Peacekeeping in Kosovo: no tanks required; U.S. Army tank operators learn new infantry skills, miss their armored vehicles.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana
• Position: Brief Article

Freezing rain has been pouring for days, washing away the first December snow. The fog stubbornly lingers over the mountains of Kosovo and the ravaged villages of this embattled region in the Balkans.

Inside a still-dry field tent at a training range--one of many fields now serving that purpose for NATO forces--the waxen light reveals a group of soldiers huddled together, humming the sound of preparation.

Any other rime, one would find Sgt. First Class Andrew Turrentine, Sgt. Jeremy McDaniel, or Private First Class Doron Pyfrom perched up in their tanks, cutting the thick mud with ease. But today--and every day of their six-month tour of duty--they will be on foot, wading through the slosh.

These soldiers are part of Kosovo's Multi-National Brigade East, led by the United States. They were trained to operate tanks, but have come to Kosovo to realize that they will be on foot for the rest of their stay, because tanks are too intrusive for the peacekeeping mission they have been assigned.

"Here in Kosovo, it is a little different than our normal wartime mission of using our tanks with a lot of shock," says Capt. Bernie Stone, the commander of the company. "We do not have our tanks during our daily peacekeeping missions. We have to train on being able to do the mission of an infantryman, without a doubt. So we are here to learn."

Stone is shepherding his company into a live-fire exercise. He has nursed and refined the scenario, and from his observation tower overlooking the muddy field, he is working on the last derail of the training day--getting a stuck Humvee out of the all-enveloping mud. His energy is enough to set everybody into action.

Carrying M-4 and M-16 rifles, the tankers will have to become a quick reaction force that must help a farmer family attacked by armed insurgents.

"We are called by the KPS (Kosovo Police Service) to hurry up and get down there to help that family, because there are armed insurgents. We have a squad with two trucks, and that consists of two teams [three people per group], one truck per team [that would pick them up at the end of the mission]."

Stone explains that they have written the rules of engagement in such fashion that "the insurgents down there have recently killed a couple of people, and they are very hostile. That allows my soldiers within the ROE to engage them, so we are testing their ability to use the targeting."

If the soldiers do not execute the training safely, the exercise stops, and they...