LT
V was the friendly staff officer in Naples who was my 1st point of contact. |
I
was going to be a liaison to the ground forces for the Navy's P3 Orion aerial
surveillance program. |
I
took a Greek C-130 to Sarajevo. The airport there was a kaleidescope of different
nation's camoflage uniforms. |
Italians,
Germans, French, Brits, Africans, Central Americans, Russians etc. |
Somebody
from our Sarajevo office got me and took me to Ilidza, NATO/SFOR HQ. |
I
went from Sarajevo to Banja Luka by Helicopter. British-led Multi-National Division
South-West was headquartered there. |
The
HQ compound was commonly referred to as the "Metal Factory" since the facility
had been that before the war. |
Most
of us lived in "Corimecs", container-sized pre-fab fold-up, stackable, configurable
housing. |
Officer
country was stacked two high. No complaints, a corimec is a lot better than a
tent! | Our
office at MND-SW was inside the British Intel spaces and we supported G2 (Inteligence).
| A
Kiwi (New Zealand) officer was the G2 deputy. Here we are at the 6th Czech Mechanized
brigade in front of a Soviet BMP. |
Our
mobile team needed some parts over in Titov Drvar, so one of my Marines and I
drove over. |
We
went through some eerily deserted country-side. Even the birds had gone away.
| Not
long after passing this Canadian APC, we were in the fog and had a close encounter
on a narrow road with a large British Tank. |
I
met up with Shawn and his two Marines at point overlooking Titov Drvar. |
Another
shot of the office at Banja Luka. |
After
a month with the Brits I transferred to Tuzla. My notes say this was a NEPALESE
armored vehicle. | It
was travelling with a Norwegian armored vehicle. |
We
passed this extremely picturesque Serbian Orthodox church. |
Welcome
to Tuzla, HQ of US-led MND North. |
After
the first night in Shawn's old quarters with a room-mate, the Army insisted I
move here to a private Corimec! |
All
this to myself! Rank hath its priviledges. |
Brown
& Root ran most of the services on the base, including the chow-hall. |
Two
of my folks at dinner. |
The
post office, manned by military postal clerks. |
The
fire station, manned by US Army personnel. |
The
Laundry, manned by Bosnia ladies supervised by Brown & Root. |
Me
at the office. |
My
LCPL is improving his tactical acumen using that proven training device - "Age
of Conquest". | Moose
is considering putting the Unisys computer system out of its misery. |
Bob
and Moose kept the BC2A (Bosnia Command and Control Augmentation) system up and
running. We shared spaces. |
Our
frog pond. |
While
I was there we finally succeeded in getting a tower to mount our antenna on. |
When
I got to Tuzla they had our antenna on the roof of our little C-hut. Then spring
sprung and our reception dropped because of leaves. |
I
had to move us back into the attic of the HQ bldg so we could have our antenna
on their roof until we could get a tower built. |
What
a thing of beauty! Reception much improved in 360 degrees! |
Tracking
the aircraft signal was much easier now. |
As
the weather improved, Brown & Root built a lot of improvements around the base.
| Beautiful
picnic areas. | Sand
volleyball courts. |