Three SIUC employees called to active duty to aid the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina returned to Southern Illinois Thursday.

Two of the employees say they are glad to say goodbye to the long hours and hard work required by their active-duty jobs.

Lt. Col. William Patula, a professor in Mathematics; Capt. Jonathan Newman, an assistant professor in Zoology; and Pat Cook, from General Stores, as well as the rest of the 347th Personal Replacement Battalion, U.S. Army Reserves, returned from Fort Benning, Ga. Thursday.

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Patula said his battalion was mobilized Dec. 18 and members returned at different times on Thursday. He said battalion members could go home Thursday night but would have to work half a day today to unpack. He said they will then be allowed to take a couple days leave.

Patula said the troops at Fort Benning worked very hard, sometimes 24 hours a day. He said they processed paperwork and prepared soldiers for the trip to Bosnia.

He said there were some nights when he did not get any sleep because by the time he got one of the soldiers taken care of and on the plane to Bosnia, it was time to start the day all over again.

Capt. John Newman, the battalion’s operations officer, said he worked 14, 16 and 18-hour days for seven days a week while the battalion was mobilized. He said the battalion proved to the Army that reserve units are needed.

Newman said although he did not deal directly with individual soldiers, it bothered him to see the soldiers in the news. He said the battalion was in charge of processing soldiers from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and civilians.

You watch the news and see wounded soldiers, and you wonder did we send these people over there? Newman said.

Patula said that although the Bosnia situation is not like Desert Storm where the soldiers were going into combat, the thought that a soldier they processed might not make it back is on all of their minds.

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Anytime a service member is injured, you feel bad, he said.

We appreciated the support of the community, and Southern Illinois made a major contribution to the peace-keeping mission.

He said he is glad to be back and probably will return to SIUC on Monday. He said he knows of no plans for his battalion to be mobilized again.

It was like basic training, Patula said. It was nice to go through it the first time, but you don’t want to do it again.

Newman said he is looking forward to sleeping and then picking up his wife and daughter, who stayed with his parents during the mobilization, from the airport today to celebrate his homecoming.

He said he will return to work on Monday to attend an organizational meeting for a graduate course he is teaching.

I have to get right back into it, he said. It’s nice to teach when students are looking forward to it.

Cook could not be reached for comment.