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

egion that displayed the current unit locations of warring
factions. In short, the potential employment in Bosnia was a
constant in the life of the battalion.
The battalion combat team’s frequent deployments to
Grafenwoehr and to the Combat Maneuver Training Center
(CMTC) in Hohenfels, Germany, focused on the battalion’s
essential tasks for a combat or a peace enforcement mission
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our first CMTC rotation in
September 1994 was designed around our core Mission
Essential Task List (METL) of deliberate attack, movement
to contact, and defend. The CMTC rotation coupled with a
follow-on training phase at Grafenwoehr provided the
battalion 45 days of near continuous training in our
fundamental warfighting tasks. After additional home
station training in Italy and a break over the Christmas–
New Year holidays, the Blue Falcons deployed to Germany
in February 1995 for another CMTC rotation.
The second CMTC rotation and the follow-on
Grafenwoehr training phase focused upon the battalion
combat team’s unique mission essential tasks: conduct a
parachute assault, conduct air assault, and conduct
non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO). We also
integrated supporting small-unit collective tasks common
to peace enforcement missions, such as establish a
checkpoint.
The Blue Falcons had executed two intensive training
cycles, each over 40 days in length, that trained all of the
battalion’s Mission Essential Tasks to standard in less than
7 months. However, when the Blue Falcons returned to
Italy in late March 1995, we did not realize that our training
pace was about to gain greater momentum.
In June 1995 the battalion combat team was alerted to
conduct an extraction of encircled U.N. forces in Srebrenica
or Gorazde. The United Nations Protection Forces
(UNPROFOR) established these “safe havens” within
Bosnia-Herzegovina to protect surrounded Muslim
populations. However, the Serb forces continued to press
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