Posted on 02/09/2008 7:22:58 AM PST by SandRat
“The whole platoon came with, except for five guys who couldn’t come for one reason or another,” said Sgt. Elvis Torovski, a native of Ohrid, Macedonia, who serves as a platoon leader with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Macedonian Army.
His decision to come to Iraq was made by his Soldiers, who he didn’t want to leave in the hands of someone else.
“I came to Iraq because a lot of my friends and colleagues raised their hand and decided to come here,” said Torovski. “Also, because I’m a section leader and my guys raised their hands to come here, so I realized if I do not raise my hand, another guy will come with them. He would not have a clue about what they are capable of and how to lead them. So I said, ‘Okay, I’m going too because I can’t leave my people alone.’”
Macedonian 1st Lt. Ljupco Sosoloski, platoon executive officer, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, had other reasons for volunteering to come to Iraq.
“I volunteered to help the Coalition forces and fight the terrorists around the world,” said the Kicevo, Macedonia, native. “I wanted to see how American Soldiers work: to work with them and to learn from them.”
Getting the Macedonian Soldiers up to speed on the gate procedures went better than some Multi-National Division – Baghdad (MND-B) Soldiers thought would happen.
“Preparing the Macedonian Soldiers was fairly easy because they caught on very quickly,” said Sgt. Felix Correa, a native of Pearl City, Hawaii, who serves as an initial vehicle search team leader with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior”, 25th Infantry Division, MND-B. “We had a hard time at first because of the language barrier, but we worked around that and everything went smoothly.”
Before the platoon even arrived in country, it received the same training MND-B Soldiers receive.
“They got the full package of training in Kuwait that everybody else has,” said 1st Lt. Ryan Napier, a native of Rye, N.Y., executive officer, Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment. “Back in Macedonia, they have a desert training area in the center of the country where they did their desert warfare training before going to Kuwait and coming here.”
According to the Soldiers on the ground at the Gunners Gate, the new help from Macedonia has been a big help and they look forward to the next six months with their new buddies from Macedonia.
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