European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 11, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Soldiers from task Force 212 stand in a formation in front of the army Hospital. Sgt. Randy Harris left joins 100 other soldiers at the hospitals first Church service. Ltd americans enter the volatile Balkan mix peacekeeping is not a Job for soldiers but Only soldiers can do it a a quote by Dag Hammarskjold former . Secretary general and Nobel prize Winner posted on door of the norwegian movement office at Zagreb Airport Vince Crawley staff writer the roughly 375 americans at Zagreb a army medical troops plus a handful of air Force maintenance people and cargo handlers a make up less than 2 percent of the 20,000 United nations Protection and humanitarian forces in Croatia and Bosnia Graffiti on a British bathroom Wall Points out that the americans Are once again latecomers to a world crisis and . Task Force 212 spent its first month in Croatia settling into the Job of tunning a Hospital for Hie other 98 percent of the troops it s a Job the medical officers keep calling Quot the most honorable Mission Quot a Soldier can perform Healing peacekeepers Quot it s actually a Nice change to have a Mission outlined just for humanitarian purposes Quot an american staff sergeant and combat Veteran of Panama said. 1 o go in knowing you Don t have to launch bullets to help people Quot the americans Are dealing with the usual hardships of military Camp life. Conditions Are far More austere than the hospitals they came from in Europe but quite a bit better than most expected Quot Twenty years ago for those who be been in Vietnam this is Gravy Quot chaplain capt Gar Stickney told 100 churchgoers at the task Force s first service held in the heated reasonably Well lit Cooks tent. Quot for those of you who be been to saudi Arabia you remember what it was like there. This is feel Good. At least we done to have to worry about scud spec. David Mcgraw a medic joined the army four Days before the persian Gulf air War started and also volunteered for duty in Croatia. A my Girlfriend beat the a out of me when she found out i was going and found out i volunteered Quot said Mcgraw from Exeter . Quot she s still angry but understands. I joined the army to experience just this thing. I missed it in saudi Arabia. Right or wrong Boring or exciting this is what i came in to Many of the americans even the volunteers have mixed feelings about . Involvement in the regions fighting. Quot no one wants a civil War like this Quot said spec. John Rees 21, a medical Supply specialist from Battle Creek Mich. Quot i question the fact that we or anyone else Are Here or should be Here at All. But we re Here now so we be got to do the ordinarily he s stationed in Pir Masens Germany. Quot kind of looks like another Vietnam Quot lie continued. Quot in be heard different stories about the serbs and i be heard different stories about the heavy Metal music wailed from Rees portable cassette player As he sorted through seven cargo containers of Hospital supplies he joined the army after losing his College Grant saying he was Quot too prideful to go Home and live with my Mother and go to a Community College while working at Mcdonald s asked Why he volunteered for Croatia Rees shrugged and laughed. Quot i done to know. I really Don to Quot he said. Quot i have no then after a moment he decided Quot i did it to be Cool. But in a Here now so i m making it As Best i sgt. Randy Harris was also making it As Best he could. Quot it s what i be got to do because i m in the army Quot he said. Quot in be got a wife and two kids i d rather be with. I done to want to be Here one second longer than i have to but the lord gave me strength to Bear with staff sgt. Jim Garro an army nurse who spent time in the Navy and As a civilian parole officer has two daughters 3 and 8, Back in Frankfurt Germany. His wife Bobbi is Quot real creative Quot at letting the children know he s not gone for Good Garro said. The couple sat Down and explained to the 8-year-old that she would still be in school by the time her father returns from the six month deployment. When Garro went to saudi Arabia two years ago his wife Quot took a Bunch of pictures of me before i left and put them on the Wall at toddler Eye level Quot so the Mash surgeons gather in front of the operating room. Youngest daughter could see them often enough to know who her father was. Spec. Eric Kammerer forklift Driver for the task Force said he began practising buddhism while stationed in Japan when he made a pilgrimage to the top of mount Fuji a and he brings a zen like philosophy to his army Job. Quot in saudi arabian Felt bad when i broke one bottle Quot said Kammerer who s been driving forklifts since he was 16. Quot you mess up one bottle and maybe one person Dies