FARGO (AP) - Amber Rolph's training in the North Dakota Air National Guard prepared her for feeding an army and serving as innkeeper to hundreds of soldiers.

But the job the 25-year-old is most proud of is one she never expected.

Rolph, a staff sergeant in the Guard's 119th Wing in Fargo, volunteered for deployment last year. In September, she was sent to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic.

The base serves as a refueling stop between Afghanistan and the United States, and sometimes arriving planes carry remains of soldiers killed in action.

While they are on the ground, the remains are treated with particular care and respect, a job people volunteer for, but not all are able to stick with.

Rolph, whose normal duties involved organizing recreation on the base, decided she would give mortuary service a try.

The task was far from easy, especially in the beginning.

"I was nervous. I was afraid. I don't know if surreal is the right word," Rolph said, describing her first experience with a casualty of war.

It was the job of base firefighters to pick up a soldier's remains from the plane and transport them to the mortuary, where Rolph was waiting.

"They bring it (the transport case) to our tent, and we have a small ceremony," Rolph said.

"The chaplain says a prayer, then everybody leaves and the mortuary work starts," she said.

The first task is to carefully remove the flag draping the transport case and fold it.

Then, the case is opened and the body is removed for cleaning.

Afterward, the body is put back in its transport case and refrigerated until the plane flying it home is ready to leave.

Just before it is placed back on the plane, the body is cleaned one more time and packed in ice.

"After my first one, I did have a dream. A nightmare," Rolph said. "Some of them were really difficult."

The personal effects that travel with a soldier's remains are particularly touching, she said.

"You'd see prom pictures and pictures of their kids. That was hard," said Rolph, who returned in January to her 119th Wing services unit in Fargo.

Rolph said that while in Kyrgyzstan, her mortuary services group of about 10 members took care of the remains of 30 soldiers and two civilian contractors.

As difficult as the work is, Rolph said, she came close to losing her composure only once.

"He died on Thanksgiving," Rolph said, describing a young Mandaree soldier (Cpl. Nathan Goodiron) whose background was revealed in the paperwork accompanying his remains.

"We had to check that all the signatures were signed, the death certificate was there, all the personal belongings," Rolph said.

"And then I saw 'North Dakota.' It was just too close to home," she said. She considered sending the soldier's family a card.

"I should have," she said.

The mortuary work was done in her off hours, but Rolph didn't mind the duty.

"I felt proud to do it because it is an important job and somebody has to do it," she said.

Not everyone is cut out for such work, said Capt. Penny Ripperger, Rolph's commander at the time of her deployment.

"Not only did Amber volunteer for this mission, but she was the first to raise her hand to do an important duty that many people would not be able to handle," Ripperger said.

Rolph now works at the Humane Society in Fargo and as a barista at Starbucks.

Chatting in her Fargo apartment while her small Yorkshire terrier, Brady, chewed on some toys, Rolph said her experiences in the Guard have been the best of her life. She recently signed up for another six-year hitch.

She's also considering volunteering for another deployment, but figures she'll wait a year or so.

Globe-trotting is nothing new for Rolph, a native of the eastern North Dakota town of Alice and a 2000 graduate of Enderlin High School.

As an exchange student in high school, Rolph lived with a family in a small village in Italy.

"It was a great experience. I wanted to move to Italy," said Rolph, who has made several return trips to the country.

She signed up with the Guard after high school, and her unit was activated immediately after Sept. 11, 2001. She had no clue where the military would send her when she volunteered to be deployed.

"We were thinking anywhere from Guam to Iraq. We were hoping Guam," said Rolph, who had never heard of Kyrgyzstan before being sent there.

"I've changed a lot since Kyrgyzstan. I've grown up a lot. My friends and family tell me that," Rolph said.

Rolph took a long pause when she considered whether the consequences of war have affected her view of world conflicts.

"I know we can't pull out, because it would be worse," she said. "But, it's frustrating to know people are losing their lives."