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

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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 15
marvelous job of coordinating the efforts at the railhead. Work was progressing well. The next critical issue was where to locate the additional equipment that was not being positioned downtown at our newly acquired signal site in the Croatian compound. We had two unit motor pools with us, as well as all the support equipment necessary to conduct field operations for an entire year. Camp Pleso, a U.N. site by the Zagreb airport about 12 miles away, was a possibility. So that was the next stop to arrange for parking the equipment. Again, space was at a premium. Only potential mud holes were left—not conducive to conducting maintenance operations. Clearly no one was in charge. The U.S. Marine Corps Commander of the USJTF Operation PROVIDE PROMISE claimed that he still had a viable mission; he did not acknowledge the pending transfer of authority (TOA) that was to take place in 2 weeks. He refused to release any assets for our use. We had been providing communications support for PROVIDE PROMISE for the last year and a half—now we had to convince the commander to let us swap out our own equipment (an AN/TSC 93B satellite link terminal for the AN/TSC 85B satellite hub terminal). The smaller terminal would easily be adequate for requirements of the JTF. However, the larger hub terminal was necessary for the major signal center we were constructing downtown. Even though the JTF would not lose any service, no one likes to see their mission being taken over. So negotiations were tougher than they needed to be. Finding an administrative parking area conducive to maintenance for approximately 40 vehicles (one-and-a-half tons to 10 tons in size) was a problem. The U.N. was no help whatsoever. They really seemed to resent our presence. Finally, with no solution in sight, I decided to exercise squatter’s rights. There was a road on the edge of the airfield that did not appear to be getting too much use. So we started parking the vehicles on both sides of the road, keeping them out of the mud and leaving a single center lane. That would 16
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 and 18: new times. Ops Center at the battal
Page 19: like the Jewish exodus wandering ar
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
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he was deadly serious. I was convin
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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
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soldier why there were differences
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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
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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
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no IG or congressional inquiries re
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unit home to Wuerzburg, Germany. Un
Page 191 and 192:
Drivers were also beginning to show
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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
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The 127th ASB is a Combat Service S
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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
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Force protection became a necessary
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military. As early as 1993, some si
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command, because the National Comma
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soldiers up at 1130 for a formal se
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actions—all at the same time. Onc
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eing, load-bearing equipment (LBE)
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teams and had one team erect the EM
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was ours. Once we received this add
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hospital area and our consequent ab
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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
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could do to change it now. The good
Page 241 and 242:
THE SUBORDINATE REAR DETACHMENT COM
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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
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considerable time updating the book
Page 251 and 252:
Fortunately, we never had to deal w
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• Good rear detachment commanders
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AFTERWORD Dr. Douglas V. Johnson II
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Colin Powell’s philosophy—we we
show all

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

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