PITTSBURGH -- While Hines Ward made a much publicized trip to his native Korea, Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive lineman Max Starks quietly visited Afghanistan and some of the world's other hot spots.

Starks said he found a whole new world during his 12-day USO tour.

He visited U.S. military posts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.

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Podcast: Click here to listen to Channel 4 Action Sports reporter Andrew Stockey's full interview with Max Starks.

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"Just to get that experience and see what our troops go through the hardships, they put themselves through, and the day-to-day dangers they put themselves in front of to protect our civil liberties -- I think of that as an awesome thing. I look at it as my opportunity to thank them for what they are doing for us," said Starks.

"I know I felt proud to be an American going to every single base and just the reception that we got and the host of Steelers fans is truly, bar none, it's truly a worldwide recognized name -- the Pittsburgh Steelers," said Starks.

During one stop in Kosovo, Starks met a group of apache chopper pilots from Pennsylvania. The pilots were not shy about showing their Steelers pride to friend or foe.

"It was on the belly pan, so when they do fly-aways you can see the Steelers emblem on the bottom of the apache and when they gave me the opportunity they said 'Max, we want you to sign this,'" said Starks.

Starks said he returned from this 12-day journey a changed man.

"They say football is a 60-minute war. That is definitely not true and at the end of the day my life is not going to be at risk from one bad play as opposed to them -- if they mess up once it could potentially cost them their lives," said Starks.

Starks did not make this journey alone. He traveled with Seattle defensive end, Bryce Fisher.