Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

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Saturday morning began with the holiday parade through the housing area. The day before seemed almost like a memory already. Yet I felt like a deathrow prisoner savoring his last few hours. Noon hit, with the phone ringing again. The rest of the trains would pull out that night, between 2000 and 0200. Again, only five guards per train were required. The remaining soldiers would travel by bus on Tuesday. Saturday night went infinitely better. Amazing what a day of practice will do! It was another long cold night; we finally got home about 0330. I got to celebrate Sunday Mass one last time with the family. Then we spent a quiet day, resigned to a Monday departure. Monday was well organized. The buses were there. However, it was difficult just getting everyone to finish their good-byes and get on the road. Good-byes are so tough! We were finally on our way. The buses were fairly comfortable, at least for the first 6 hours. Power on the MRT went fast, so I found myself scrambling at the rest stops trying to find places to get a charge. The sun set, and we were still on the road, traveling through Austria to Slovenia. At the Slovenian border we encountered our first difficulty in crossing. I remember seeing some young men, locals, who were encouraging us, declaring that only the United States could fix the present situation. The Croatian border was next. We were beginning to close in on Zagreb. When we had left, we were not sure where we would be staying the night. Now it was locked in; we would be staying at the Panorama Hotel. The bus drivers originally stated that they knew where they were going. But now it became apparent that once in Zagreb, they were clueless. We wandered around in two tourist-sized buses, trying to find the Panorama Hotel. Fortunately, because it was 0130 in the morning, there was not a lot of traffic on the streets. It was a bit of a helpless feeling, without phone communications (MRT did not work once we passed the Slovenian border), and without maps. So we wandered about searching for the Panorama. It felt a bit 13
like the Jewish exodus wandering around the Sinai trying to find the promised land. Finally we saw a small sign marked Panorama Hotel and navigated to it. Then the bus drivers figured that the front awning was too low for them to get under, so they parked in the rear of the hotel and wanted all of us to carry all of our bags around the building. There was no rear entrance. After a bit of haggling, they finally reconsidered and got the buses pulled back around. It was now 0230. But we had arrived for our first night in Croatia! SETTLING IN AND INSTALLATIONS The Panorama Hotel was like a class B communist hotel. But it sure beat tents! Of course we had our tents, stoves, latrines, and all the field gear you can imagine coming on the trains. Zagreb was a big city—you cannot imagine camping out in the middle of it. It would be like setting up at Rockefeller Center in New York City with business still going on. Without a reconnaissance and survey of the mission area and customers, we were certainly burdened with a lot of extra equipment. Several of the trains were combined at the border. One of them was already in. The other was due in the next few hours. The trains for Split and Ploce were going straight through to Split, where both would unload. The Ploce team would then road-march to their final destination. So we found ourselves in quite a different type of situation— planning a rail unloading operation after just a wink of sleep in the lobby of a hotel in downtown Zagreb. December 12 dawned early, with cloudy skies and some snow on the ground. There were lots of unknowns and concerns. Topping the list was where we supposed to set up. Our major customers, Implementation Force (IFOR) Headquarters, were in a military compound downtown now called the U.N. compound because that’s where the U.N. had its headquarters and would still operate from until the Transfer of Authority (TOA) to NATO. My S3 Operations Officer, Major 14
Page 1 and 2: WARRIORS IN PEACE OPERATIONS Edited
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
Page 5 and 6: FOREWORD The Personal Experience Mo
Page 7 and 8: seldom practiced. The actual practi
Page 9 and 10: BATTALION COMMAND I assumed command
Page 11 and 12: all training, maintenance, and othe
Page 13 and 14: company training and log efforts, a
Page 15 and 16: the USAREUR staff was thought up an
Page 17: new times. Ops Center at the battal
Page 21 and 22: marvelous job of coordinating the e
Page 23 and 24: it. They did not want us there or n
Page 25 and 26: containers as well. I told him I un
Page 27 and 28: promptly chambered a round in his p
Page 29 and 30: techniques, we found the railhead a
Page 31 and 32: answer. He quickly made himself and
Page 33 and 34: Tacsat systems with two independent
Page 35 and 36: CHAPTER 3 THE BLUE FALCONS IN BOSNI
Page 37 and 38: monograph. My omission of such elem
Page 39 and 40: their advance around the safe haven
Page 41 and 42: unusual. In today’s environment,
Page 43 and 44: He also provided his timeline for J
Page 45 and 46: Within about an hour I was reminded
Page 47 and 48: eter. Even along these paths, I had
Page 49 and 50: for deployment. The pre-deployment
Page 51 and 52: a rehearsal for leaders, using a ve
Page 53 and 54: • Heavy weapons platoon from E Co
Page 55 and 56: The Blue Falcons exited the aircraf
Page 57 and 58: esponsibility for the base security
Page 59 and 60: sandbagged for force protection. Th
Page 61 and 62: Weather continued to deteriorate ov
Page 63 and 64: east-west roads crossing the Zone o
Page 65 and 66: needed from his forces. This coordi
Page 67 and 68: This COP was manned by a reinforced
Page 69 and 70:
attalion commander was executing a
Page 71 and 72:
creativity in accomplishing every a
Page 73 and 74:
On February 11, TF 3-325 began coor
Page 75:
their security. Hence, the title em
Page 88 and 89:
deployed with the battalion to the
