The Yugoslavians not only altered rifles, but also their own issued clothing. Often magazine pouches and other gear can be found with names. The belt on the Serbian camouflage trousers above was skillfully braided. The rosary and icon above were found in the pocket of a Croatian camouflage vest. The first two helmets above are Serbian and the last is Croatian, from the Bosnian War. These helmets were sold some time ago on http://www.tridentmilitary.com/.
The unit patch above belongs to the First Posavina Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Serbia, known for defending the city of Brchko in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Here is the story of how these uniforms came to the USA:
I was in the Army and a part of the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, 1st Armored Division stationed in Budingen, Germany as a Sergeant whose primary duty was the ammunition NCO for the Squadron although I was trained as a Cav Scout. I did all the ammo ordering for deployment to Bosnia and was attached to A Troop who was the first US soldiers on the ground and we arrived in Croatia in Dec 1995 before the Dayton Peace Accords took effect and the civil war was still very much going on. There were only about 200 soldiers with a few tanks and Bradleys. We secured the area around the Croatian town of Zupanja and that is where a military bridge was erected allowing US forces to enter Bosnia on Dec 31st to be in place for the Peace Accords on Jan 1st. I was lucky enough to escort a few of my soldiers through the town in our "off" time and met a Croatian soldier who was injured and recovering at home. He was so happy to have the US troops there he invited us to his home, we met his family and we hung out and talked. I collected uniforms and talked about them and as a gift he gave me a full set that he had that was unissued. As I was packing it up I noticed in the pocket of the vest was a rosary and icon placed in there. My time in Zupanja was great and all the people were very friendly. While there we saw a pretty good firefight a bit off in the distance and woke up a couple times to mortar attacks to the town.
I was the first soldier to begin crossing the Sava River, I think this was 12/31/95, and was in a HEMITT fuel truck. The first vehicle was supposed to be a tank with the Cav flag flying but the engineer unit responsible for the bridge was running low on fuel for their boats that was helping offset the current that was affecting their pontoon bridge. They pulled my truck around the whole convoy (at the time I was toward the rear) and we crossed halfway onto a small "island" and set up to fuel the boats (which never happened because they were afraid it would look bad). The tank crossed and a picture of it wound up on the cover of Time Magazine. Later that day we got a flat tire in Bosnia and did the fastest tire change to a HEMITT I ever experienced because we were still in a fairly active combat zone and surrounded by mines and soldiers. The roads were absolutely choked with soldiers walking home from the front lines. I spent New Years Eve in the middle of a marked minefield and we could not leave the road as it was unsafe. I took a "mine" sign home as a souvenir of that night and a media guy hung out with us partying in the New Year.
The HQ and myself set up base in the Bosnian town of Gradac in an old rubber boat factory. It was there that I met a Serb that we had hired to use as an interpreter. When I asked about uniforms (because I collected them) he said he could get me a Serb outfit. We did a trade for some chemical glow light sticks that he wanted. I used the uniform once while back in Germany when I was teaching a class to my squad that lasted two days in the nearby forest. I dressed in the uniform as part of playing OPFOR and was instructing my squad on the importance of setting up a good perimeter for the night and keeping awake during watch.
I was trained a Cav Scout when I reclassified from the infantry and when I got to Germany they were in desperate need for truck drivers at the unit. So I was assigned as a Hemitt driver for fuel and then cargo. I rose to the ammo sergeant and then the fuel sergeant went nuts in Bosnia and got relieved so I took his job for a couple months. I then got "promoted" to the Squadron Command Groups Administrative Assistant. At least there I had full access to the only phone that reached stateside and I was able to call home everyday when the commander was out and about. I also got to see a lot of the inside workings and met a lot of the high ranking US and other nation commanders. I got a lot of interesting mementos while there. Got some bayonets, found a large painting of Marshal Tito, uniforms, etc. I also found some US kevlar helmets painted bright orange used to give to Bosnian land mine clearing teams (the orange allowed medics to find the person easy if they got injured). My unit suffered the first death (SFC Donald Allen Dugan), he was a friend and very good guy. We also suffered a death as we were preparing to go home, SSG "Moose" who was killed when his vehicle rolled over into a water filled ditch and he drowned. I enjoyed my Bosnia tour but was very happy to go home (as you can imagine).
