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

Gordon Johnson, who had come a few days earlier as part of
an advance party, told me that there was a military
compound across a busy city street that looked promising. It
was still being used as a high-level school for Croatian
senior officers. But the Croation military authorities had
relinquished control of a large building for the IFOR
Support Command Headquarters, commanded by Major
General Farmen, another one of our customers. There was a
large parking lot, complete with basketball goals in front of
the building. It looked very adequate for our needs as long as
the look angle for our satellite dishes could clear the
four-story buildings.
I could check that out in a bit. But now we needed to find
out who was in charge of the land to provide some sort of
permission for putting one of our signal sites there. I found a
colonel in the U.N. compound who was assigned as the IFOR
HQs Commandant. The IFOR staff was not fully
functioning at this time; it was still being organized. I
introduced myself and explained why he needed to allocate
space to us in the adjacent compound parking lot. He had a
Croatian officer on his staff. They deliberated. After a bit of
haranguing and wringing of hands, he agreed. We parted
amiably. Later I found out that there was a turf dogfight
between him and the IFOR Support Command HQs
Commandant who also claimed to be responsible for the
same ground.
Meanwhile, that OK was good enough for me. The S3 and
I then set off to check out the rail unloading operation under
the responsibility of the 72nd Signal Battalion HQs
Company Commander, Captain Shorty Glover. We were
still confined to traveling together in the S3’s rental car
acquired during the advance party. Shorty also had his
hands full trying to coordinate his transportation assets (a
26-passenger bus and a 9-passenger van), meals for the
troops, and accounting for all the soldiers. Just as we
arrived at the railhead, so did the press. And I found myself
giving an interview to CNN in the midst of snow flurries.
Fortunately, true to his character, Shorty was doing a
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