because they did t have that one bottle. I take my work very very after a stint As a civilian he had rejoined the army in september 1990 so he could go the Gulf War and he ended up in the 12th evac Hospital the name of the 212th Mash before it was scaled Down during the recent european troop cuts. In the desert he said he worked at the morgue at King Khalid military City in saudi Arabia where Many of the a casualties during the Gulf War were taken a i was very sad Quot he said. Quot but i was also very honoured to help take them to their last burial place. I joined the army to get off the streets and make something of myself. If i can do my part to make something better i be done my Job let r any americans in Zagreb he did t comp Petely understand what Ever v ,>,33 fighting about in the Baka Quot v.1h ate people Quot Kammerer Askea 1 a easy to hate. It s harder to. Lem Page 4 the stars and stripes Friday december 11, 1992report from Zagreb pvt. 2zorka Kovacevic interprets for Andree a 19-year-old ukrainian who lost both legs in Sarajevo. Two wounded ukrainians in the Hospital Beds Clown with visitors night shift workers and interpreters in Ward a. Caring for the peacekeepers i talk to these Guys and they make me laugh Quot says Kovacevic shown Here with a wounded ukrainian named Vince Crawley staff writer Vladimir a 19-year-old ukrainian peacekeeper who lost his left foot in the Sarajevo fighting strained to see How Many toes he still had on his remaining limb. An american looked at his bandages and assured him that All five were still intact. He seemed relieved. Asylum seekers and refugees Are not the Only ones whose lives have been displaced by civil War in the Balkans. Andree Sergej and Vladimir All 19, Are ukrainian soldiers who were wounded on peacekeeping duty in Sarajevo. A fourth Soldier the gunner on their armoured personnel Carrier was killed in the Road mine explosion that took one of Vladimir a legs and both of andr Jet a. Back in the Ukraine Andree s wife was expecting a baby in late november but he had not heard news from her. No one at the american Hospital Felt like pressing them about their prospects once they get Home. But times Are hard these Days in the former soviet Union where being a wounded peace Veteran probably won t make things easier. Quot they re my buddies Quot said the american private who was visiting them most nights in Ward a of the 212th Mobile army surgical Hospital. Quot we kind of hang out. I talk to these Guys and they make me pvt. 2 Zorka Kovacevic 23, is a personnel clerk from Cleveland. Her parents were born in Croatia and when word spread that the 212th Mash was going to Zagreb she volunteered to go along and act As the army s interpreter Quot i be translated even thing from laundry to Garden hoses to hazardous waste to a rays a Kovacevic said. The a rays involved being awakened at 2 a m. To decipher instructions for film Developer and fixer at the Hospital Darkroom the Job can to hectic Kovacevic said. So at the times other privates might disappear from their sergeants and officers she could often be found in Ward a visiting the ukrainians whose language is close enough to croatian that she can understand what they re saying. Quot i like to come in Here and see it these Guys arc comfortable. Its How i escape during the Day Quot she said sitting beside Sergej the 19-year-old sergeant with shrapnel in his log. Quot. He brings a smile to my face every she a also helped them learn such a plish basics As How to ask to go to the bathroom. And Andrej the Driver wanted to know How to say some resourceful dutch troops helped out by finding one at the nearby Zagreb air terminal. Quot i think she a the Only one who s Happy to to Here Quot another Soldier in Ward a said of Kovacevic. She agreed saying that if the . Keeps a presence after the Hospital s 6-month stat Shell try to Volunteer to stay on. Ordinarily she s stationed in Vicenza Italy where she says she feels As lost As any other go in a foreign land but in Croatia she can listen to her radio at night and understand everything that s happening beyond the Gates of the . Compound at Pleso Airport with patients from 30 or More nations the doctors routinely resort to Flash cards and frantic searches Lor foreign translators to help them at bedside. A multilingual dutch warrant officer who was recently a treaty inspector m the former soviet Union was found to talk to the russians and ukrainians capt. Pauline Roberti a nurse in Ward a. Spent time in Yemen with the peace corps five years ago and gets called upon to practice her Rusty arabic communicating with the nepalese patients is slow tedious work involving a dogeared phrase Book and creative gesturing even nepalese handwriting to american eyes resembles ornately swirling decorations of a wedding cake the stars and stripes Page 5
