After nearly eight months far from home, including training on the mainland and Europe and a five-month security mission in Kosovo, at least 60 V.I. National Guard soldiers will return home earlier than expected, VING officials announced on Good Friday.
The troops, all from the 661st Military Police Company, should be home sometime in May or June instead of their original due date of August or September, according to various military statements.
“When our Guardsmen left the territory, we knew they would be gone for at least a year,” said V.I. Adjutant General Renaldo Rivera in a statement released Friday.
“We are not sure of the exact date of return, but we hope by the summer we can welcome them all back home safe,” Rivera said. “Their families have been notified and are getting ready for the big day.”
Citing an “improved security situation” and the recent peaceful and orderly elections in Kosovo — the Balkan state that was the scene of civil conflict in the late 1990s — the U.S. Army’s Europe Command announced on March 8 that about 570 of the nearly 1,400 Soldiers in Kosovo would come home early.
“These positive changes taking place across Kosovo have allowed KFOR to reshape and adapt to the improving security situation under ‘Deterrent Presence’ plan,” according to the March 8 military statement.
“We had to adjust to the situation at hand. Looking back, I think we had almost 60,000 soldiers here, and now, we are about 10,000,” said Lieutenant General Markus Bentler, commander of the Kosovo force, known as KFOR.
Other countries in the Kosovo force are also scaling down, including Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Turkey from the U.S.-led sector. Military forces throughout Kosovo are being adjusted from 14,000 to a total force size of 10,000.
“The local institutions, such as the Kosovo police, are really doing a fine job,” Capt. Dan Murphy, KFOR 12 public affairs officer in Kosovo, said in a recent military statement. “ I’d say the stability of Kosovo is very favorable right now.”
The National Guard and Army Reserve have led U.S. efforts in Kosovo for several years. Allied troops initially entered Kosovo in June 1999 following a 78-day NATO bombing campaign aimed at driving Serbian forces out of the region and to end fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. U.S. troop numbers there once numbered more than 7,000 and have been scaled back over the years.
The next rotation of troops in July will be led by Army National Guard from Puerto Rico in July, at which time the U.S. portion of the force will only be about 720, according to a recent military news release.
Announcements were made for troops from other states weeks ago. The Source was ready to announce the redeployment but was asked by VING officials to hold the information until the VING public affairs officer could confirm the announcement, which took weeks.
Other units coming home from Kosovo early include 160 Army National Guard soldiers from North Dakota, 350 from California, 20 from Kansas and a dozen Army Reservists from Hawaii, according to the U.S. military.
Members of the VING’s 661st Military Police Company have deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq and Kosovo, according to Friday’s statement. Some members are on their second or third deployment.
