Some pictures from Bosnia/Croatia 1996-97

[NateR]

I was going through an old photo album and I noticed that my Bosnia photos from 96/97 aren't aging that well at all. So I decided that I needed to digitize them now while there was still something left to scan.

Anyways, here's a couple from driving in the convoy from Hungary to the Sava River which divides Croatia and Bosnia. You can see the highway signs listing Slavonski Brod (our destination), Sarajevo (where the longest siege in the history of modern warfare took place, from April 1992 to February 1996) and Duboj. These convoy photos were taken in late September 1996 when we first arrived in country.

Another highway sign and you can make out Zagreb (in Croatia), Sarajevo again, and Tuzla, Bosnia (where one of the main US camps was):

Croatian homes as seen from the road:


The general Bosnia countryside during late Fall and it was colder than it looks. You can still make out a road with a military vehicle on it. We were in a base camp called Camp Bedrock. It was essentially an Army base that took up the entire top of a mountain and it gave us a great view of the surrounding area (which was kind of the whole point):

A few shots of our motor pool (a fancy Army word for parking lot ) as seen from Camp Bedrock:



Some random shots from Camp Bedrock, the giant tires were filled with dirt and were designed to deflect ground fire (Bosnia has no Air Force so we never had to worry about air strikes):





Our living quarters, we stayed in tents reinforced with wooden frames and the walkways were there because Bosnia still contained millions of unaccounted for land mines, so you NEVER wanted to walk on ground that hadn't already been cleared by minesweepers. In the first photo, that's a bomb shelter on the right in case of a missile attack:


Some shots from inside the tents, the guy reading the book was a friend of mine, Oliver. He was a big tattoo nut and I designed a lot of tattoos for him:

Us playing cards, I think I had just gotten off of guard duty that's why I'm still in uniform (they brought in sodas everyday as a way to boost morale). I only weighed 165 pounds back then:

you weren't lying when you said these photos aren't aging well.

[NateR]

In February of 1997, I was moved to a float bridge engineer unit whose primary mission was to babysit one of the two bridges that linked Bosnia and Croatia over the Sava River.

Here are some shots of the Bosnia side of the river:









You can see the toll that the war took on the civilian areas and there were constantly groups of young children going around begging for food. They would specifically ask for MRE's (Meal, Ready to Eat) which is a bagged Army ration containing one meal for one soldier. These Bosnian families would take these MRE's and make one last an entire week for a whole family. As you can imagine, I didn't see a single overweight kid while we were in that country.

[NateR]

Originally Posted by Hughes_GOAT

you weren't lying when you said these photos aren't aging well.

They're only 12 years old, I was kind of surprised with the condition they were in. But I had them developed while I was in Croatia, so I'm sure it's because they were using substandard processing.

Originally Posted by NateR

They're only 12 years old, I was kind of surprised with the condition they were in. But I had them developed while I was in Croatia, so I'm sure it's because they were using substandard processing.

freakin' Croatians.....just kidding Pat

[MattHughesRocks]

Wow, those are some pretty cool pictures...in a sad way. How long were you there?

[NateR]

Originally Posted by MattHughesRocks

Wow, those are some pretty cool pictures...in a sad way. How long were you there?

8 months, from September 1996 through May 1997.

We were originally going to tear down all the base camps because Bush Sr. had only authorized the mission to last until 1996. However, Bill Clinton extended our mission over there indefinitely AFTER we had deployed. Which made us an engineer unit with nothing to do, so they sent people around doing odd jobs to keep everyone busy. I got stuck pulling 14 hour radio watch shifts every single day, until they moved me to the float bridge unit.

[MattHughesRocks]

Must have been the longest 8 months of your life Over all. what did you think of the experience?

Originally Posted by NateR

8 months, from September 1996 through May 1997.

We were originally going to tear down all the base camps because Bush Sr. had only authorized the mission to last until 1996. However, Bill Clinton extended our mission over there indefinitely AFTER we had deployed. Which made us an engineer unit with nothing to do, so they sent people around doing odd jobs to keep everyone busy. I got stuck pulling 14 hour radio watch shifts every single day, until they moved me to the float bridge unit.

[Bonnie]

Nathan, it blew my mind, and still does, how quickly things change--the Olympics were held in Sarajevo just in 1984, a few short years before this horror started.

It looks really cold and miserable in those pics.

You look real good though.

Makes me sad and sick how man can justify the atrocities he commits because he thinks he's superior to another human being.

Originally Posted by Bonnie

It looks really cold and miserable in those pics.

so negative