Capt. Bogdan Kociubinski
First published in
SFOR Informer#166, October, 2003

On 8/9th of September during the change of command between SFOR 13 and SFOR 14 the incoming personnel from the Joint Visitors Bureau MNB "North" in Tuzla, Eagle Base took the opportunity to visit the Multi-National Battle Group in Doboj.

Doboj - The first port of call was the North Pole Barracks and the facilities it has to offer. The next day the visitors took part in some live firing training on the Maglai range. The US Army soldiers had the opportunity to compare their weapons with those of the Polish Battalion. They trained with: 9 mm pistol P-83, 9 mm automatic pistol Glauberyt, 7,62 mm kbkAKMs, 7,62 mm machine gun kmPK, 7,62 mm sniper rifle SWD and 14,5 mm APC' gun KPWT. Polish 2nd Lt Marcin Minur started by demonstrating how to use each type of weapon safely. After the theoretical part the US soldiers were able to observe the soldiers from 2nd Platoon B-Company Polish Battalion conduct a number of firing exercises.
A good days shooting
The US visitors carried out a number of different shoots with the Glauberyt, a polish made pistol using the standard 9mm NATO pistol ammunition. On the next shoot the 7,62 mm kbkAKMs was used. Just to make it a little more difficult the soldiers wore NBC suits and masks which in temperatures close to 30 degrees Celsius made it an exhausting shoot. The final practice was with a kmPK machine gun, each soldier shot around 25 rounds at targets 200 m or more away.
After lunch an APC - modified BRDM-2 called "Zbik" and a snipers rifle SWD were brought up onto the range. Before the day was over the US soldiers had the opportunity to drive the BRDM-2 and Polish HMMV. The day proved to be a real success and an excellent opportunity to improve relations between the MNBG and the US personnel from Tuzla. At the end of the day photos were taken with everyone and the US and Polish flags exchanged.

Related link:
Nations of SFOR: US, Poland