[SR-25]

By Gale Rose of the Tribune Staff
Some would think that a military man who is getting close to 60 would be retired or getting ready to retire and enjoy his life in the United States.

For Command Sgt. Major George Stevens, getting to serve his country overseas for the first time was a goal that became a reality when his National Guard unit went on active duty for 10 months and served in Bosnia and Herzegovina from March to September 2003. And he did it at age 57.

"A lot of people thought I was crazy to go over at my age," Stevens said. "I did well."

Four months of the 10-month deployment of the 35th Division Artillery, which is based in Hutchinson, were spent preparing at Fort Riley and in Germany, Stevens said.

Stevens served at Eagle Base in the center of Bosnia, which is located on the north shore of the Adriatic Sea across from Italy. Bosnia is bordered on the north, west and south by Croatia, and on the east by Yugoslavia.

His unit was one of several serving peacekeeping missions in Bosnia including forces from Russia, Australia and Canada.

Serving in Bosnia has some built-in risks by itself, but Stevens job added another element of danger. He was responsible for the accountability and security of ammunition storage sites. And there was lots of ammunition to secure.

Two million rounds of ammunition was left over from the war and Stevens unit was responsible for every piece right down to the serial numbers, Stevens said.

Storage sites were located close to towns and schools. Those sites were being cleared and ordinance destroyed or moved to sites that would not cause a problem if an explosion occurred.

Dynamite was especially dangerous to handle. If the dynamite powder is sweating through the stick of dynamite, it is highly unstable and should not be touched, Stevens said.

Weapons are being gathered and destroyed. Over 200,000 weapons are being gathered to be melted down, sold for steel or blown up. A very low tech method is used to destroy weapons. The weapon is placed on a curb then a tank drives over the weapon and bends it so it can't be used again. These weapons include rifles, machine guns and pistols.

Some ordinance is destroyed by blowing it up. Using a powerful plastic explosive called C-4, the ordinance is reduced to powder.

"When we blow it up it's ashes to ashes, dust to dust," Stevens said.

Because of the danger of the explosion hurling shrapnel, the explosion is detonated by remote control, sometimes as much as two miles from the explosion site, Stevens said.

The demolition teams work is strenuous and Stevens ordered a demolition team from Florida to take Easter weekend off to have some time to relax. Demolition teams serve on a rotation basis and some will also serve in Iraq.

Even more dangerous than the ordinance stockpiles are mines. During the war, which ran from April 1992 to December 1995, over two million anti tank and anti personnel mines were set out all over Bosnia and accurate location records were not kept. Since the end of the war, special teams have been locating and removing mines but the teams are few and only have a few members.

Only two or three teams are working on the problem and they can only work in the summer because the ground is unstable in the winter which could cause a worker to accidently set off mine.

So far an estimated one million mines have been removed leaving another one million to be discovered and removed. Stevens heard that at the rate mines are being found by the teams available it would take 97 years to find them all, Stevens said.

The mines are everywhere. While he was in Bosnia, a mother and two of her children were killed when they walking in their front yard and set off a mine.

Part of Stevens duties was mine education. His unit put on mine awareness classes to teach people what to look for and what to do if they found a mine. "We're doing everything we could to help those people," Stevens said. "If there was anything on the ground that looks suspicious, we told them to leave it alone."

Mines are made of different materials and have to be handled with different equipment. Probes are made of plastic and metal including titanium probes.

"We teach people how to use those and hope it will help them get out safely," Stevens said.

Red triangle signs were in place all over the country to warn people of ordinance and mines. Signs with UXO warned of unexploded ordinance and mine areas were marked with signs reading Mine MNHE.

If people can avoid the stores of ordinance and the mines, they have another dangerous element to avoid, drivers. Many of the roads in Bosnia are narrow paved roads and drivers are dangerous often passing on curves.

Stevens had time for some activities outside of his regular duty. He participated in a 30 kilometer road march along with 250. Each participant had to carry an additional 30 pounds of equipment during the march was 18.5 miles.

Of the 250 participants, Stevens finished the course in the top 25.

He also took time to travel to Budapest, Hungary, for some sight seeing.

Members of Stevens unit went to a school and took pencils, paper, crayons and erasers. The reaction was overpowering.

"Those kids and teachers thought it was Christmas," Stevens said. "That's why were over there. To give our kids an opportunity to grow up in a peaceful environment."

Stevens unit was part of S 4 13, the thirteenth rotation to serve in Bosnia since the end of the war in 1995. Each rotation in Bosnia has worked to eliminate more weapons, Stevens said.

Stevens began his military career in Pratt with 161 B Battery Field artillery.

Stevens was raised in the Pratt area from the age of one. The lived on a farm south of town until 1951 until his dad Don Stevens started Stevens Construction. In 1962, when he was a sophomore in high school, Stevens started working for his father and eventually took over the business and continues that to this day.

After serving almost 40 years in the Army, his biggest challenge is keeping up with the changes. Stevens is proud of his service record and his country.

"I like serving my country. It's a unique job, you meet good people. I like being around soldiers," Stevens said. "It's been good. I'm proud to be an American soldier."