I know that there is a contingent of Nordic people here, I was just wondering if any of you served in the Armed Forces and were ever stationed in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia?

I am an Army officer and got lucky enough to get attached to a unit that got deployed to Task Force Able Sentry. It was under the United Nations, and there were two battalion of forces there: US and the Nordic Batallion (Sweden, Finland and Norway).

Just curious how small a world we live in and if I ever met any of you in RL.

Almost....I had to turn down that offer...+ another offer of service in Kosovo.

A few of my friends went to Kosovo and Macedonia, though.

This is the homepage of one of my best friends in the service:

http://www.boopidoo.com/

http://w1.920.telia.com/~u92001061/piktjurz/miKs05SoldprovB4X.jpg

How fun!! I was in Kosovo for 15 months. As a liason nurse, I went several times to the US Camp, both for work and PX visits.... Of course I met Americans during military operations as well. I went to school (Senior High, senior year) for a year in the US, and still have very close reltationship with my host parents, whom I'll visit this summer, actually. Because of my year there - I guess - I'm very interested in conversating with Americans every chance I get, and also took every opporunity while in Kosovo/Macedonia.. May be we have spoken??

Well, I was under NATO, and I was not serving in FYROM, but close enough.....

I used to love going over to Nordic Batallion's PX. They had some Israeli duffle bags that put US duffle bags to shame. Why no American ever thought to put a zipper down the length of a duffle bag is beyond me. Needless to say, I left FYROM with 2 Israeli duffle bags.

The Nordic Batallion also had a lot of folks at the UN Headquarters (UNPREDEP).

I never got a chance to go for a week to one of the Nordic Batallion Outposts. I heard they all had saunas and the food was good.

Man, my only claim to shame in FYROM was not puking from taking a gigantic shot of rokia (plum brandy). That stuff was rough. I had already taken the shot before my translator told me that you are supposed to sip it.

Due to my Genfer Cross, I was able to decline any slivo I was offered.... To me, that was very much OK

It was the FINBAT who had/has the saunas, unfortunately.

Of course I have a bag like that, but I enjoyed the American PX for the reason that they had all this stuff that gave me deja vue's - and I could buy mountain Dew and Doritos (not much of it now), as well as soaps, shampoos and lotions in the brands I liked from the States. (Good I'm going to the States this summer, it'll be hoarding (?) of Clinique stuff (cosmetiscs), exercising gear, books and quite a bit more :o )

On one of the operations I attended, I exchanged boxes of food - I can't remember the american name for it - and I had quite some fun when I opened the huge one I got from the US guys! I don't think they found the Norwegian as good as yours.

You might have been on the Balcans before I got there, though.