Pa. Army National Guard troops earn Muslims' respect on NATO mission in Kosovo

It might seem odd these days, but about 100 Pennsylvania Army National Guard members deployed to a country that is 98 percent Muslim routinely encounter people wearing American flags.

“The citizens of Kosovo — they have a lot of respect for the U.S.,” said Col. Ros L. Gammon, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team stationed in Washington. “They have a lot of respect for NATO and the (NATO) partners here.”

The Kosovo Force NATO mission started in 1999 in response to brutal fighting between Serbians and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Kosovo, a country of almost 2 million people in Southeast Europe, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. While the United States and more than 100 other countries have recognized Kosovo as a sovereign state, Serbia has not.

“Our mission in Kosovo is to provide a safe and secure environment,” while Kosovo works out its political issues, Gammon said.

His team has little to worry about in that respect. Many towns in Kosovo even celebrate American independence July 4, he said.

An expert on the region said one only has to review history to know why. “It's not a surprise at all,” said Ebi Spahiu, an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Starting with Woodrow Wilson's strong support for Albanian independence during and after World War I, the United States has consistently been an ally to Albania and Kosovo, where 93 percent of the population is ethnically Albanian, she said.

Statues of former President Bill Clinton can be found around Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and several streets are named for Clinton and former President George W. Bush, said Sgt. William Smolter, 24, of Bellevue.

Clinton supported NATO intervention in Kosovo and committed troops to the operation. Bush formally recognized Kosovo shortly after it declared independence.

“Everyone wears American flags,” Smolter said.

The Pennsylvania troops trained for a month at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, and another month in Germany before beginning their nine-month deployment that ends in November.

The terrain in Kosovo is comparable to that of Eastern Pennsylvania, and the weather is comparable to Pittsburgh's, said Sgt. Kaylee Dodd, 25, of Ingram.

“It's not exactly what I was expecting,” she said.

Her expectations were based on talking with soldiers who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, but the conditions in Kosovo are not comparable, she said.

A full-time employee of the guard, Dodd is part of the group that handles logistics for the deployment and drives the command group down the two-lane road to Pristina.

“It's crazy,” she said of the traffic. “There's a lot of roundabouts, and people don't like to use turn signals … so it's a lot like Pittsburgh.”

In addition to the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, there's internal conflict between the majority Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, and the minority Serbians, who are Serbian Orthodox Christians.

Gammon of Luzerne Township in Fayette County commands the Multinational Battle Group-East in Kosovo. Headquartered at Camp Bondsteel, which is about 21 miles south of Pristina, the battle group is part of the Kosovo Force.

The battle group has about 1,000 troops from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey and the United States.

In addition to the Pennsylvania troops, the U.S. contingent consists of National Guard units from Arizona and California and Army units based in Germany; Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

The presence of NATO troops has eased tensions, particularly between Serbians and Albanians in Kosovo, Gammon said. While some protests have been “rowdy,” particularly during the last election, none became violent and all were handled by Kosovo police, he said.

Consequently, the main thing troops are doing during their nine months in Kosovo is train, he said.

Smolter, a Seton Hill graduate and PNC bank employee, is part of the battle group's intelligence unit. Like Dodd, he thought Kosovo would be more threatening than it is.

Kosovars are very friendly and gregarious, and the ones who work on the base, in particular, like to pull practical jokes, he said.

“They like to freak me out, I guess is the way to put it,” he said.

While some reports have said that Kosovo has the highest number of ISIS recruits per capita, other analysts contend that its numbers are low for a majority-Muslim nation and some of the people counted as ISIS recruits actually went to Syria to assist anti-Assad rebels who were also being assisted by the United States.

There's been little evidence of ISIS support, Gammon said.

“I think Kosovo is pretty much representative of all the European countries. They have some people who get radicalized,” he said.

Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.