Ready to go. Home!

Old: a "Chaimite V 200 APC. This vehicle is about thirty years old, but still valid for peace keeping operations. A mortar carrier version is also available.

Our battalion landed in Klina when General Ortuno was leading KFOR," Major Luis Maceira says to KFOR Chronicle.

"Then it was KFOR 3. When the last of our soldiers will be back we will be in KFOR 5," he adds.

Patrolling: this Cavalry recce vehicle has just completed the ford of a river. During the heavy rain of this winter this path had been blocked because of a flood.

"We are scheduled to hand over the control of the Klina surroundings on the 30th of March."

Nowadays the Portuguese are carrying out joint activities with the Italian soldiers which will relieve their sector.

Klina is a medium sized center in Kosovo and the whole area, which is controlled by Task Force "Pegasus", has about fifty thousand inhabitants. In addiction it is at a relevant junction on the way to Pec, Istok, Pristina and Djakova.

The battalion was set up as a specific Task Force (TF) in Portugal for this operation. All the components belong to the Independent Mechanized Brigade. The operational part of the unit consists of a mechanized infantry company (1st Mechanized Battalion) and a cavalry recce squadron (4th Cavalry Regiment). Ever lasting Armor Personnel Carrier M 113, French made light reconnaissance vehicle Panhard and the national made Chaimite wheeled personnel carrier are the main equipment of the unit. The Staff, a logistical company with Signals, Engineers and Medical Platoon are also part of the structure of this task force.

End of tour
But even if the Battalion has almost reached the end of its tour of duty in the Balkans, they are still performing patrols and check points all around their area of responsibility.

On the road from Pristina to Pec, not far from Djakova junction, protected by a couple of APC M113 the soldiers of the mechanized company are performing a check point.

Jose Augusto has eight years of duty and he has also been six months in Bosnia.

"I once found some AK 47 ammunitions in a car. The car owner tried to say that we had put the ammunitions in the car, or that someone else had."

Just checking: on a checkpoint Corporal Jose Augusto is inspecting every possible place in the car for hidden weapons.

The soldier looks perfectly all right while searching the driver of a car with eight passengers inside. "During the training before coming to the mission we all received some basic knowledge about Albanians," Master Sargent Americo das Neves Pratas says.

"This way the soldier can ask and understand specific things about the owner of the car or the driving license".

The people stopped and searched by the soldier seemed to be accustomed to that and showed a cooperative attitude.

Constant Effort
The men and women of the TF, whose name is "DELTA" for the Portuguese Army, have not only carried out operational tasks. The effort of the unit was addressed to all the possible aspect of the reconstruction of a normal life. Once the necessary security environment was set up, the CIMIC (Civil Military Cooperation) aspect of the mission was implemented.

Both the Engineers and Medical Platoon had their part in the reconstruction program. The roads of Klina were restored together with a school. The collection and destruction of garbage was restarted. Training and any kind of help in means and personnel were also given to the local hospital, which started to work again for the benefit of the locals. Like the most of the contingent are doing, also the Portuguese opened its medical facilities to the locals giving free examinations and medical check ups and treatments.

According to Major Maceira, a highly positive balance is the final result of the mission. "We will leave this Country in a fairly better condition compared with how it was when we arrived here," he adds.

"But we are not going home to rest for too long".

The battalion is already scheduled to be deployed in Timor area very soon.