Wrapping up and packing up

The Totally Unofficial, Absolutely Personal Album of David Rosenthal's Photos and Comments about
The 126th Med Co

Assembled, written, and photographed by David A. Rosenthal

On 13 August 1998, the 126th Med Co got activated to be sent to Bosnia. We're there now and what you see below has changed constantly as we've moved through the 270 days for which we were put on active duty. We're getting seriously short--just days to go now! Our replacement unit, the 24th Med Co from Nebraska, is here and we've been busy training them up to assume our mission.

March 1999: Wrapping up and packing up

Winter's premature end--or at least the end of the worst of it--came as a welcome surprise here in the Balkans. The sudden disappearance of the ever-present frozen fog buoyed spirits everywhere.

The 126th eagerly enjoys its MEDEVAC mission, now that we can fly nearly anytime. And our mission picked up and we were ready. And sharp.

Working in a real-world environment is always the best possible training--especially if your people are up to the task. And ours came here that way.

This MEDEVAC took place in late February and involved some people from the Polish Brigade to the west of us. We rolled both first- and second-up aircraft in minutes and got the three injured soldiers to the hospital faster than any of them had imagined possible, according to the interpreter.

Winter is not yet officially over. We still get snow, just not as often. The big advantage is that we see the sun much more and it makes an enormous difference.
	It can be absolutely beautiful for days and days, then all of a sudden the temperature drops one night and it begins to snow. By morning, it's a "winter wonderland" again. Everyone has grown used to that possibility.

The "fun" part is how quickly things can change.
	In our most recent snowstorm, it began coming down one evening at a rate of more than an inch an hour and in enormous flakes. It snowed like that all night and, down in the first-up shack, we could barely push the door open after about 10 PM. The following morning, we had more than a foot on the ground and that's when I took the photo on the left. The sun broke through and temperatures rose. The shot on the right is of the same spot the next afternoon.

But even as the season shifts, the wintry early morning
temperatures still produce some striking beauty for those who look for it.

Or the opposite situation when water, sitting very still, slips below its freezing point but still remains liquid. When this "supercooled" water is perturbed, it freezes solid in an instant, capturing a striking snapshot of the disturbance.

This shot and the next two came from the drainage ditch behind our maintenance "clamshell" (the plastic, tentlike structure beneath the helicopter in the picture at the top of the page) where a heater duct hose was lying in the water and, sometime during the frigid night, something jarred it. You can see the blade of grass trapped below the ice in this picture.

One of our favorite "routine" missions is flying the Swedish Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.
	We fly them to minefields, both simulated and real, hover overhead, and use our rescue hoist to lower them in and then take them back out. We generally take several members at a time and spend long times holding a very stable, high hover in the treetops. Everyone gets quite a bit out of it, trainingwise, and our friends, the Swedes, like it too.

All except one. This is Juno, a 12-year-old black Lab, specially trained as a mine-detecting dog. Juno likes everything and everybody but the helicopter and the hoist.

The Swedish EOD team has a canine hoist harness made just for Juno and he knows exactly what it's for. In the photo on the right, Juno's feet are blurred because he's swimming in the air. But Labs are Labs so, once back on the ground, he somehow manages to endure all the attention he gets as people comfort him after his ordeal.

Evidence of war remains everpresent here and the Swedish EOD team has assembled an impressive array of items they've collected over the past few years. Pictured on the right is a small fraction of what they've got displayed at their base at Camp Oden, near Eagle Base.

Meanwhile, our multinational mission of MEDEVAC standby continues.

But now that our tour is nearly over, we've gotten the order to pack up and get ready to leave--something we've been waiting for. Even our superannuated Vietnam vets are ready.

Our replacement unit is here from Nebraska and we've taken their Maintenance folks to the port along with some of our own people to prepare their aircraft to be flown to Eagle Base. Once we bring them up to speed, they'll assume the mission.

And we can't forget to send a big "THANK YOU" to the team of top-notch civilian aviation specialists of DynCorp, the contractors working with us at the port to take the aircraft off the ship and help get them ready for the flight inland.

The DynCorp team will also be ready as we take our own helicopters to the port to be prepared for the ocean voyage back to the States.

Once all our incoming aircraft were ready, the crews were brought in by C-130, we had a briefing on the flight and route, and our crew led them back into Bosnia.

This is the view of the formation as they lined up behind us on the runway at Rejika.

It was a beautiful day for a flight and we got back without a hitch.
Proud to lead the 24th Med Co in to take our place in our Bosnia mission, was our crew (L-R) CW2 Bob Young, SSG Eric Harper, me, and SSG J. J. Moore.

So until we leave, the clock ticks and packing up continues along with normal operations.

That's about it for this update. Depending upon how busy things get, I'm hoping to have another page revision ready as we depart during the last week of March.

I leave everyone this time around with my own hopes for our safe return and an even greater wish for a safe tour for those assuming our tasks here.

Expressing I think everyone's feelings about the arrival of our replacement folks is this shot of a sign in front of a supermarket I visited during my leave to Germany last month. Mr. Smile says, "It's beautiful that you're here."

I also continue to be extremely grateful for the thoughtful feedback so many have given me over these long months. Please continue because it's a primary driver of what I present here. As those who've written know, I enjoy hearing from you and will surely respond.

And keep checking in. I'll continue presenting the page after we're back as I retell the story of our deployment in installments like I've done with it over the past months. I'll include greater detail and more photos for units who might find themselves on their way to Bosnia and want to get an idea of what to expect. And, of course, information for people simply interested in what it's really like here. I'm hoping to provide a series of pages that you can download as they appear so you can collect a beginning-to-ending story.

Thanks again and take care! If you'd like to drop a line, the address is: n6tst@ridgenet.net.

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