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

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

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have to do for the time be<strong>in</strong>g. It was not pretty but we could<br />

sort it out later, maybe even acquire a contract <strong>in</strong> town. At<br />

least we were out of the mud.<br />

The U.N. had the only heavy crane <strong>in</strong> Zagreb, so we<br />

needed to coord<strong>in</strong>ate the use of it to download our communication<br />

shelters off the trucks and position them <strong>in</strong> the<br />

Croatian compound park<strong>in</strong>g lot. Fortunately, the U.N.<br />

crane operator was easy to get along with. He provided some<br />

really great assistance.<br />

Th<strong>in</strong>gs seemed to be com<strong>in</strong>g along well. By the end of the<br />

first day, we had the setup of the downtown signal site<br />

pretty well underway. The larger tra<strong>in</strong> still needed to be<br />

unloaded the next day. More coord<strong>in</strong>ation meet<strong>in</strong>gs were<br />

necessary. Guards were required for the tra<strong>in</strong>s, for the<br />

downtown signal center, and for the vehicles parked at<br />

Camp Pleso. And another several busloads of soldiers<br />

arrived <strong>in</strong> the middle of the night and needed to be<br />

quartered. Some were sent to another hotel, the Hotel<br />

Holiday. The Brigade S3, Major Frank Grove, was<br />

coord<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g a contract for this entire hotel complex. It was<br />

on the outskirts of Zagreb and could house the entire<br />

brigade headquarters as well as our battalion. This was a<br />

much more modern hotel right off the highway, a truck<strong>in</strong>g<br />

firm beh<strong>in</strong>d it with a large fenced <strong>in</strong> motor park area. It<br />

looked ideal for our needs too, especially with the potential<br />

of contract<strong>in</strong>g for motor-park space <strong>in</strong>side the fenced yard.<br />

The next day was extremely cold, with blizzard<br />

conditions. Capta<strong>in</strong> Shorty Glover really had a tough job<br />

now. On top of the limited transportation, he had to get<br />

soldiers from two locations and rotate them to prevent any<br />

cold <strong>in</strong>juries. The only redeem<strong>in</strong>g factor from the cold<br />

weather was that the media decided it was too cold for them.<br />

So at least we had time to ourselves to get the job done.<br />

When I arrived at the Croatian compound, Capta<strong>in</strong><br />

Dwa<strong>in</strong>e Boteler, the signal site commander, immediately<br />

told me that he had been ordered to move by the IFOR<br />

Support HQs. This was their area; they were responsible for<br />

17

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