MARCH 6, 2008--Staff Sergeant Scott Smail salutes during formation before
leaving on deployment with the 3175th Military Police Company of the Missouri
National Guard from the Warrenton Armory in Warrenton, Missouri.
Posted on 03/09/2008 6:29:20 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Specialist Robert Terrio and his wife, Kary, thought they had avoided a dangerous deployment a few months ago when he learned that his Missouri National Guard unit would do a tour in Kosovo instead of Iraq or Afghanistan.
"There's a certain amount of relief that we weren't being deployed to an active war zone,'' Robert Terrio said.
Then, last month, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a move Serbia refused to recognize.
Suddenly, Kosovo started to look a little more dicey.
Demonstrators torched the U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, mobs attacked several United Nations border posts, and gun and grenade fights exploded in the ethnically divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica.
The declaration also unleashed rhetoric among world powers that harkened to the bitter days of the Cold War. Whereas the United States and most European countries endorsed independence for the tiny new nation of 2 million people, Russia, China and several other countries rejected it as a violation of international law and an incitement to breakaway movements within their own borders.
The increased tension comes just as Terrio and 1,000 other Missourians prepare to join the 16,000-member NATO peacekeeping force in the restless Balkans region.
It will be the largest single group of Missouri National Guard soldiers to mobilize together since World War I. Most of the force should reach Kosovo by June, where they are scheduled to serve until March 2009.
"The stakes remain high," said Brig Gen. Larry Kay, leader of the Kosovo task force. "Ensuring the safety of the citizens of Kosovo today sets the stage for Kosovo's entrance as a member of the international community tomorrow."
The Missouri troops will be based at Camp Bondsteel near the town of Urosevac, in relatively peaceful southeastern Kosovo.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
What’s the timetable for removal?
Klinton’s Kwagmire
The Left screams about quagmires. This is one they were wholeheartedly for.
Godspeed to these soldiers and keep them safe.
Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
“mobs attacked several United Nations border posts” - this is a BAD thing, right?
“It will be the largest single group of Missouri National Guard soldiers to mobilize together since World War I.” Unbelievable.. Missouri IS the SHOW me state, right?? In the meantime......
NBC news: “The town of Valley Park, MO tries to stave off illegal immigrants.”
why is Bush doing this?
Doing What?
I heard March of next year will be the end of their time in Kosovo. I got word I might be going about three weeks ago but found out I had high blood pressure and nondeployable at the physical. A lot of the Guardsmen I talked to volunteered for it. I on the other hand didn’t.
It's a Quagmire over there.
Hope he knocked on wood when he said that.
Why the hell are we deploying our forces to that sinkhole? Let Europe deal with it. Those troops would be better utilized somewhere where we actually have a national security interest.
I was making a sarcastic reference to the antiwar democrats calling for timetables. I didn’t hear any calls for Clinton or anyplace other than Iraq. What’s the timetable for N. Korea, Germany, and on and on. They only call for a timetable when Bush is involved.
Dhimmi-gunner Joe wants out soldiers providing cover for the Kosovo Jihadists for as long as they need it.
Otherwise, the Serbs will put an end to the Jihad in Kosovo in about 2 weeks flat.
This is one time when Ron Pauline foreign policy makes sense; we have no business in Kosovo.
However, if the troops are committed from the United States, they go with my prayers for success. To wish for them to fail is treason.
“If the Europeans don’t want a general war breaking out in EU territory, they can find a way to control the situation without involving the United States”
True, but very difficult to do when the US is saying what’s what in Europe. Go with the flow, or fight the top dog. No offense, but we’ve overstepped our boundaries. Meanwhile, our politicians could care less about our own dilemmas here at home. As an example, have you been to New Orleans lately? Granted, the French Quarter still looks as beautiful as ever, but venture down a few miles and it still looks like a 3rd world country.
And jobs and the economy are significant in dealing with the former Yugoslavia. Each local economy is small and the temptation for corruption is great, especially where the local brand of communism knocked out the entrepreneurial spirit, such as Albania. Serbia could make things, as Yugoslavia did in the past, but her economic niche has been taken by China.
The best thing for the region would be an economic union with loose political ties, but the EU already exists and there's no need for it. So, for the short run the seven former republics are doomed to poverty and weakness.
More than 100 members of a National Guard MP unit are practicing.... practicing... practicing... for the real world of Kosovo. We've spent part of a day with them in a couple of their training areas But even before we got to their first site, on a remote dirt road at Fort Leonard Wood when a soldier steps into the road, stops our car and orders us out... Off the road several other soldiers have us in their riflesites. This is the first part of our trip through an Entry Control Point--a traffic control area where soldiers check for contraband and explosives. We are herded by soldiers with their rifles at the ready into a holding shack where we cannot see the car. If one of us had a trigger device to set off a bomb in the car, we would not be able to see where the car is, who is near it, or whether our driver is still with it. We won't know when to trigger the explosion.
While we're there, the checkpoint comes under a simulated mortar and small arms fire attack. Soldiers hit the ground, then scramble behind barricades, rifles pointed toward the source of the attack, eyes looking for movement, a different color in the brown woods. In a few minutes, a three-person squad heads into the woods to flush out the attacker, staying in sight of their colleagues or one another, staying in verbal contact with each other and their leader. Shortly after that, they return, a fellow Guard member playing the part of the attacker in custody.