The unit patch above belongs to the First Posavina Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Serbia, known for defending the city of Brchko in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Here is the story of how these uniforms came to the USA:
I was in the Army and a part of the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, 1st Armored Division stationed in Budingen, Germany as a Sergeant whose primary duty was the ammunition NCO for the Squadron although I was trained as a Cav Scout. I did all the ammo ordering for deployment to Bosnia and was attached to A Troop who was the first US soldiers on the ground and we arrived in Croatia in Dec 1995 before the Dayton Peace Accords took effect and the civil war was still very much going on. There were only about 200 soldiers with a few tanks and Bradleys. We secured the area around the Croatian town of Zupanja and that is where a military bridge was erected allowing US forces to enter Bosnia on Dec 31st to be in place for the Peace Accords on Jan 1st. I was lucky enough to escort a few of my soldiers through the town in our "off" time and met a Croatian soldier who was injured and recovering at home. He was so happy to have the US troops there he invited us to his home, we met his family and we hung out and talked. I collected uniforms and talked about them and as a gift he gave me a full set that he had that was unissued. As I was packing it up I noticed in the pocket of the vest was a rosary and icon placed in there. My time in Zupanja was great and all the people were very friendly. While there we saw a pretty good firefight a bit off in the distance and woke up a couple times to mortar attacks to the town.
I was the first soldier to begin crossing the Sava River, I think this was 12/31/95, and was in a HEMITT fuel truck. The first vehicle was supposed to be a tank with the Cav flag flying but the engineer unit responsible for the bridge was running low on fuel for their boats that was helping offset the current that was affecting their pontoon bridge. They pulled my truck around the whole convoy (at the time I was toward the rear) and we crossed halfway onto a small "island" and set up to fuel the boats (which never happened because they were afraid it would look bad). The tank crossed and a picture of it wound up on the cover of Time Magazine. Later that day we got a flat tire in Bosnia and did the fastest tire change to a HEMITT I ever experienced because we were still in a fairly active combat zone and surrounded by mines and soldiers. The roads were absolutely choked with soldiers walking home from the front lines. I spent New Years Eve in the middle of a marked minefield and we could not leave the road as it was unsafe. I took a "mine" sign home as a souvenir of that night and a media guy hung out with us partying in the New Year.
The HQ and myself set up base in the Bosnian town of Gradac in an old rubber boat factory. It was there that I met a Serb that we had hired to use as an interpreter. When I asked about uniforms (because I collected them) he said he could get me a Serb outfit. We did a trade for some chemical glow light sticks that he wanted. I used the uniform once while back in Germany when I was teaching a class to my squad that lasted two days in the nearby forest. I dressed in the uniform as part of playing OPFOR and was instructing my squad on the importance of setting up a good perimeter for the night and keeping awake during watch.
I was trained a Cav Scout when I reclassified from the infantry and when I got to Germany they were in desperate need for truck drivers at the unit. So I was assigned as a Hemitt driver for fuel and then cargo. I rose to the ammo sergeant and then the fuel sergeant went nuts in Bosnia and got relieved so I took his job for a couple months. I then got "promoted" to the Squadron Command Groups Administrative Assistant. At least there I had full access to the only phone that reached stateside and I was able to call home everyday when the commander was out and about. I also got to see a lot of the inside workings and met a lot of the high ranking US and other nation commanders. I got a lot of interesting mementos while there. Got some bayonets, found a large painting of Marshal Tito, uniforms, etc. I also found some US kevlar helmets painted bright orange used to give to Bosnian land mine clearing teams (the orange allowed medics to find the person easy if they got injured). My unit suffered the first death (SFC Donald Allen Dugan), he was a friend and very good guy. We also suffered a death as we were preparing to go home, SSG "Moose" who was killed when his vehicle rolled over into a water filled ditch and he drowned. I enjoyed my Bosnia tour but was very happy to go home (as you can imagine).