A "train wreck of a young man" is the way Zach Hudson describes himself between the ages of 15 and 19. He wasn't making good decisions back then, he said recently.

The 23-year-old has just returned from Afghanistan after serving 16 months in the Army as a front line medic in an infantry unit.

In a "remote, austere" and mountainous region of that war torn country, where Hudson has seen firsthand the brutality of the Taliban and the human condition magnified by the ongoing conflict, the W.P. Davidson High School graduate, nevertheless, speaks of personal redemption.

"Redeeming myself and making my family proud" is what the decorated soldier has brought home to Alabama from the "Ranch House," the firebase in Nuristan in northern Afghanistan, where Hudson and 35 other infantrymen served, the first Americans in the region.

"I've done something you can't take away from me. You may not like Bush, the Army or the war, (but) you have to respect what I've done."

Hudson is the son of Bobby Hudson, who lives on Baldwin County Road 4 in Gulf Shores, and Annie Davies of Mobile. He has a brother, Brett, and two sisters, Taylor and Christin.

What Hudson did during his tour in Afghanistan is treat a lot of trauma, including chest wounds, gunshot wounds, amputations and wounds to the extremities from shrapnel. The latter came by and large from rockets and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

But he also treated a lot of locals as well, especially children. Hudson said "poor parenting" by the locals resulted in such injuries to children as burns and falls from rooftops. He has seen a lot of poor hygiene in the locals, as well as skin diseases and infections.

And he has treated wounded Taliban. Asked if the Taliban showed any gratitude for his medical efforts on their behalf, Hudson said no.

"They would rather I'd shot 'em," he said of the enemy wounded.

While Hudson said less fear is found in Afghanistan today now that the Taliban have been ousted, he paints a bleak picture of the war.

"The war as a whole, it's like a problem we're throwing money at. Are we going to win altogether? No."

The Afghan people don't want McDonald's, Hudson said, although they might covet a couple of the "niceties" Americans have.

"I think Americans get caught up on us having to westernize everybody," said the soldier who was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star during his tour of duty with the 132nd Infantry Battalion, which he calls the "cream of counterinsurgency."

There is no question about the bonds Hudson forged with his fellow soldiers in that mountainous region of approximately 7,400 feet, where the Americans spent "a lot of nights under the stars … (in a) sandbag house.

"Nothing could come between any of us, ever," he said.

Back in the states only a few weeks now, Hudson said, while he isn't plagued with nightmares, he wakes up in a "heightened state of alert." He thinks about what he saw and experienced in Afghanistan every day.

With only five months left in the military, Hudson, whose late grandfathers were in the military, plans on going to nursing school in the future and getting a degree.

In referring to the potential pressures of classes and schoolwork, he said, "There's very few things that can stress me out now."

Hudson hopes American citizens will do anything and everything to encourage American soldiers stationed in faraway places like Afghanistan. And he urges Americans on another front as well: "Appreciate what you have … . America is the greatest place on earth."