Submitted by: Marine Forces Europe
Story Identification Number: 20028963634
Story by Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer
KOSOVO, Serbia(July 30, 2002) -- In the high mountains near the Macedonian border is a company of United States Marines providing support for Operation Rapid Guardian 02-3.
Marines from Golf Company, 2d Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment are conducting anti-smuggling operations along the borders of Macedonia and Kosovo. The Marines have a secondary mission of promoting peace and stability in the post-war area.
Operation Rapid Guardian 02-3 is an operational rehearsal testing the ability of the U.S. component's strategic reserve force to augment NATO's ongoing peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo. The Marine Corps usually supports this tasking with Marines from a deployed Marine Expeditionary Unit normally located in the Mediterranean Sea area, but in this case the Corps sent a company from the Alert Contingency Battalion from Camp Lejeune, N. C.
The Alert Contingency Battalion, part of the Alert Contingency Marine Air Ground Task Force, is a II Marine Expeditionary Force asset that stands ready to provide the U.S. with ground, air, and combat service support capability on a moment's notice in case of a crisis. Rapid Guardian 02-3 marks the first time the Alert Contingency Battalion has been used as part of an operational rehearsal.
The Marines here carry out their mission by conducting both urban and mountain patrolling, establishing observation posts and listing posts, and by conducting checkpoint operations, said Maj. Anthony Lanza, Company G commanding officer. The Marines are also performing zone reconnaissance and cordon searches.
"My goal is to be where the smugglers don't think we are going to be," said Lanza whose Marines are trying to prevent the illegal entry of weapons into Kosovo. The Marines are also looking for large quantities of black market goods like cigarettes that can be sold to fund resistance efforts. Lanza has 17 HUMVEEs and several Army Blackhawk helicopters to move his Marines in his AOR.
Patrolling their mountainous zone is no easy task. Recent rains have turned the roads to mud so thick even the mighty HUMVEE has a difficult time getting around. Safety is paramount here because several of the mountain passes provide driving challenges accepting no mistakes.
Much like the dangers of the vertical terrain, the flat grounds also pose a threat. This is where the Serbian forces had planted their land mines.
Only one week into the operation, the Marines have already found "three pieces of unexploded ordnance," said Lanza. One was a suspected land mine. The Marines have also noted two bunker systems, presumed to be Serbian, previously not found by other KFOR units.
For one Marine from Golf Company, coming this close to home with the Marine Corps is somewhat eerie. Although currently hailing from Brooklyn, N. Y., Lance Cpl. Ervin Dine was born just a few hours southwest of the Marines' current location in a concentration camp in Gjaze, Albania. Dine was born shortly after the socialist regime arrested his father, sentencing him to 10 years in a political prison.
In 1992, at the age of 13 and after his father's release from prison, Dine and his family were forced to change their last name and leave the country of Albania. They arrived in Italy and subsequently immigrated to the United States. In the process they regained the family's original surname.
For Dine, being a bona fide U.S. Marine in this part of the world rockets him to celebrity status. Many ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo recall the 26th MEU's arrival during the summer of 1999 as the first group of U.S. peacekeepers in the area. The MEU liberated much of the region from Serbian forces trying to expel the ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in order to make an "ethnically pure" Serbia. "A lot of people get excited when they find out that I am a Marine," said Dine.
Golf Company was activated in January 2002 for one year in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and is attached to the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. The company is home based in Dover, New Jersey.
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