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BY CLARK D. CARR

Mid-January 1996, after months and months of preparations in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Centers in Germany, and additional weeks packing and loading, our Task Force, the 4th Battalion of the 12th Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, boarded the buses from Baumholder to Tazar, Hungary, where we would receive our vehicles and equipment. We prepared to head south crossing the floating bridge at the Sava River into Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). We would leave our home station and families in Germany, bound for the unknown and equipped for the worst.

What we found amongst the forests and fields, which were riddled with mines and hasty mass burials of innocents, were largely the vacant faces of those tired and weary of the brutality of war.

Evil, in full force, had struck a mighty blow deep into the soul of the Bosnian people, whether Croat (Catholic), Serb (Orthodox) or Bosniac (Muslim). The blood drenched soil cried out in despair as the NATO forces implemented a semblance of peace to a traumatized land.

When we left 11 months later, there was no more fighting, but it would take another dozen years before our military presence was no longer required.

Some 15 years later, I returned to BiH on a different mission. This time no 72-ton tanks or 35-ton infantry fighting vehicles; no cots or tents, sleeping bags or heaters were needed. This time I flew into Sarajevo Airport and was taken to a pleasant hotel downtown (just around the corner from where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, prompting World War I).

The Maryland National Guard has a Partnership for Peace relationship with the Armed Forces of BiH. We work with the Ministry of Defense (MOD) to cultivate, in their forces, our best practices. Our mission on this visit was to share with them how we reintegrate our soldiers back into their families and communities upon their return from combat.

We worked with the staff from their Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and MOD, which included a psychologist, lawyer and many officers and NCOs who had once served in their respective armies during the war.

Five years ago, they wore three different uniforms (Croat, Serb, Bosniac); now they all wear the same uniform. Recently, because of their vast experience in clearing mines from their own countries, they deployed experts to places like Iraq, where they become a part of the great demolition effort there. They have adequate procedures for deploying their troops, but nothing in place for their return home.

They were eager to hear from our Maryland Team, composed of the Joint Forces Headquarters Chaplain, myself and a flight surgeon (who double hats as head of Maryland's reintegration program), what we are doing to effectively resource our returning soldiers. After three days of training, they were coming up with their own strategies to implement a similar program for their soldiers and families.

What was remarkable for me is the difference peace makes. Fifteen years ago, I had no problem relating and working with the religious leaders or the people of any of the factions, but the difficulty was getting the factions to come together at the same table. Today, those who once fought each other as enemies now gather around the same table in a cooperative spirit, working together for the common good.

The vacant empty faces in the street now have expression, life and animation once more. I expressed my thanksgiving to God to them as we finished our training, telling how seeing them together warmed my heart and gave me great joy.

An email message from one of their senior brigadiers to me said, "I'm now a richer man, I met good people and learned new values. May God keep and greet Maryland."

We may not get everything right as a nation or military, but there are some things Jesus gets right despite ourselves and for this I thank the Prince of Peace for bringing peace to the hearts and souls of the Bosnian people.

Rev. Clark D. Carr is pastor of Grace UMC in Hagerstown and Deputy Joint Forces Headquarters Chaplain, Maryland Army National Guard.