Armand Cucciniello of East Hanover is a witness to history. The 28-year-old Seton Hall prep graduate is a press officer at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, working for the State Department.

He is a important source for the dozens of reporters covering the conflict. For more than a year and a half he has lived and worked in the Green Zone, the protected area of the city, which includes the American embassy and the main palaces of Saddam Hussein.

Last week, Cucciniello came home for some R&R. What does he miss the most about New  Jersey? He is blunt: “Feeling safe and secure.” But like many who face the Iraq conflict on a daily basis, he also finds it hard to let go. “It’s always on my mind,” he told us, from the living room of his parent’s comfortable home.

To say Cucciniello has a stressful job is a bit of an understatement. The Green Zone, while fortified by the military, has come under frequent attack. The quantity of news is enormous, the demands of the press insatiable.  Cucciniello describes his seven-day-a-week-job as  “a race to keep up with what’s going on.“

Cucciniello is poised and seems wise beyond his years. He acknowledges the impatience and frustration surrounding the war in Iraq — but, perhaps predictably, he advocates patience. Cucciniello talks of a “different side to the war”— the drama that Iraqi civilians face each day, and what could happen to them if the United States withdraws too quickly.

As for his time off, Cucciniello plans to travel and visit friends before returning to Iraq in two weeks.

He says, “As crazy as it may sound, it’s home now. Home is where you put your head.”