Page 90 and 91:
at a confrontation going on at a ch
Page 92 and 93:
he was deadly serious. I was convin
Page 94 and 95:
As I reflected on the emotions I wa
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three times. The first time some ke
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pressure, intensity, and rigor of a
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gaining the sense of teamwork and s
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from 4-67, and now three tank plato
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Although the setup had changed in t
Page 106 and 107:
trains per day to that point, thus
Page 108 and 109:
soldier why there were differences
Page 110 and 111:
One piece of frustrated cargo defin
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soldiers who deployed into an area
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support. After several false starts
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Group leaders, who were not paid pr
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Another lesson I learned was the ve
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We also developed a rotational gunn
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CHAPTER 5 COMMANDING A FIELD ARTILL
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Target Acquisition Battery (B/25 FA
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Rather than the anticipated three w
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DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY HEADQUARTERS
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usiness taking their husbands away
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transportation, shopping, and perso
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were required to carry these 12 rul
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The remaining combat elements of Ch
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As we departed Baumholder, I felt c
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140
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Figure 7. 1st Armored Division AOR.
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forcing Service Battery to expend a
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Zvornik to regain control of the se
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likely a key storage site for a mec
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deployment. When offered the opport
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was due to retire from the Russian
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equipment for turn-in both at Baumh
Page 159 and 160:
assume the FSG advisor role for the
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assigned weapons. It was a great co
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This created a daily stop at every
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(at all times) and constant reporti
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CONCLUSION The opportunity for batt
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A. He did not countermand the major
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CHAPTER 6 THE 28TH TRANSPORTATION B
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deactivation of the 53rd Transporta
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factors allowing us to stay ahead o
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drivers could not operate a motor v
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tied up with A/DACGS, CSCs, EAGLE E
Page 181 and 182:
heat I received from the families b
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260th TTD relied entirely on the 28
Page 185 and 186:
When I split my battalion headquart
Page 187 and 188:
no IG or congressional inquiries re
Page 189 and 190:
unit home to Wuerzburg, Germany. Un
Page 191 and 192:
Drivers were also beginning to show
Page 193 and 194:
unnecessary wear and tear on his un
Page 195 and 196:
mileage during my first year in com
Page 197 and 198:
logistics operations in support of
Page 199 and 200:
The 127th ASB is a Combat Service S
Page 201 and 202:
along with a myriad of situations t
Page 203 and 204:
the battalion movement was not sche
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INITIAL SUPPORT OPERATIONS, ISB Aft
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SUPPORT PLAN The aviation brigade w
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commander while assigned to the 1AD
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The ground/air refuel and supply fu
Page 213 and 214:
Force protection became a necessary
Page 215 and 216:
military. As early as 1993, some si
Page 217 and 218:
command, because the National Comma
Page 219 and 220:
soldiers up at 1130 for a formal se
Page 221 and 222:
actions—all at the same time. Onc
Page 223 and 224:
eing, load-bearing equipment (LBE)
Page 225 and 226:
teams and had one team erect the EM
Page 227 and 228:
was ours. Once we received this add
Page 229 and 230:
hospital area and our consequent ab
Page 231 and 232:
our soldiers in a U.S. facility, bu
Page 233 and 234:
• Treated 19,899 Outpatients •
Page 235 and 236:
and Steve Walker, commanders of the
Page 237 and 238:
the unique tasks required for the u
Page 239 and 240:
could do to change it now. The good
Page 241 and 242:
THE SUBORDINATE REAR DETACHMENT COM
Page 243 and 244:
to Grafenwoehr for deployment-speci
Page 245 and 246:
Those were some of the major missio
Page 247 and 248:
kept track of the classified inform
Page 249 and 250:
considerable time updating the book
Page 251 and 252:
Fortunately, we never had to deal w
Page 253 and 254:
• Good rear detachment commanders
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AFTERWORD Dr. Douglas V. Johnson II
Page 257 and 258:
Colin Powell’s philosophy—we we
show all

Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

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