WEBVTT

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the power of our weapons that when the

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military battle in Kosovo , but the

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piece can only be one by the human

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heart .

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Originally grew up in rapids Iowa . I

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spent the majority of my , from

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the time I was about one until I was 18

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and left for the army and uh , in

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rapids , graduated from high school

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there , uh , had various hotjobs

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growing up working for the local co op

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or local farmers . The

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first time I deployed to Kosovo is in

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2000 and four , um , I was a member . I

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was a platoon sergeant with bravo troop

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for squadron 113th Cavalry . Uh , we

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deployed here and I think we got to

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Kosovo in february of 2004 .

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Most

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people from rural Iowa is , you know ,

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we had a , I had a pretty limited

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knowledge of what other countries were

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like . I'd never left the United States

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before . Um , so I didn't know what to

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look , really look forward to or or how

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to understand . You know , we did the

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training in advance of some of the uh

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customs and courtesies and things for

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this region . Um but really I had no

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idea what we were getting into .

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Costa was like Iowa , but it's got

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mountains and it was like , how do you ,

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how do you figure ? Well it's a lot of

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the farming is relatively rural , it's

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approachable for a kid who grew up on a

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farm to to go to the rural areas , it

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kind of feels like that , but the joke

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always says you'll be driving somewhere

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in the middle of the hinterlands of

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Kosovo and they'll be a tractor backing

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people up and when you you pass the

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tractor you have to wave , it's just

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like being home , got away with the

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tractor . But when I was here in

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2004 , I was a platoon leader with

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bravo troop , First of what ? 13th

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calves didn't really know what I was

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doing , I just knew it was going to

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come over here and do a peacekeeping

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mission and as armor officer that was

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growing up on tanks , I really didn't

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know how to do it . The mission was

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really uh we had squad level patrolling .

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Um my area was really to the south .

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Um my platoon rotated squads on

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patrolling over , We had to cover the

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24 hour period . Uh so I had three

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separate squads , uh just patrolled to

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the south of Gilan down into what's

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called the chicken leg here in Kosovo .

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Really , it was presence patrols . Uh

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we met with a lot of mayors and local

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leaders just , you know , finding out

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what issues and concerns were and

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really trying to just provide the

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stability in the region . We had a few

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uh , mixed ethnic background villages

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that were in our area , uh , that we

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spend a lot of time in . Um , there was

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also a Serbian Orthodox church that we

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had uh , we had to place people on the

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church 24/7 to make sure that uh ,

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nothing happened it as well . I thought

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patrolling would be something different ,

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but patrolling on this was a lot more

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about um , drive to the locations where

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we worked , meeting people , talking to

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him , seeing what was wrong . Gauging

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um , what was going on , making sure

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there weren't any security issues . Um ,

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I thought patrolling would be something

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entirely different in 2000

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and four , were we between the K four

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and United United Nations Mission in

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Kosovo UNmik , we were basically

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running Kosovo . We were providing all

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the governmental oversight . We're

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setting up the courts . Having said

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that in the early part of the mission ,

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you know , four was only five years

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after the end of the air campaign ,

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there was still a lot of tension out

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there . If you talk to start a major

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Strauss er uh he remembers meeting with

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the staff on the A . B . L . And that

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everybody was loaded for bear their

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their long with guns , all uh all

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magazines in body armor because we

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weren't sure which way this area was

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going to go .

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Yeah . Yeah .

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Mhm .

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Uh huh .

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Yeah . Yeah . Mhm .

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I got was hearing over the radio as

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these demonstrations started popping

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off all over Kosovo and my commander

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phones me and says grab a squad , you

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need to go out and secure some

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buildings in the middle of Dylan . I

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was out there with command Sergeant

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Major Strasser . We were on the same

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blind when I was doing my patrols is

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him and me and Lieutenant Colonel can

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even , who's the battalion maneuver

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battalion commander now . It was

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already pretty much out of control at

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that point in time . So we quickly

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helped establish a perimeter around the

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U . N . Building and push people back

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away from it . Those , you know , cars

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burning all over the place and being

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flipped over and rocks being thrown and

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molotov cocktails and they're

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pouring gasoline and dumpsters

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enlighten on fire and rolling them down

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the street . The first thing was going

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through my mind was my daughter had

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been born . My first child , my

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daughter Amelia was born on March . I'm

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sorry February 13 , it was March 17 and

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I hadn't seen her yet . So my wife's at

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home with our first born . I've never

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met her . I'm in the middle of a riot .

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Um , and I'm wondering what's going to

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happen next . I think nothing I ever

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learned in my officer basic course came

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even close to getting me ready for that .

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Um , we were , I think the things that

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made us successful where we were

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professional and we were , we were

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willing to kind of let the situation

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develop . But there was , there , was

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there a lot of us that were nervous .

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It wasn't just me . Once the riots took

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place , it became a lot more real to

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the soldiers . Um , I mean , we started

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going out on mission fully kitted up ,

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obviously to , to deter rioting and

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provide a different kind of presence

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and soldiers interpretation of what we

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were doing here absolutely changed . Um ,

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there's no way it couldn't .