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Nebraskan
Staci McKee/DN
houses and structures riddled with bullet
holes was right in the path of some of the
fiercest fighting of the 3-year-old civil war.
The Bosnian government troops, or BiH,
had a headquarters stationed here. U.S.
personnel occupied what was left of it and the
surrounding grounds for the night.
A few days later, they were back—to
stay. -
There goes the neighborhood.
American soldiers began knocking down
mined structures and clearing off what Lt.
Craig Hamilton, a combat engineer with the
First Armored division, called “a commod
ity.”
“This is Heaven,” he said, standing on a
slab of concrete. “This is where we need to
be.
“When you have hard stand, you have
Heaven.”
Where there is not concrete, there is mud.
Where there is not mud, there is snow
covering mud.
“When you don’t have to walk through the
mud to your hoop (slang term for tents) to
take off your muddy boots, it’s nice,”
Hamilton said.
The camp, nicknamed “The Dog Pound,”
after the Bravo company of the 3/4 Cavalry,
called the Bravo Bulldogs, is a mad house of
heavy equipment and tent building.
In only a week, the destroyed headquarters
went from being a shelled-out nothing to one
of Task Force Eagle’s most forward posi
tions.
Sitting on the Bosnian side of the zone of
separation, a four kilometer strip separating
the BiH and the Serbs, the base will house
elements of the 3/4 Armored Cavalry Regi
ment combat engineers from the First
Armored Division and an Artillery company.
In one day, the soldiers had tents. In three
days, they had hot meals. Now they are
waiting for showers.
Within eyesight of the camp, the ":: ian
Muslim Army’s secondary defensive lines
cross a large field. Soldiers at the new U.S.
camp said before snow covered the field, they
could see exposed mines.
Capt. James Davis, an engineer with the
First Armored Division, said the main threats
to the base were terrorist acts and aggression
from the warring parties, not mines. He said,
however, they weren’t taking any chances.
“This is not just a place you want to go,
wandering around,” Davis said.
Keeping warm
A thick fog has blanketed Northeastern
Bosnia on this frigid morning.
Standing in the middle of a tent city that
goes on for hundreds of yards, it is clear that
Senior Airman Robert Remmers is from
Nebraska.
While other members of the Air Force’s
823rd RED HORSE, or Rapid Engineer
Deployable Heavy Operational Repair
Squadron Engineers, are wearing extra sets of
long underwear and gloves, Remmers isn’t
even wearing a hat.
This is like his home in Garrison.
“This is really a warm morning,” Remmers
said, dismantling the awning of a tent he
helf: i build just days earlier. “It’s been
freezing—you can’t feel your fingers.
“Cold, wet, muddy. Typical conditions, I
guess.”
The 823rd, based in Florida, is just now
tting used to the cold weather. The unit has
:n in Bosnia since the beginning of
January.
“We’re fixing on going home soon,”
Remmers said. “It’s pretty certain that we are
going.”
For now, the engineers at Tuzla East pass
the time and keep warm any way they can —
like with inter-service snowball fights.
Remmers said the “war” started when
some Air Force engineers attacked some
Army soldiers riding on an armored person
nel carrier.
Other than snowball fights and a heated
mess hall, there is only one more option for
warmth.
“Move,” Remmers said. “Just keep
working.”
I _ _ _ . I
Staci McKee/DN
Spc. Tom Dunning and Pvt. Michael Breecher sit in a warehouse-turned
barrack and watch Good Morning America on the Armed Forces Network.
Staci McKee/DN
Spc. Robert Remmers stands in a destroyed building on the U.S. post near
the tiny village of Kalesija. Remmers, an engineer in the Air Force, helped
build some of the tents that will house soldiers stationed near
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Staci McKee/DN
Putting an American flag on his .50-caliber machine gun, Spec. Brent Hull
prepares to move out with an armored cavalry caravan. No soldier could
leave the base without at least four vehicles m the caravan.
Stad McKm/DN
Areas on U.S. bases in Tuzla that are not needed, and where it is not known
if there are mines, are fenced-off and restricted.
