By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON -- The full contingent of about 7,000 U.S.
troops taking part in Operation Joint Guardian will be in
place in Kosovo within the next two weeks, according to
Army Lt. Gen. John M. McDuffie, Joint Staff logistics
director.

McDuffie said service members and their equipment are
arriving daily in Kosovo by air, land and sea. About 4,500
are now in the U.S. sector in southeastern Kosovo, where
they will serve with a Greek battalion, a Polish battalion
and a Russian contingent.

McDuffie described what he called the "meat and potato
issues" of the operation at a Pentagon briefing June 29.
The logistics chief said an initial wave of U.S. troops
deployed as part of the NATO-led enabling force, and a
second wave is now moving into the region. Engineering and
medical support are engaged and sustainment operations are
under way.

NATO expects all the 50,000 international troops slated for
the Kosovo security force, known as KFOR, to be in place by
about mid-July. Alliance authorities accelerated troop
deployments in light of continuing tension between Serb
residents and returning ethnic Albanian refugees.

KFOR's mission is to promote stability, cooperation and
security, NATO officials said. Its main aim is to allow
safe return of refugees and ensure compliance with the June
9 agreement signed by NATO and Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia military authorities.

All NATO countries with military forces are contributing to
Operation Joint Guardian, along with Russia, Lithuania, the
United Arab Emirates, and other non-NATO countries. At
present, about 20,000 international troops have deployed to
Kosovo. NATO's goal is to get the full contingent in as
soon as possible. NATO-led forces are being called upon to
deal with violence that continues to erupt in the wartorn
province.

NATO-led forces first entered Kosovo June 12. KFOR
established tactical command in Pristina, and advance
elements of French, British, Italian, German and U.S.
forces entered five designated sectors. On June 20, KFOR
announced all Yugoslav military and police units had
departed Kosovo and NATO formally terminated its air
campaign dubbed Operation Allied Force.

McDuffie said U.S. forces were among the first to enter
Kosovo. About 1,900 members of the 26th Marine
Expeditionary Unit deployed from the USS Kearsarge, USS
Gunston Hall and USS Ponce in the Aegean Sea. The Marines
traveled through Thessaloniki in northern Greece, to
Skopje, Macedonia, and then to the Kosovar town of
Gnjilane. They are slated to leave Kosovo when four
battalions from the Army's 1st Infantry Division arrive
from Germany.

About 1,700 soldiers from Task Force Hawk moved from
Albania to Skopje as part of the initial enabling force.
They then moved into Urosevac, where Task Force Falcon
Commander Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock and 200 U.S.
European Command troops established headquarters.

McDuffie noted that some Army, Air Force and Navy engineers
will remain in Albania, where they are engaged in
humanitarian operations, improving roads and supporting
refugee camps. All Task Force Hawk elements are slated to
leave Albania by about mid-August, he said.

Now that the initial force is in place, McDuffie said,
defense officials have started moving troops and equipment
from U.S. European Command. Service members were slated to
board planes June 30 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Heavy
equipment had already been sent ahead via military roll-on,
roll-off ships roughly the size of aircraft carriers.

Military transportation specialists loaded tanks, Bradley
fighting vehicles, artillery pieces, and other heavy
equipment aboard the USNS Bob Hope in Bremerhaven, Germany.
The ship reached Thessaloniki June 29. A second transport
ship, the USNS Sonderman, is due to arrive there July 3.
Both ships can carry about 26,000 tons of equipment and
vehicles, McDuffie pointed out.

The military's power projection capability is a triad of
sealift, airlift and pre-positioning, he said. These
vessels provide "tremendous capability," not only for
sealift, he said, but also as a pre-positioning site for
heavy equipment.

Sealift operations will also help sustain U.S. troops in
Kosovo, McDuffie said. Supplies will arrive in Thessaloniki
to be transported by ground vehicles to Kosovo. "Most of
the nations that are supporting KFOR are using this port,"
he said. "So we've got a multinational cell there that
deconflicts the arrival of ships."

Emergency supplies will be flown from Ramstein to Skopje,
McDuffie added.

A combat support hospital has been set up in Gnjilane with
three operating rooms and up to 54 beds, McDuffie said.
There is a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Skopje with one
operating room and 14 beds. If air evacuation is called
for, service members would be carried via helicopter to
Skopje and then to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany
via fixed-wing aircraft.

The military built a robust joint engineering capability
into the force mix, anticipating difficulty with lines of
communications, roads and bridges, McDuffie said. Army
engineers and Navy Seabees are being deployed to help build
two base camps within the U.S. sector and be available to
do road and bridge repair.

So far, McDuffie said, infrastructure damage within the
U.S. sector has turned out to be less than expected.