That was what he had been calculating. He would have been surprised if Maria had not seen some combat in person. Some soldiers were trained to stand properly in line and run kilometers in a row. Bootcamp soldiers. Then there were the ones who'd been out in the field and the front lines. So he knew there had to be at least one conflict likely within the last decade.
It didn't matter what they called it these days. A battle was a battle. People went in on orders, people killed and were killed on orders. None of it was pretty.
Some might have scoffed at Maria, told her what they'd seen in gory details from the trenches, how many bodies were being scraped off the fields after the crows had picked at them. Some might have boasted that they could handle whatever news she had. Steve didn't, but he looked more resigned than dreading.
He was also feeling stupid for his naiveness. He thought he'd stop Hydra, they'd win the war, and people would do all they could to avoid such a conflict again, that they would learn from the horror and the world would get better. Instead the United States had just focused on other regions, like it couldn't stop now. He'd been fighting to put an end to the world being at war, and somehow he hadn't thought about what would come after, too busy trying to end what was in front of him then.
On the other side of it, he'd also never considered being anything but a soldier since he started.
"You started training much younger than I did," he noted to Maria. He stood, giving her a respectful nod. "That means you have years more experience than me at being a soldier, especially with modern warfare. I'm not trying to excuse the rudeness of my question from earlier... I'm just glad it's another soldier telling me all of this." A quick look down, again that resigned look. "I'm going to get some water, and some black coffee before we continue." He head toward the door. "...I have a feeling I'm going to need it."