.

“In Afghanistan, there was so much to absorb,” he said.

Hearing about the situation over there in the media or in briefings was nothing compared to what the situation was like when he got there.

“This country is really, really war torn,” he said. “It is evident that they’ve been at war for centuries. Technology has ceased to exist over there … if it ever appeared over there. There’s no infrastructure. There is no refrigeration. There is hardly any vegetation. There are few cars. They live a very, very rudimentary lifestyle over there. … The experience is definitely grounding.”

When he arrived, Singleton said Afghan soldiers were being medically treated under a stairwell with a small table and a few chairs.

By the time he left, Afghan soldiers — through the efforts of the U.S. military and those from 20 other countries — were being treated inside a secure medical facility, that Singleton helped negotiate for via the Afghan Interior Ministry.

“The work out there is a collaborative effort,” Singleton said. “In reality, you’re working out there with 20 or more countries, with soldiers from France, from Germany working alongside with you.”

The efforts there aren’t to simply end the war.

“We’re out there to help restore the country,” he said. “When you look inside Afghanistan people’s eyes, you can see the hopelessness they feel. There is a war going on over there, but there are people over there, a lot of families and children, who want it to stop. They need it to stop so much.”

Upon arriving, Singleton said he could see an uneasiness in people’s eyes whenever soldiers would go into their communities. “It made you feel uncomfortable, as if you were unwelcome,” he said. “But I was out everyday … in danger zones, in harms way, all of us, just trying to improve the lifestyle for them and provide sustainable health care for them — so when it was time for us to leave, it was nice to see those frowns turn to smiles … [people] who were sad to see us leave.”

As far as he sees it, the troop surge in that country is an effective strategy, Singleton said regarding President Barack Obama’s decision to add troops in Afghanistan.

“When I was there, there were 35,000 troops,” Singleton said. “It’s not just us. People don’t talk about the coalition forces that are there. There are soldiers there from England, from Germany … it’s a collaborative effort between countries right now as we speak. So it isn’t just us. We are just a piece of the effort … not to stop the war, but to restore the country. We all helped to build this medical facility, but it was the Germans who brought in tens of thousands of dollars worth of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, so it’s definitely a collaborative effort.”

Though trained to be a first responder and a medical mentor, Singleton also had the opportunity to teach Afghans how to grow corn and wheat.

He said he would love for some of today’s youth to see the things that he saw in Afghanistan, things that he said are life changing.

Being back home, sometimes he pauses when he is talking to people, possibly subconsciously returning to particular experiences that had an affect on him while in Afghanistan. It’s hard not to do, Singleton said.

The saying, “you don’t appreciate what you have, until you don’t have it anymore” now has a new meaning for him.

“In Lynwood, I love something that probably no one ever thinks about appreciating,” Singleton said. “We have good water! I like the way it tastes and we have a lot of vegetation in Lynwood. There are trees everywhere. They don’t have either in Afghanistan.”

Singleton said he once moved to Moreno Valley and decided he liked Lynwood much more. So he and his family moved back.

“You have the freeways right here that connect you to everything,” he said. “I like Lynwood. It’s cohesive and there’s been a tremendous amount of growth. I’ve watched the demographics change over the years and I’ve never had any problems here. As long as I can remember, it’s always been a nice place to live.”

Singleton said that if he’s called back, that he will return to Afghanistan.

“I believe in what the military stands for,” he said. “And I believe in providing the freedoms that we enjoy every single day in this country. I’m proud to be a part of it.”