THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512190271
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM PHILPOTT
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Sometime after Christmas, Army Sgt. Robert N. Woodrow will hug his wife, Anja, and board a train in Baumholder, Germany, with fellow soldiers of the 40th Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Division.
By late January, Woodrow's squad of combat engineers will be wearing body armor, carrying metal detectors, kneeling periodically to push a short, fiber-glass probe into the frozen ground of northeastern Bosnia.
They'll be searching for mines in a land where mines have been sown like corn in Kansas.
The first of 20,000 U.S. soldiers began arriving in Bosnia this month to enforce a peace agreement between people who, for four years, have produced little else but war and unspeakable atrocities. The dangers haven't registered yet with many Americans. Perhaps they won't unless, or until, U.S. soldiers are injured or killed.
Woodrow's battalion has known for six months it would deploy if a peace agreement were signed. The wait was tough, but it's tougher now, knowing he'll be away in a threatening environment for up to a year.
``Almost every night I go home to find my wife crying. It's very hard on her,'' Woodrow said. ``I serve my country and I also have my wife. And sometimes I feel I'm leaving one responsibility behind. It's really hitting hard at home.''
Woodrow, 25, joined the Army as a reservist while still in high school in Beaumont, Texas. His uncle, a former military policeman, warned him away from combat engineering but Woodrow wouldn't listen. He wanted to be a ``real soldier.'' Bosnia will be his first live operation.
After an 800-mile trip by rail and truck, his battalion will reach headquarters in Tuzla. From there, they'll deploy along the ``Zone of Separation'' that is to keep Bosnian Serbs and Bosian Muslim and Croatian forces apart.
Woodrow leads a six-man squad that will clear routes for convoys, destroy mine fields, build bridges, dig foxholes, pull guard duty and, when necessary, fight as infantrymen. They expect to spend most of the year outdoors, and know Balkan winters can be hard.
``We've been told the elevation in our area is 4,000 feet, and temperatures have been known to get down to minus 25 degrees,'' he said. Other hazards will be driving on steep terrain, with poor roads or ice. Snipers are a worry too, but mines pose the greatest risk. The former Yugoslavia produced them for the Warsaw Pact the way Detroit pumps out cars. Millions now are buried throughout the country.
Woodrow's squad has been trained to find them, looking for turned earth, dead animals, bare patches in grassy fields. Each engineering company also has a remotely-controlled tractor to clear a path through mine fields.
Woodrow said he heads to Bosnia embracing two goals of equal importance: Complete the mission and keep himself and his soldiers safe.
But nobody's concocting any ``false motivation,'' he said. ``To leave for a year in this situation, where death is imminent, is a main concern for me and a lot of soldiers around me.''
Woodrow sees purpose in the mission. He only wishes somebody had acted sooner, before so many innocents were murdered.
Bosnia already might have changed Woodrow. The prospect of a year away from Anja has him thinking about leaving the Army when his enlistment is up in April 1997. Such feelings deepen before deployment.
``We've been working seven-day work weeks,'' Woodrow said. But, he added, ``the more prepared we are, the better chance we have of surviving.'' MEMO: Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Write to Military Update, P.O.
Box 1230, Centreville, Va. 22020, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com by CNB