By Courtney Dentch
No wonder they call him Captain America.
After serving in Afghanistan and the Middle East, Vance Kuhner, a Queens prosecutor and Army Reserve captain, was welcomed back to the borough Tuesday morning by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and his staff.
Kuhner, 30, from Bellerose, is a captain in the 800th Military Police Brigade under the Army Reserves. Since being shipped out in January, he had been working with detainees in Middle Eastern and African countries. Kuhner is assigned to the criminal courts as a prosecutor and was given the nickname “Captain America” by his fellow ADAs.
His brigade was moved around a lot to help maintain the military prisons established by U.S. forces.
“I’ve been to every ‘-stan’ known to man,” Kuhner said of the countries like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. “I went to Djibouti. I didn’t even know there was a country called Djibouti until I got there.”
The mission had special meaning for Kuhner, who lost a close friend – Firefighter Mark Whitford – in the World Trade Center attacks. Kuhner wears a memorial bracelet in honor of his friend and spent several days at Ground Zero after Sept. 11, he said.
“To go from seeing the devastation the terrorists wrought on New York City to basically defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan — it really brought a lot of closure for me,” Kuhner said.
Before he was sent overseas, Kuhner bounced back and forth between his job as a prosecutor and Reserve assignments in New Orleans and Atlanta.
Kuhner thanked his co-workers for the support they showed in the e-mails, letters, and packages they sent him. “Every time I got a slice of home it meant a lot to me.”
On Tuesday morning, Brown was honored for supporting Kuhner’s service in the Reserves. He received the Patriot Award from the Employee Support to the Guard and Reserve, an organization comprised of current and former members of the military who recognize employers for their support of the armed forces.
“This is in recognition for the continued support of the prosecutor while he wears our proud uniform,” Employee Support Chairman Phil Nater said in making the presentation.
This was the first time an employee from the Queens district attorney’s office has had to take a leave of absence for military duty, Brown said.
“This is an opportunity for us to tell him how proud we are of him,” Brown said. “He’s been asked to disrupt his life and travel around the world to defend his country.”
Kuhner’s brigade maintained the prisons the Army established and kept order among the detainees.
“We treated them humanely, like we treat prisoners here in the United States,” Kuhner said. “We treated them with a certain amount of dignity whether they deserve it or not.”
Spending time in Afghanistan has given Kuhner a new perspective on his job as a prosecutor.
“You don’t appreciate how important our job is until you go to a country like Afghanistan where they have no laws,” he said. “Over there, justice comes at the end of a stick. If you’re accused, you’re pretty much guilty.”
But Kuhner said he witnessed progress, especially in the treatment of women and girls. The Army, for instance, helped set up schools for girls to learn to read and write, he said.
“If you give them an education, it’s more difficult to take away their rights,” Kuhner said. “It’s wonderful to see these girls sitting in a field learning after you just cleared that field for mines.”
The assistant district attorney said he sees potential in the new Afghan government taking shape, complete with a criminal justice system.
“They are a wonderful people and that country could be a great place,” he said. “They are going in the right direction. It just needs time.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
