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Date Posted: 15:22:43 01/02/02 Wed
Author: By Rick Scavetta, Bosnia bureau
Subject: Bosnian with grenade in mouth tests training of soldiers at Eagle Base

Bosnian with grenade in mouth tests training of soldiers at Eagle Base

By Rick Scavetta, Bosnia bureau
European edition, Wednesday, January 2, 2002

Police and neighbors try to convince Rizo Delic, to give up the grenade he was holding in his mouth just outside the pedestrian gate to Eagle Base on Tuesday.


EAGLE BASE, Bosnia and Herzegovina — New Year’s Day nearly started off with a bang for peacekeepers here, as a Bosnian man wandered toward a U.S. base with a grenade in his mouth.

About 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man neighbors identified as Rizo Delic stumbled in front of the pedestrian gate at Eagle Base, apparently intoxicated and wielding a knife. From his lips, a hand grenade dangled by the pin.

Well behind concrete blockades and concertina wire, U.S. troops normally tasked to frisking incoming workers switched gears to deal with the threat. Infantrymen locked the front gate and called local police.

"Then we moved outside for — eyes on," said Sgt. George Benore, 22, of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y. "We are trained for this. We were prepared mentally."

As Bosnian police officers talked to Delic, an Army sniper crawled into a tower overlooking the street.

"They [police] defused the situation. We provided the cover, hoping he wouldn’t do something to our men or the civilians," said Benore, whose squad of soldiers manned the gate.

Dozens of local workers — either Brown & Root employees or contractors — gave Delic wide berth as he tripped over his own feet, the grenade swinging from his teeth. An Army interpreter called out over a megaphone, "Civilians should step away from the gate."

On at least two occasions, the grenade dropped to the slush-covered street. From behind the wire, troops jokingly asked, "Where’s his dash-10, so he can learn to use it." A "dash-10" refers to Army technical manuals.

The incident began at the Happy Day Motel, a suspected brothel a short walk from the Eagle Base in the village of Dubrave. Delic suspected the motel owner attacked his cousin last week, villagers said.

Last Wednesday, soldiers on gate guard witnessed three cars block a local man along the road outside the wire fence. The attackers stepped from the cars and beat the man severely, one soldier said.

Neighbors said Delic went seeking revenge — knife in hand. How the situation changed to Delic threatening to detonate the grenade is a mystery, although Bosnians just shrugged it off as somewhat normal for villagers in Dubrave.

After nearly a half-hour, Delic left in a car with family members, apparently still carrying his grenade, and local police sauntered back to their van. It is unknown whether they made any attempt to confiscate the grenade or pursue an arrest.

Soldiers followed the correct policy of allowing local authorities to take care of local problems, said Maj. Ed Larkin, an Eagle Base spokesman. Their response was based on training and discipline, he said.

"They stopped, they thought, and protected the area," Larkin said. "That’s a credit to the noncommissioned officers on the gate and base defense force."

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