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How many went in, in Dec 95, how many believed the President statement that we would only be their a year. How many remember the Secretary Brown Airplane "Accident"? Many questions to stimulate discussion.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Humor
Bosnia and Herzegovina Humor
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 23
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I was stationed 1st Armored Div in Germany when President Clinton announced that 1st AD would be going (my unit had been training to go since the beginning of September 95). I never believed for one second that we would only be there for a year. I told my buddy that DoD has never been to an Airfield they wanted to give up...he didn't believe me. In April 96 we started pouring concrete...that was all the confirmation I needed.
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I remember. My MP platoon was the first unit to cross the Sava river with the force provider package, a bunch of civilian trucks with the supplies for base camps. We knew President Clinton was wrong about the one year thing. We also knew that we would be outside the base after dark. We knew our mission and we were proud to help the locals reclaim their homes and villages. It was an interesting year and educational for a fairly new squad leader. I am proud of being a part of IFOR.
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SFC Wade W.
SSG Warren Swan I was attached to the 536th MP Co. We were actually 4th Plt, 615th MP Co. We brought the Force Provider package over and escorted them to Tuzla and Sarajevo. We watched the engineers and the extra floats after they got flooded out.
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SFC Wade W.
We were told we were the first MP's to go into country and I believed that. I was a squad leader and as we traveled to Tuzla there was absolutely no US Army presence that we saw. Once we got to Tuzla we finally saw other US Army folks. I am not saying you weren't there because we saw engineers and tanks and I know that the Army doesn't go anywhere without MP's! HOOAH
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Between the mid nineties into the later two thousands, 10th SFG(A) served in various roles and capacities throughout all three portions which jelled into what is now Bosnia Herzegovina (BH). Other than some CIF operations, I had the pleasure of serving three separate six month deployments as a Joint Commissioned Observer (JCO) in BH. In a nutshell, our mission as JCO's was to be a functional conduit between 'Big Army' and the key players in stabilizing and rebuilding post war BH. We would accomplish this by deploying a Special Forces company C2 element (SOCCE) into Sarajevo with it's ODA's inserted into key civilian communities in all three factions portions of BH. I was in one Federation (Bosniac) city named Vares and two RS (Republika Srpska / Serbian) cities named Vlasenica and Zvornik.
We worked in two man teams where we facilitated meeting between major US Army command elements all the way down to company level command elements and key leadership in the current military and civilian leaders of our areas of responsibility. In overseeing these meetings, we ensured that the US Army and BH infrastructure and military worked together to rebuild a functional relationship during the rebuilding of a nation through the fragile peace accords which were in place and constantly challenged for one-upmanship in the three factions desire for more land and control.
We lived in contracted civilian housing, imbedded in the civilian communities, and I'd like to believe that we helped win the hearts and minds of the local populous during the rebuilding of a nation. Traveling in a low profile with no visible weapons helped in the locals accept us, trust us to whatever degree we could be accepted, and establish report with key players in negotiating and keeping a fragile peace. It didn't always go well, especially when President Clinton began lobbing cruise missiles right across the Drina river into Serbia proper, but we did what we could to keep the peace.
These deployments were THE most valuable and treasured Foreign Internal Defense (FID) missions that I had the pleasure to be associated with in my twenty two plus year SF career, and I can honestly say that we did make a difference.
De Oppresso Liber,
JC Hill
We worked in two man teams where we facilitated meeting between major US Army command elements all the way down to company level command elements and key leadership in the current military and civilian leaders of our areas of responsibility. In overseeing these meetings, we ensured that the US Army and BH infrastructure and military worked together to rebuild a functional relationship during the rebuilding of a nation through the fragile peace accords which were in place and constantly challenged for one-upmanship in the three factions desire for more land and control.
We lived in contracted civilian housing, imbedded in the civilian communities, and I'd like to believe that we helped win the hearts and minds of the local populous during the rebuilding of a nation. Traveling in a low profile with no visible weapons helped in the locals accept us, trust us to whatever degree we could be accepted, and establish report with key players in negotiating and keeping a fragile peace. It didn't always go well, especially when President Clinton began lobbing cruise missiles right across the Drina river into Serbia proper, but we did what we could to keep the peace.
These deployments were THE most valuable and treasured Foreign Internal Defense (FID) missions that I had the pleasure to be associated with in my twenty two plus year SF career, and I can honestly say that we did make a difference.
De Oppresso Liber,
JC Hill
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Been there, done that...and yes, remember the accident and conspiracy stories.
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1SG David Niles
He/they were at our little base "Power Base" a few hours before the "accident", he and the delegation were having lunch with some of their home turf constituants. I was working night ops when we were notified of the crash. No black box? Bullet holes? The story I got was he/they were taken out because.... never mind, I don't want to disappear in the night. :-)
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SGM (Join to see)
1SG Niles...it's anyone's guess at this point. I am fond of pointing out that we want to believe where there is smoke, there is fire, without also considering that where there is smoke, there can be arson. Propaganda also works in that way--a gem of truth is distorted and reshaped to the point where fact and fiction merge. The was a crash, high level people died. Crashes happen. People die. Unusual circumstances should be suspect. There are friendly fire incidents, and other factors that do get covered up. Meanwhile, it is well known in the science of communication that in the absence of facts people will fill in the blanks with their own suppositions. It's human nature to make sense out of things that don't make sense. And propaganda can exploit that--in ways that support your argument and opposites.
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1SG David Niles
SGM (Join to see) , thus the fun with conspiracy theories. Unfortunatly, we have to watch that to a degree, because people actually do believe the theories. I really do love to read and research all the things people come up with. Such as, JFK, Elvis, 9/11 and such. But most are so circumspect that for most, it is easy to see them as they are. So just to clerify, I don't believe their was a conspiracy in the crash, but it is fun to read the speculation. But this thread did not take, so I will return to my Lurking.
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1SG Niles, I was but a young lad back then. I was with 3/5CAV at camp McGovern up in beck which is now closed
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I ran the search and rescue ops from MEDCC in C-SPT in Zagreb, Croatia and attached 3 German helicopters to find it in the cliffs of Dubrovnik, after Croatia Health Minister Ploviche called that locals reported the crash in the fog on a Channel Fight that should have been Grounded. Helicopters located but had to access on foot. 2 initial survived the crash, but were too injured to survive trip down 70 foot cliff.
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I joined my unit 141 Signal Battalion at Commanche Base in March 1996 until November 1996. In September 1997, we returned, except this time we were on Tuzla Main until March 1998. The first deployment I traveled all over the US Sector mainly on convoy escort. I shot 14 rolls of film. The second deployment, I left basecamp 1 time! I was the NCOIC of our Electronic Maintenance Shop at the time and couldn't leave.
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I was there. IFOR 536th MP CO. Deployed in December. Got to the SAVA and had to wait because of the flooding. Tuzla airfield west and we were the first there.
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