I escaped...


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Europe » Kosovo » East
October 11th 2009
Published: October 14th 2009
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It only took me a few days but I did it! I escaped the locked gates here at the training center! Actually I had to participate in a recon of a training area with one of the units. It was quickly planned, so I basically had enough time to pick Dobie up from the airport (yes, he is here in Germany now) and hop in my Mercedes mini van and away we went. We snaked our way along the route designated for heavy military vehicles and it was a great time for me to escape quietly into another world. As we drove for the two hours I just sank into the tranquill surroundings. Small villages with people walking their pets along side the road, cows grazing out in the pastures and seeing children playing is just a few of the things that gave me the feeling that this is such a friendly part of the world. I wouldn't say that anybody waved at me when I drove by like they do in North Dakota, but it was just a safe environmental kinda feeling.

Many of the small townships we drove through had cobble stone roads, and store fronts that were right up to the edge of the narrow streets. Cars were parked nearly on the sidewalks with their mirrors tucked in so that people like me didn't clip them as I drove by. It was common courtesy to pull over to let the oncoming traffic pass you and you didn't dare speed because you never quite knew when someone would step out in front of you. I was just fascinated with looking in the windows and admiring the quaintness of everything. No smog, no traffic jams and sadly, lots of traffic circles. Now, not that they aren't nice traffic circles with flowers planted in the center and everything, but at times I have trouble negotiating whose turn it is to go. There I was, flying up to the circle, I see the car already in the circle and I reflect back to when I took the Germany drivers test. I FAILED the first time. So it was a quick thought process. My turn, your turn, my turn..Ooops, just before he clipped the front end of my vehicle I decided it was his turn! Ugh. Just keep looking at the pretty flowers Davina.

So after a nice country drive we arrived at the training site. Remote and without any frills would be the best way to describe it. The buildings were made of metal so we could hear every drop of rain that was falling. For some reason most of the overhead lights were red in the buildings, probably got one of those contracts were they were cheaper than white lights. There were bunk beds but no mattresses and toilets but no showers. Jiminy, can't the army just give us a decent place to live for once? But like good soldiers, nobody will complain and it will make for good stories.

After our recon of the buildings we were onto bigger and better places which were the training areas. The army really did try to simulate as close as possible what a small village may be like in Kosovo. So they erect plywood buildings and construct dirt roadways that if you use your imagination and close your eyes it will look just like a small community. In a couple of days those plywood villages will come to life. There will be hundreds of civilians, cows, chickens and fires along the sides of the road that they build just to stay warm. These real life implants will live there for as long as we are training. The soldiers in their training scenarios will patrol in these manmade towns, they will have to find out information from the towns people and eventually they will have to be in the town during civil uprest.

We have a butt load of interpreters that work for us so that we can get used to working in the dual language environment. Most soldiers in the Task Force will have an opportunity to need their services to include, leaders at all levels, soldiers on the ground and also those out walking the street of the cities will need language assistance as they interact with the mayors, civic leaders and just ordinary folk in the Kosovo cities. These interpreters actually eat in the same messhalls as us and live in the same types of barracks right next door to our soldiers. I have spent a little time talking to them and asking their reasons for taking a short term position to interpret for the US Army. Many responses, from unemployed to those wanting an adventure and then even some that have a sense of patriotism on a worldly level. They have all been very nice and wish us well in our deployment, and I am very thankful for people like them who make our training even more realistic.

To make the day even a little more complete, we brought with us one of our multi-national military training partners. Since we arrived here in Germany we have two seperate nations acting as subordinate units to our headquarters. This forces us to learn how to include them in our planning and to have the capability to work side by side. We spoke conversational english with each other and he had even been to Kosovo before for a few months so he shared stories with the group. The more people tell stories about how our life will be in Kosovo the more I get excited. Somedays the anticipation keeps me guessing and daydreaming about the possibilities that this deployment will bring.

Stay tuned for the next two weeks as we go into a fast paced, worst case scenario training cycle. Dobie and I hopefully will be able to provide small glimpses into a dynamic and complicated set of training events. No more individual level training, it will all be focused on the big picture. How the soldiers of KFOR 12 will react to civil disturbances, staff tasks that will be more than stressful and training days that will extend from one day to the next with little rest in between. We are all ready for the big test.

Welcome to the final stage of training...

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