Kosovo village raid

      On November 2001 I had been selected to participate in a Kosovo peacekeeping mission. Before then you could have offered me a million dollars and I still wouldn't have been able to point out where Kosovo was on a map. Anxiously stepping out the military aircraft I noticed a great amount of snow.. like a thick white blanket hugging the earth’s surface. I belonged to the 5^th Engineer Battalion from Missouri and was set for a seven month tour. By this time I was proud to admit I was almost in my 20s. So, at the young age of 19 this would be my very first experience with the Army across the big ocean.   

     Unfortunately the first couple of months proved to be extremely dull… with the only highlight being an outstanding dining facility, which cooked up some mean sloppy joes. When one day while accomplishing the latest mindless task I learned that I had been transferred to a completely new platoon. It was going to be a fresh start. Upon arriving to report to my future Squad leader I inquired what would our mission be. He replied sternly “We are the QRF platoon.”  :Which stands for Quick Reaction Force:  Sounds high-speed right? Well, after talking to other fellow privates in the platoon I realized that in reality I would be sleeping late and playing video games in our toasty warm rooms until someone somewhere decided it was time to call us into action. The platoon was going on day #16 with not one single call. So I happily lugged my bags into one of our platoon buildings searching for an empty bunk, all the while thinking “this won’t be so bad at all… sleeping and games? Oh…I can certainly get use to that lifestyle.” 

    However, fate would have other plans. Less than 12 hours after unpacking and flopping down on my bed a panicky Soldier busted through the door yelling at the top of his lungs “Hurry up! We are leaving in less than an hour!!” Naturally a confused look instantly covered my face. I quickly grabbed my protective gear, M249 machine gun and assault pack and started marching over to the rally location. During this 10 minute walk questions started floating in and out of my head… “What is the mission?”   “Where are we going?”  “I never rehearsed with any of these guys… what is my role?” In the horizon I saw a group of Soldiers gathered around closely in a snowy field.  A short time after the initial linkup I was being marched straight onto the airfield into one of two black hawk helicopters with a total of 17 other Soldiers. As the birds lifted off….I swear I felt completely lost. Hell, I couldn’t even operate the seemingly complex seat belt system. I pretended that I was all buckled in with the help of some moderate acting… and began to stare out the foggy window just trying to make sense of it all.

"What happen to sleeping in late??"

    Thirty minutes of flying later a deep voice loudly sounded off “This is a raid men… quick and efficient just like we rehearsed; don’t let anyone leave the confines of the village.” Those words seem to come from a Hollywood movie…. Is this really happening right now?  Am I about to conduct a raid on a village? What am I looking for? Are we killing people? I ensured all my questions stayed inside my head and just nodded and smiled as if I completely understood everything going on around me. I then felt the helicopter slowly make its descent. Then another voice started to countdown 5….4….3….2….1.. GO!!!!  The doors violently slid open, and the noise from the rotating blades penetrated inside my head until I couldn’t hear myself think.. in what seemed like a mere second the Soldier to my right side jumped straight out of the door… then the man to my left side jumped out… I figured naturally it was now my turn. I stood hunched over by the sliding doors and at that moment the chopper hit an air pocket and right before I jumped out the bird ascended an additional four to five feet as I fell awkwardly onto my machine gun.

  *SWOOSH*  I had just plunged 7ft or 8ft from a Black hawk smack straight into a snowy countryside in the middle of nowhere, Kosovo and to make things worse the wind from the helicopter blades had flung my small assault pack into a nearby tree. It really wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t have a rather expensive camera in that bag. Shaking off my initial soreness I instinctively made my way straight to that tree with a determined look on my face when a large Sergeant snatched me up by my collar and screamed “pull 360 degree security!” and pushed me to the three o’clock position. I got behind my machine gun and laid my body on the frozen ground waiting and watching.  After about 45 seconds Soldiers started standing up and moving into certain odd formations towards a small village that was maybe 50 meters from our initial landing zone.  I just followed the guy in front of me..  Then villagers started pouring out of their small houses with deep looks of concern, attempting to talk and perhaps reason with us with flailing arms. It didn’t matter though… we didn’t have a translator with us.

    What would happen next would be the knocking/kicking down of doors… searching houses and restraining the non-supportive residents. Apparently the mission was to locate illegal weapons and war propaganda referencing the Albania / Serbia tension.  With big deer eyes I was wandering from house to house trying to provide some sort of assistance to my new platoon..  I felt as if I was in a video game rooting out the bad guys.  Honestly, I had no idea how to act.. I just mimicked other seasoned Soldiers around me. We eventually located over 100 illegal weapons and numerous war propaganda posters in four separate houses. In relation the entire village comprised of maybe 38 houses.. and it didn’t take long to sweep through them all systematically. Time literally flew by for us. What was in fact hours seemed like minutes then I received word that the mission was declared a great success and was nearing its end. A Military Police Company moved in the area to provide security of the 8 detainees and large pile of weapons.  My platoon then consolidated and once again boarded the Black hawks which were headed back towards base. Yes… if you’re sitting there wondering…I never did get my camera back. However, I gained a sense of belonging and even a slight feeling of accomplishment. I climbed in the chopper sat and replayed the recent events in my head while watching the static electricity flirt with the blades in the darkness of the night…  My stomach grumbled.. The thought of a sloppy joe at this point seemed absolutely delightful.