The ranking training officer, Captain Barry Floyd of Laquey, says it's a simulation...but nobody treats it as a game. "'We wouldn't be there if there wasn't a need," he says, "so we train our soldiers to fight. Whether it be in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, the training is the same."
At the end the soldiers gather around for a critique. Not bad, says a sergeant. But not as good as they need to be to do a difficult job...and stay alive. They'll do it again the next day. and the next. [Photos by Jon Allison]
There were more than a few damp eyes and faltering voices as a series of dignitaries thanked the soldiers for their service and wished them a safe return as they prepare for a year-long deployment that will take them eventually to Kosovo, where Marshall's 1128th Forward Support Company will join the 129th Field Artillery unit in support of the NATO-led Kosovo Force mission.
The program included comments by 2nd Lt. Robert Book, MC for the ceremony; state Rep. Joe Aull;, state Sen. Bill Stouffer; and Robert Hagedorn, representing U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton. Lana Crawford read a letter from Marshall Mayor Connie Latimer.
Then Maj. Gen. King Sidwell delivered remarks to honor the departing soldiers and their families.
"America is great. And what makes it great is communities like this," Sidwell said. He noted that the consolidated deployment ceremony March 22 in Columbia for 1,000 citizen-soldiers was an impressive event.
"But what tugs at my heartstrings more is when we have a ceremony like this, with your families, with your friends," he said. "It's a community sacrifice. There are unsung heroes sitting in this audience."
Damned shame they’re going over there to defend Jihad.
Damned shame!
Says you. I’m not ashamed of our soldiers and I’m not ashamed of the USA.
So, you do support Jihad!
Honesty at last.
If you're so ashamed of America, you should go move to Serbia where you belong.
I'm proud of my country and our troops.
Then perhaps you should read a paper and you'll see that we have made the idiotic blunder of supporting Jihad in Kosovo.
It's a shame that we're putting our troops on the line to support these Jihadists.
Any and every time you tell me what I should do anything, I have the best damn laugh of my day.
LOL!
Thanks for all the laughs, Joe! Tell me another one!!!!
You know what makes me laugh? The idea that American would ever give a crap about some third-world piece of garbage pissant country like Serbia. We don't. We couldn't care less about them.
So if Serbia's borders are so important to you, then you should go defend them, but you won't because you're nothing but a coward. Your job is not to fight jihad in Serbia, your job is to attack the USA and whine and moan and bitch like a little girl, because you lack the pair of balls that you would need to actually act instead of crying like a homo.
Your kind are not welcome in the USA. If you think the USA is an evil jihadist country, then you are welcome to leave. Nobody would miss you, and many would be happy about the absence of the foul smell of your treason.
So if you need a good destination, how about Venezuela? Hugo Chavez supports your position on Kosovo, so maybe you should go join your commie friends Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink next time they are making a trip to kiss Hugo's commie loving ass. You will finally be with your like-minded comrades in a place where your kind belongs, and we Americans won't have to put up with your stink.
That's just one more way you and I differ, Joe. I'm a Christian and do not have such a hardened heart against my fellow Christians.
As to you thinking I am not welcome in the US, that's just SO DAMNED FUNNY! LOL! Oh, just priceless! LOL!
You have nothing but satanic hate for the USA, our president, and our troops in harm’s way. You support America’s enemies who threaten our soldiers, our brothers and sisters. You are a traitor. Your have no loyalty to the USA and those who serve this nation. Your loyalty is to a foreign power. You should go there and don’t come back.
Perfect series, tailgunner.
Hey, you are the guy supporting Jihad in Kosovo and they you pitch a hissy when you get called on it.
Some loyalty you show! LOL!
Oh yeah, tell me more about what I should do, it's just the funniest damned thing!
You should get out of the USA because traitors like you are unwelcome here.
Make me, nyaaa-nyaaa-nya-nya-nyaaaah!
And you do support Jihad and anti-Christian pogroms in Kosovo. At least feign having the courages of your convictions, tailgunner.
You should go where your kind of satanic anti-American hatred is welcome, like Caracas, or Beijing.
Are they supporting the Jihadist takeover of Kosovo, yes or no?
Yes or no?
Low volume ping list
FReepmail me to be on, or off, this list.
Of course not. You are a liar and a slanderer of American troops and you want to cause them harm by undermining their mission, and supporting the enemy.
How is sending troop's to Kosovo in out national interest? Try thinking for a change.
Supporters sought for troops - April 7, 2008 - Army National Guard soldiers in Maryville will become a part of history as -- for the first time since World War I -- they join 1,000 Missouri troops and deploy to Kosovo.With their departure, area residents and business leaders are asked to show their support by cheering Maryville’s area heroes as they prepare for the long journey ahead.
Suzanne Von Behren, membership coordinator for the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce, said a fire truck and city police will escort two bus loads of the Missouri National Guard’s 129th Field Artillery soldiers as they leave at 10 a.m. Friday, April 11, from the national guard headquarters, 1407 N. Country Club Dr.
