Covington County native Maj. Michael Tomberlin told hundreds of residents gathered to honor veterans Tuesday morning that serving in Afghanistan gave him a new perspective.

“It’s impossible to look at it the same way again,” Tomberlin said. “When you spend time in other countries, particularly in a war-torn, poor country like Afghanistan, it changes your perspective.”

Tomberlin, whose civilian job is reporting for The Birmingham News, said that he vowed before returning stateside to never complain about cell phone service, the weather, or traffic ever again.

Tomberlin said if he could “bottle one thing” and distribute it to others so that they, too, could benefit from what he learned, it would be that perspective, adding that he had to travel to the “other side of the world” before he could truly appreciate all that it means to be an American.

Tomberlin spent his early years in Opp and graduated from Andalusia High School in 1987. While serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, he blogged about his experiences in Afghanistan on www.al.com. His blog was “Yellow Hammering Afghanistan.”