The commander of the Maryland-based Army Reserves company at the center of the Iraqi prison scandal said he is leaving the military with regrets that his unit's good work has been overshadowed. Capt. Donald J. Reese, of New Stanton, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, said he received a letter of reprimand for leadership missteps at Abu Ghraib prison and may be called to testify at trial. He does not face criminal charges. Seven of the 180 soldiers under his command are facing charges in connection with abuse of detainees at the notorious prison near Baghdad. On Tuesday, Reese spoke about the frustration of spending 18 months in Iraq doing what he considered good work, only to find much of it overlooked. "We were there to help rebuild," he said. That work has been overshadowed, Reese said, by the charges against the seven members of his unit. The behavior shown in the photos taken at Abu Ghraib -- showing physical torture and sexual humiliation -- did not reflect his unit's military training, he said. The 372nd was relieved of its police training detail and was sent to the Baghdad prison with just 10 days' notice, Reese added. It was not a duty the unit had planned on or trained for. In October the company learned "we're not going home. We're going to Baghdad. We're going to be prison guards," he said. Two weeks ago -- more than six months after the prison scandal came to light -- the 372nd landed in Fort Lee, Va. Since then, Reese has spent most of his time with his wife, Sue, and their five children -- Michael, 10; Lindsay, 7; Matthew, 4; and twins Joshua and Jeremy, 18 months. In his living room Tuesday, his fatigues replaced by shorts, Reese sipped coffee from a souvenir cup bought at a military PX. It read, "Happiness is Iraq in my rearview mirror." Reese hopes that people will not concentrate on mistakes that were made, but rather keep in mind the bigger picture. His unit, originally assigned to Hilla, Iraq, helped to train police officers there beginning in May 2003. "They had nothing," Reese said, "no equipment, no vehicles. Over time we were able to get cars and radios. We sent them through a police academy and gave them some basic skills. We trained a couple of thousand officers." Unit members became friendly with the local Iraqis. "We were out in the public," he said. "We went to their restaurants. They were typically Shiites and had been treated less than favorably by Saddam (Hussein). They were very happy to have us there." "I had wives of Iraqi police sending me gifts," his wife added, "to thank me for what Don did." Day-to-day living presented challenges. "We lived in a former date-packing factory," Reese said. "The temperature inside was 140 to 150 degrees. We had a few fans, limited generators. The food was bad. We all got dysentery. Some of us lost 20 to 30 pounds. Outside, it was 120 to 130 degrees. We were working shifts, and some of us were trying to sleep during the day." Prison duty Last fall, his unit was ordered to Baghdad, one hour north. At Baghdad Central Detention Facility, also called Abu Ghraib, Reese and the unit guarded prisoners being held in tents on the surrounding grounds, escorted prisoners to court and escorted military personnel. He said he is not permitted to talk specifically about the conduct of the seven soldiers accused in the abuses. But he did discuss his own responsibilities there. Military police, he said, typically don't receive prison-guard training. "I wanted to do another part of the prison," he said, "providing (exterior) security, what we are trained to do. That was only because I would have felt more comfortable. I don't really know prison operations." Reese said he, another captain and a nighttime officer regularly walked the cell blocks. "Some prisoners were totally anti-American, anti-coalition, and they wouldn't hesitate to let you know it," he said. "Others were friendly, more concerned with getting out." One night in mid-December, Reese said he was awakened and told to go see his supervisor. Already waiting were members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. "I was briefed," Reese said. "I was shown some of the pictures. My initial reaction was that I felt betrayed. ... I was hurt that that went on." Reese said his military training did not include abusive treatment of prisoners. In the future, he said, he would expect the military to review the MP training course. "We were not there to interrogate. We were there to safeguard, house, make sure they were fed," he said. He doesn't understand why none of the prisoners reported the abuse. "No one came forward," he said, "or not to the right person. ... I just can't figure that out. It didn't make any sense." He contends much of the abuse happened early on and over a span of just three days. "All those pictures you people saw on television, 80 percent of that (happened) in one night," he said. Reese is resigned to taking his professional lumps. "When you are in charge of people, you take the good and the bad," he said. "I do not condone their (soldiers') actions. It's not a good thing. ... I don't know what their motivation was." Still active Reese remains on active duty. In three weeks, he and 15 members of his unit will report back to Fort Lee. He will return home on weekends and hopes that by early next year he can return to work as a window-blind salesman. Reese, who enlisted in the Army in 1985, had planned on serving 10 more years in the reserves. Now, he said, "I'm getting out." Without elaborating, he said he intended to leave the military behind after having served 20 years. Eighteen months away from his family -- not to mention hot showers, flush toilets and electricity -- were enough. Family milestones occurred while he was gone, from the twins learning to walk to Lindsay mastering her bicycle. The twins, infants when he left, were shy around him, he said, "for about an hour." Tuesday, he and his wife joked about trying to tell the boys apart. Jeremy, his father pointed out, has a tiny mole on his face. The family has stayed close to home. On Saturday they held a party for their Chanticleer neighborhood. Yellow ribbons still decorated mailboxes and lamp posts Tuesday. "They've been tremendous," Reese said of his neighbors. "It made it easier for me when I was away, knowing that if Sue needed anything, they would help out." He also appreciates the military's vocal support of the 372nd. "It's tough to overcome," he said. "The stigma is there." But other than a few soldiers who made what he called "wrong choices," he maintains the unit's work is worth defending. Most important, he said, is that despite more than 100 mortar attacks and regular encounters with roadside bombs, the unit suffered no casualties. "We brought everybody back home safe," Reese said.

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