THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310382
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM GILLESPIE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
There was always the danger of land mines, they said - mines that could take off a foot or the front of a car.
The five soldiers had been trained in mine awareness. They knew how to spot mines and how to avoid them, but they were still there. They had gone to the Balkans as part of their job, and the mines just came with the property. Years of war had left the country covered with the explosives; even locals were no longer sure where all of the mines were hidden.
The five, instructors from Fort Story's 71st Transportation Battalion, 8th Transportation Brigade, were in Croatia and Hungary for a month to instruct fellow soldiers in the use of the Army's 50,000-pound Rough Terrain Cargo Handling Crane, a piece of heavy equipment used to load and move container-ship-type metal cargo boxes.
When they returned home last week, they became the nation's first returning peacekeepers from Bosnia.
Before arriving in Croatia one week before Christmas, they had gone to Caposvar, Hungary, their first stop for instructing in the use of the ``wretch'' - as the loader is called for its acronym RTCH - before reaching Zupanja, Croatia, 45 miles west of Sarajevo, Bosnia.
The five usually spend their work days instructing new soldiers at Fort Story on the operation of the crane, which looks like a giant forklift with tires the size of Chevy Novas and the ability to pick up container boxes almost the size of semi trailers.
``The (crane) isn't used everywhere,'' said Sgt. 1st Class Hilton L. Bowden, the senior enlisted member of the group. This is why the group of instructors was needed in Bosnia; few people there knew how to operate the crane before the crew arrived.
The weather, with temperatures often near zero, made their job harder than they had expected.
``I've never (felt) a coldness like that in my life,'' said team member Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Dixon.
Staff Sgt. William F. Hargett, another member of the team, seemed the least bothered by the cold. ``I had spent a winter in Alaska,'' he said, ``so it wasn't quite so bad for me.''
Conditions were far from plush. They spent their evenings in tents measuring 12 feet by 12 feet and warmed by kerosene heaters. ``It was a lot like camping out,'' said Staff Sgt. Frank A. Price, the fourth member of the team.
Like the living conditions, the food, too, was far from plush. ``Meals ready to eat,'' or MREs - the 1990s equivalent of World War II C-rations - were the daily staple.
They were well received and appreciated by the Croatians, according to Staff Sgt. Anthony Drayton. ``Few of them spoke English,'' he said, ``so we spoke a lot in sign language. It was enjoyable when we could communicate a little.''
``When we would wave (to the people),'' Bowden said, ``I think it was a sign to them that everything was OK. They seemed relieved that we were there.''
One thing they all agreed on was that they would go back if called on to do so.
``If the mission called for it, sure, I'd go back,'' Bowden said. ``That's the way it is.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS\' From left, Staff Sgt. Anthony Drayton, Staff.
Sgt. Frank A. Price, Staff Sgt. William F. Hargett, Sgt 1st Class
Rodney Dixon and Sgt. 1st Class Hilton L. Bowden pose at Fort Story
with a Rough Terrain Cargo Handling Crane, a piece of heavy
equipment used to load and move container-ship-type metal cargo
boxes.
KEYWORDS: OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR BOSNIA by CNB