As voting begins, Carson units are stationed at several locations on the edge of Zvornik. As the day unfolds, nothing dramatic happens. No ballot boxes are burned. There are no riots. Such patrols represent the majority of the soldiers' duty here, but the definition is loose - a presence in town could mean rolling through at 45 mph.
Welder takes a different approach.
Sometimes, he says, commanders who stay at base camp don't understand. For them Bosnia is a scary place, full of radicals. From what he sees, there is progress toward recovery, albeit very slow. Welder, a native of the central Michigan town of Greenville, grew up on the 3,000-acre farm his dad ran. Welder joined the Marine Corps at 17 and stayed for four years.