Saturday, Aug. 08, 2009

S.C. troops will serve in Kosovo

About 60 S.C. Army National Guard soldiers were mobilized Friday to support NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

The troops, members of 2nd Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, are based at McEntire Joint National Guard Base near Eastover.

The South Carolinians will be joined by guardsmen from Kentucky and Virginia to form an aviation task force that will transport troops and gear in the Kosovo region, said Lt. Col. Wallace Bonds, the commander.

The S.C. unit will provide command and control for the task force, said Bonds, of Isle of Palms.

The S.C. troops will spend about two months at Camp Attebury, Ind., training for their mission, and another month in Germany, Bonds said. They’ll serve in Kosovo for nine months, he added.

The S.C. unit will be joining about 1,400 American troops who are supporting the NATO mission. Overall, about 14,000 troops from 34 countries are deployed to the region.

U.S. forces have been in the area since 1999, first joining in Operation Allied Force, a NATO air campaign that ended a bitter three-year war between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav military teamed with Serbian police. About 10,000 people died in the conflict and 1 million fled the region.

— Chuck Crumbo

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