Outside the base's main command center, a soldier burns classified papers in a pail. A chaplain counsels a terrified young private afraid about being sent to war. Now that living conditions at Task Force Hawk are slowly improving with the addition of gravel roads and sandbag walkways, the thoughts of soldiers here are beginning to turn away from the mud to the mission. Wednesday's arrival of the first wave of Apache attack helicopters signaled that nearly a month after the Army was called to join the NATO air assault against Yugoslavia, the first strikes are about to begin. James Hayes, a maintenance troop leader in the 11th Aviation Brigade that flies Apaches.
Guys are ready.
Soldiers talk excitedly of earning their first combat patch as soon as they fire their Hellfire missiles at Serb forces in Kosovo. Everyone is eager to put years of training to work at the real thing. But there is also an unspoken apprehension about what lies ahead. There are veterans of the Persian Gulf War here. Bosnia, Panama and Haiti, too.