The escort will travel down 16th Street toward Main Street where it will turn right and make its way out of the city.
Throughout that time, Von Behren said she’s asking friends and family of the soldiers along with community members to line the streets beforehand and cheer for them as they leave for a yearlong deployment.
“We want to give them a proper send-off and show our support, not only for the troops, but also to their families that are left behind,” Von Behren said. “We’ve organized a processional that will just be the fire trucks and police escort, but what we’re excited about is we’ll have people lining the streets with flags and people lining the streets to give support for the soldiers leaving for Kosovo.
“This is a tight knit community, so people have really stepped up to give them a really good send-off.”
As with the previous processional in March for the 40 soldiers from the Citizen-Soldiers of the 129th Field Artillery and 1128th Forward Support Company, signs were made with supporting slogans written on them.
This time Von Behren said West Nodaway pupils have made signs with slogans of support to hold along the roadways.
“All of the signs mean something, but I think the ones from the kids really means a lot to them,” Von Behren said.
Jennifer Archdekin, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Army National Guard, said the soldiers will train at Camp Atterbury in Indiana before then traveling to Hohenfels Germany for additional scenario training. They then will deploy to Kosovo to be part of the NATO-led Kosovo Force mission.
“This is the largest deployment Missouri’s had since WWI,” Archdekin said. “So this is very not typical in terms of other deployments we’ve had -- usually its 150 to 200 soldiers -- but this is so large things are being done differently than the usual way they’re pulled out.”
Meanwhile, Von Behren said for those wanting more information about the send-off may contact the chamber at (660) 582-8643 and urges all who can to support the departing soldiers.
“Even if you’re the only one you can bring, it’s one more person showing their support and it means a lot,” Von Behren said.
..serve America's interests to give up our military bases in Kosovo?
Absolutely, save money and lives. Those men serve us better being with their families, at home.
How does retreat serve our interests?
It would help mend our relationship with the new Russia which in the long run will be necessary to defeat ME ideologies.
When is it ever in our interest to give up territory after we have taken the trouble to seize it?
Always, our history is we don't ever stay and occupy.
If you were even more conservative, you’d own your own business and you could give yourself the day off.
If I were conservative enough to own my own business I couldn't afford to take ANY days off. At least not for the first 5 to 7 years.
Joe, don’t listen to FormerLib. There is no Jihadist takeover of Kosovo. Had there been a Jihadist takeover, they would have implemented Shari’a rule in Kosovo. That isn’t happening any time soon.
Kosovo isn’t ruled by Islamists. It’s ruled by Albanian nationalists.
Soldiers prepare to deploy - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - The departure ceremony for 47 citizen-soldiers of the Missouri National Guard's 129th Field Artillery was observed Wednesday, at the Chillicothe Armory.
Lt. Matthew Martz served as master of ceremonies Wednesday and spoke about the history of the unit dating back to 1916.
Joint Taskforce Commander and Air Guardsman, Gen. McCord gave words of honor as he told the deployed soldiers, “What's in this room today, is the true essence of what America is about.”
He also stated that the armed forces are a family. He wished them well as they embark on a journey to do what it is their country needs them to do.
Command Sgt. Major Matt Jenkins gave the soldiers advice and addressed the families of those departing. He asked to Bravo Battery to watch out for their buddies, to call home as much as possible, and to come home safely. He reminded the families that they do not have to face these hardships alone. Three weeks after the deployment, the car might break down, or the kids might get sick. When these tribulations arise, he asked the families to look towards the family readiness groups. His final words to Bravo Battery were, “Come back to Missouri as heroes.”
Representatives from Sen. Claire McCaskill's office, Kit Bond's office and Congressman Sam Graves' office were there to wish Bravo Battery a safe journey.
South Chapel, Camp Bondsteel
President George W. Bush and Laura Bush walk out of the chapel at Camp Bondsteel and are greeted by troops July 24, 2001
Wooden crosses frame an unidentified U.S soldier as he walks past a chapel, in the U.S military base Camp Bondsteel in eastern Kosovo on Friday, Oct. 27, 2006.
Church service in the HQ KFOR Chapel, Camp Casablanca
A U.S. Navy Chaplain leads a field prayer service at the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit Forward Operating Base near Cernica, Kosovo. Elements of the 26th MEU deployed from ships of Amphibious Readiness Group 2 in support of NATO peacekeeping duties in Kosovo. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Seth Rossman, USN.
The KFOR 7 Chaplain gives an invocation during the transfer of authority ceremony from Task Force Dragoon to Task Force MP held at the Camp Bondsteel North Town Gym
Ch. (1st Lt.) Michael Wikstrom blesses a TF Patriot Humvee before heading out on a recent patrol mission.
Children at the “Road of Salvation” Daycare/Orphanage Center in Ferizaj/Urosevac, Kosovo sing Christmas songs to Brig. Gen. Douglas B. Earhart, commander, MNTF (E), during a visit Dec. 16. Earhart, along with Lt. Col. Dimitrios Papavassiliou, commander, Task Force Hellas, delivered presents donated by MNTF (E) Soldiers.
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