Yellow Ribbons for Andrew

Last November the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia agreed to a peace plan at Dayton, Ohio, and they signed it in Paris in December. NATO sent in a force to make sure the peace holds. It's called IFOR, for Implementation Force, and it has soldiers from a lot of different countries.

The American part is Operation Joint Endeavor: about 20,000 soldiers in Bosnia, most of them from the 1st Armored Division, with more in Hungary and Croatia backing them up. The Americans have the northeast part of the country, with their headquarters at Tuzla. Their job is to keep the two sides apart, watch the strip of land between them (the Zone of Separation), and make sure everybody's tanks and big guns stay where they're supposed to. The mission was set for about a year.

• Home. A base camp outside Tuzla. First it was big green tents on frozen mud. By spring the tents had wooden floors, and this summer they moved into wooden huts with real doors.
• The mud. He says it's like peanut butter and it gets into everything: his boots, his sleeping bag, his letters. I believe him. One letter came with a muddy thumbprint, and Kristen keeps it in her treasure box.
• Mines. There are land mines all over the country from the war, and the rule is you never step off the pavement or the gravel. Ever. I think about that rule every single day.
• Food. MREs for the first few weeks, then hot meals in a mess tent. He says he'll never eat another MRE as long as he lives, and he's put in his order for my mom's chicken-fried steak the first night home.
• No beer. None for the whole year, Army rule. He says he's the healthiest he's ever been and he hates it.
• Phone calls. There's a tent with phones, and the line can be two hours long. He calls about every other Sunday. Kristen talks his ear off and Ricky mostly breathes into the phone, which Andrew says is his favorite part.
• Mail. Ten days to two weeks each way. He numbers his letters so I know if one goes missing. Number 87 came on Friday.
• Patrols. He's out a lot, and he doesn't say much about it, and I don't ask. He says the kids in the villages run out and wave at the tanks, and all the guys keep their pockets full of candy for them.
• The country. Beautiful, he says, green hills and red roofs, and then you come around a corner and there's a whole village of burned houses. He doesn't write much about that part.
• Big days. President Clinton came to Tuzla in January, but Andrew was out on the line and missed him. In September there were elections all over Bosnia, and our soldiers were out making sure people could vote in peace. He was proud of that one.