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

than 5 days. The weather delay was causing concern about
TF EAGLE’s ability to get into Bosnia with sufficient
command, control, and combat power to execute the TOA as
planned. During the delay, we were asked to consider
options for entry into Bosnia. Earlier in the year, the ABCT
had developed a CONPLAN that inserted the ABCT into
Bosnia by vehicle road march. The route from Italy would
take the Task Force no more than 3 days travel from Aviano,
Italy. Two courses of action were considered. One option was
to road march the TF through Croatia to Tuzla, similar to
the reconnaissance route that I had taken earlier in the
month. The other course of action included a route through
Zagreb to the bridges between western Serbia and eastern
Bosnia. Of course, either option was a significant change in
the plan and required coordination, including country
clearances. The TF staff refined these COAs until we
received word on the night of December 17 that only the TF
EAGLE TOC would go in by ground if the weather
continued to delay air insertion. This was an interesting
planning exercise. These options were feasible, but probably
not acceptable politically.
The weather cleared on December 18, and the airflow
was initiated. However, the number of available aircraft
was impacted by the delay, and the Blue Falcons learned
that our planned sorties would be cut by approximately 50
percent each day. This meant that the closure of the TF
would now take approximately 8 days.
Finally, five C-130s departed Aviano at 1600 en route to
Tuzla. It was a good feeling to be on our way. During the
flight I noted that our aircraft, the lead C-130, had released
chaff and I asked the load masters about it. I was told that
our C-130 was painted by an air defense radar system as we
crossed Bosnia, just a reminder that this was not a training
exercise. Otherwise, the flight was uneventful; on our
second approach attempt, we made a successful landing in
the snow and fog at Tuzla Airbase. It was 1807, December
18, 1995.
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