The Last of Kosovo...

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I can’t hardly believe that in an hour I will be loading my bags and heading for the Pristina International Airport. Yippee! Once again, me and my buddy are heading to Camp Atterbury to prepare both logistically and administratively for the return of the masses of KFOR 12. Doctors, Lawyers, Headquarters Staff Members and the hard working Soldier on the street will all be heading home sometime soon also. But for now it’s just three of us. All said and done, nearly 800 soldiers will return back to 34 states and territories, hopefully by August KFOR 12 will be all but a memory.

Families will be happy to have their loved ones home, Soldiers will be happy to be back on US soil, and all of us will have memories of significance that will keep with us forever. Not one bullet was fired nor a single rocket explosion was heard, but still all the same, all of us will have experienced working in a zone filled with cultural conflict. Even though hundreds of us had desk jobs while others were patrolling the streets, everyone played a part to hopefully help provide Kosovo a safe and secure environment in which to live in.

I keep searching for a feeling of sadness for leaving this area, nor can I find the sheer excitement that one would expect to experience hours before leaving. I know that I am glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am hopeful to get back to a normal life. This deployment has been so disruptive to living a “normal life” for so long that it’s nearly impossible to remember what “normal” was. Most soldiers began training for this mission over 2 years ago and you can see the fatigue in their eyes. Exhaustion has filled many and a slight impatience can be felt to just be done with the mission.

Peacekeeping was much more challenging in many ways than all out war. It is difficult to find satisfaction when you cannot see the results on a daily basis. But yet if I take a look at the long term results, peacekeeping is a necessary part of the overall process. I have often wondered...”What happens when peace breaks out?” Now I have experienced both sides of a conflict; the beginning and the beginning of the end.

There are many thought that will occupy my mind as I make that final drive out the barricaded gates of Camp Bondsteel. I will miss the simple life. Eating, working, sleeping and doing it all over again the next day, and then the next day and then the next. Having hundreds of soldiers around to talk to and share stories with is probably the single most experience that is irreplaceable and the one thing I will miss the most. I wish that everybody who has never experienced a deployment could for just a day, encounter the camaraderie of people from all over the country, as only soldiers do. It seems as though you can laugh about everything, feel proud to stand at attention together at the beginning of a movie when they play the National Anthem and always have an inner comfort that somebody will always be there for you. Deployments aren’t about the jobs you did…It’s about how people have touched you and left lasting memories.

I will remember seeing the kindness that soldiers showed to total strangers in the communities, not caring if they are Albanian or Serbian. To watch young Kosovo children look up to soldiers as mentors and be in awe of just us being around them. If I close my eyes real tight I will always be able to feel the soft hand of a child holding my hand as we walk around on the playground. Or to see the local farmers wave at us as we pass them in their horse drawn carts and of course the look on some dudes face as I come barreling around a traffic circle refusing to give an inch as I squeeze between his car and another hunk of junk.

My wish as I wave my final good-bye to this country is that somewhere I hope I made a small difference. I hope I made someone’s day with a smile or maybe made someone laugh that wasn’t feeling so well. I do know that I will treasure all the new friendships I made and the olds one’s that grew stronger. Thanks to all the KFOR 12 Soldiers who made this deployment worth my time!

So off I go…Three peacekeepers outta here…many many more Soldiers to follow!

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