Just another week...

---

Just another week… Nothing exciting and yet every day is always so different. Okay, maybe there was some excitement; it’s just in how you look at things. One of my bestest buddies returned back to the rolls of KFOR 12. She has been gone since September after experiencing a family loss and is now back with us for the duration of the deployment. My roomie and I decided to throw a “Welcome Back” gathering in our room inviting friends from within the Task Force. Actually it was originally slated for a “We received entirely too much hot chocolate for Christmas” party, but turned into a terrific assembly of different ranks and generations as we re-integrated the laughter and spirit of one of our own. We had frozen many of our holiday cookies and candies received from home so the snacks were homemade and made all of us grateful for a little taste of North Dakota.

One thing is for sure around here. It’s hard to get bored. Even though soldiers complain about nothing to do, I’m convinced it is because there is a lack of trying to stay busy. For instance, this week we had a gospel singing group fly in from California. They were absolutely great and were so excited to be in Kosovo singing for the soldiers and civilians here on Camp Bondsteel. The harmonized perfectly and sang upbeat songs that got the crowd on their feet clapping and singing along. One of the singers had just gotten her U.S. citizenship a few weeks earlier and another had never been overseas before. I’m pretty convinced that they may have been more excited to be performing for us than we were to be sitting in the chairs listening to them. It is nice to know that there are some mighty kind people out there who are willing to give of their time and talents to show their support to military members across the world.

Last weekend we had a casualty of good intentions. Our logistics team decided to get together for a friendly game of volleyball, just a little something to pass the time away so that time continues to pass at a good rate. He just jumped up to hit the ball over the net and came down on his ankle wrong. Next thing he knows, pain is shooting through his Achilles, people are standing over him and the military police are wondering who pushed him down. Nobody pushed him, it was just a moment of bad luck. Go figure…his first time in the gym since July and this has to happen. So now our Transportation Officer has had surgery and is in recovery hanging out in his room and not really looking forward to his months of healing and physical therapy.

On one of the days in the middle of the week, the Lieutenant Colonels and myself in our section took a quick little trip down the road a few kilometers to do a survey on one of the Multi-National camps that houses one of our task force partners. We have just a few Americans there assisting the Greeks and providing a liaison between us and them. They have been there since we arrived here in country so I imagine it was nice for them to have a few friendly faces come over for a visit. They actually have quite the set up. Each one of them has their own room, they have access to a small kitchen area, a large screen TV with computer games is in the common area and they have a very nice gym area. Most of the food they eat comes from Camp Bondsteel so they don’t have to eat what the Greeks eat, which is probably better on their sensitive American digestive systems! While we were there we got introduced to their extended family. A couple of pooches seemed to have adopted the soldiers which is probably good for both sides in fighting the lonely days without too many friends around. One of the bigger dogs seemed to be a watch dog on the perimeter of the outpost. He would walk along the dirt berm and keep his eye always looking outside the fence towards the nearby town. Then he would stop to rest and take up his guard position, half his attention watching the soldiers and the other half was peering through the top of the barbed wire that separated civilization from the confines of the military camp.

As the week was nearing the end we became inundated with visiting dignitaries from outside Kosovo. Training teams from Germany who were wanting to pick our brains about how they can improve training for the next KFOR rotation, a couple of van loads of soldiers who represented KFOR 13 where here for most of the week and the General who is responsible for logistics in the European Army Command and provides oversight for operations here at Camp Bondsteel for both civilians and military operations. Overall when all these people are on the ground here it is like a circus gone bad. Generals want special treatment, Colonels need to be pampered and everybody wants a tour of our facilities. Having visitors can be manpower intensive because our Joint Visitors Bureau soldiers are responsible for driving them everywhere, people must give them briefings, everybody wants to talk to our General and pretty much every time somebody visits our daily operations slow down and its nearly impossible to make up the time lost giving everybody so much attention. But on the other hand, it’s always nice to know that people care enough to come from the United States and from other countries to just visit us and see how things are going in Kosovo.

As the end of my week came to a close, I had to take another helicopter trip to the north to visit our most remote outpost. Some of our California soldiers are currently doing missions in support of another Task Force so I needed to do a courtesy visit to see how all the logistical support is being handled. Whenever we send a large number of soldiers out of sector it is quite the logistical effort made by many. Our civilian contractors literally send a sizable team with the element to the location and they are provided with hot meals, laundry services, a small traveling convenience store and we even set up a gym area complete with weights, treadmills and many different types of workout equipment. This week I was afforded the opportunity to travel with the Task Force Engineer and the Preventative Medicine element from our great medical staff. Between all of them they check the cleanliness of the kitchen, water samples are collected and will be tested to ensure it is safe for cooking. They check for the overall sanitation of the workers and facilities and all of us spent gads of time talking to soldiers to see how things were “really” going. We even were able to spend a little time checking out the small coffee shop and attached pizzeria, and after having a little sample ourselves we deemed the trip a success and concurred with the soldiers on the ground that it wasn’t so bad being away from Camp Bondsteel to experience a diverse mission and different part of Kosovo.

Best part of the day had to be the helicopter ride. For 35 minutes the rotors spin overhead as the passengers inside gaze out the windows and become lost in the solitude of the beauty all around us. For most, it was their first time to fly and so their amazement was just fun to watch and it was nice to be a part of their excitement. Smiles from ear to ear is always nice to see and to know that they will have stories to tell their friends and families when they return home.

The week seemed to zoom by and at least during my days here in Kosovo there never seems to be any extra idle minutes. A daily variety of activities combined with a weather change that involved snow makes for memorable days and an eagerness to get to the next day to see what will happen next. Not to wish time away, but I won’t argue if the days continue to tick off quickly.

I may be taking a small break from writing this upcoming week. Don’t worry, I will return. I am departing tomorrow for Germany…Will fill you in when I return!!!

Did I happen to mention how much I enjoy my job!

---