CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Sixty-three soldiers arrived at Hickam Air Force Base today after spending about six months in Bosnia. The troops were greeted by Maj. Gen. Eric Olson and a breakfast of pizza before being transported to Schofield Barracks where they were reunited with families and friends.

63 isle troops arrive
home from Bosnia

The soldiers have pizza after
completing the 25th Division’s
first European deployment

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Pizza and punch greeted 63 Schofield Barracks soldiers this morning as they returned from Bosnia-Herzegovina, completing the 25th Division's first European deployment in its 61-year history.

On hand to meet the first contingent of the 1,000-member Task Force Eagle that left Schofield Barracks six months ago was Maj. Gen. Eric Olson. He had to introduce himself to the returning troops in Hickam Air Force Base's massive hanger 7 since he wasn't the Tropic Lightning's commanding general when the soldiers deployed.

Before coming to Oahu, he learned from Army leaders at the Pentagon that Stabilization Force 11, to which the 25th Division was assigned in Bosnia, is "the best rotation that has taken place in Bosnia," Olson said.

Olson cited the soldiers' participation in the first door-to-door weapons collection program that resulted in thousands of guns, land mines and other ordnance turned in to U.S. peacekeepers.

"You brought comfort to people who have been in distress," Olson added, and "brought peace to a place in the world which has never known that."

He added that following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks Bosnia was singled out as the next possible hotspot, but "the stability and peace" provided by U.S. soldiers "denied terrorists another safe haven."

In April more than 1,000 Tropic Lightning soldiers from Schofield Barracks left for six months of peacekeeping duties as part of Stabilization Force 11 under the 1996 Dayton Peace Accords.

The 25th Division provided the headquarters element and the largest contingent in SFOR 11 which was made up of more than 2,000 troops.

The American Trans Air L110 chartered jet touched down at Hickam shortly before 7 a.m. today, about an hour behind schedule following a nearly 26-hour flight from Tuzla. The returning soldiers also were each greeted by Brig. Gen Charles Jacoby, assistant division commander; and Command Sgt. Major Michael Etheridge.

Spec. Michael Signor, a member of the 125th Military Intelligence Battalion, said he plans to head for Waimea Bay as soon as he was released from duty to get in some bodysurfing.

Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Barnes, a member of the 58th Military Police Company, said since leaving Oahu in February, he missed the birthdays of two of his children -- Ron Jr. and Ronieka -- and the graduation of two of his children from Halekula Elementary School and Wheeler Middle School.

"It seems like you miss everything when you're gone," said Barnes, who will mark 18 years in the Army in October.

The remaining of the Tropic Lightning soldiers are expected to return home in the next two months.