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POST COACH HAPPY TO BE BACK ON COURSE

October 3, 2007

Courtesy of Joe Palladino, Waterbury Republican-American

WATERBURY, CT - Pete Stevens' work is finished, and he's not looking back. "I don't watch it on TV," he said. "I don't get involved with the political debate about it. It was my job. It was my duty. And now I am done with that."

But the 49-year-old Post University golf coach does allow himself to remember a few things about his 15-month military stay in Kuwait and Iraq.

"I remember that we tried to set up a driving range over there," he said with a smile. "It didn't work out too well, though. I remember the gifts and packages we received from Americans. The support was incredible. I remember the correspondences I received from a secondgrade class in West Haven. They would send me stacks of drawings and pictures and jokes."

He remembers his flight back home, when the pilot announced that he was returning from duty in Iraq, and the plane erupted into applause. And he remembers when he stepped back on American soil, back to a green and plush country.

"Just to see the trees and the grass again, and the air smelled so sweet," he said, turning poetic.

"Maybe for those reasons, it was a good experience for me," he added. "We Americans lead such hectic lives that being away helped me appreciate all that I have."

Now, instead of of rolling through a hot spot in Tikrit in a Humvee, with his hand firmly clasped on the exit handle in case they were hit, he is rolling down the fairways of Crestbrook Park in a golf cart, coaching the Post golf team again and reacquainting himself with life in these United States.

"He's the one who recruited me," said Post captain Lee Wanklyn from the U.K. "He drew me in. I spoke to him on the phone, and I knew I wanted to play for this guy."

And now that he's back?

"There's a presence about him," Wanklyn added. "He doesn't talk about his experiences in Iraq, but as I say, he has a presence. We know it's there."

It is a new presence, in some ways. Stevens has always had a military carriage about him. He should, he has spent 12 years serving his country. He could be tightlipped and grim. Not anymore.

Stevens looks relaxed and almost carefree in a golf cart. He stubbed a iron shot in the fairway as he played along with the team, and it didn't faze him. "I was rushing on that shot," he said. "I have to slow it down."

That's what he is trying to do everywhere, not just with his golf swing. He's been back about six weeks. It can take up to three months to readjust to civilian life, he said, to forget the heat, and the smells, and the pressure. He's not working at present, just coaching.

His team finished 10th at the recent ECAC championship. "The other coaches say I am different now," he said. "I'm sure that I will soon be back to my Type-A personality."

For now, he hasn't a care in the world. That's good, because in Iraq, every care and worry imaginable was part of his everyday life.

He worked in intelligence, and he won't, can't get specific about it. He wasn't in what some might call a hot spot, "but the battalion lost a man while I was there, so out of respect for him and his family, I wouldn't say we were safe."

He was told time and again by the men and officers in combat logistics patrol briefings that "we feel safe after your briefings. Mine were some of the best intelligence briefings they had. If that helped bring men home safe to their families, then I am satisfied. That is what I took away from this experience."

He called it a life and an experience that a civilian "could never imagine. You wake up everyday and everyday was Monday. You do your job. No days off. No rest. No recreation.

"Then you add in the combat."

No more combat. Just life at home with his wife, his kids, his dog and, of course, with his golf team.

He came back from a land that was brown and hot, with foul-smelling air and fear and despair all around, to a place that is green and fat and happy.

"When you're away from it, you miss it," he said. He doesn't plan on missing it ever again.