Local resident, firefighter served as peacekeeper in Bosnia
Published on April 3rd, 2002
STONEHAM, MA – Before he shipped out to keep the peace in the explosive Bosnian countryside, U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant and Stoneham Firefighter Sean Fitzgerald dug for bodies in the World Trade Center wreckage.
The 23-year-old Oak Ridge Road resident has had a fateful year. Just weeks before he was scheduled to start at the Stoneham Fire Department last April, Fitzgerald’s 29th Infantry Division was tapped to serve in Operation Joint Forge, the NATO peacekeeping effort designed to assist resettlement after the war between Bosnians and Serbs. Then days before Fitzgerald left for Bosnia, terrorists attacked America, leaving the World Trade Center in ruins and tearing a hole in the Pentagon.
Fitzgerald and the rest of the 29th Division’s C Company were at Fort Dix in New Jersey on Sept. 11. They would leave for Bosnia on Sept. 19, but the Guard gave them one last leave before shipping out.
“We rented a van and drove up to New York. We weren’t supposed to go that far, so we covered our American flag patches that indicate you’re going overseas, and we blended into the effort, digging and helping out at the Trade Center,” Fitzgerald said.
But these sneaky patriots were discovered, or uncovered. Someone asked to look under the tape, and all the military personnel knew what the flag meant.
“Everyone was really great to us. Telling us to go get ‘em,” Fitzgerald said.
Ironically Fitzgerald and his fellow soldiers were assigned in large part to protect the Bosnian Moslems attempting to resettle their homes in areas devastated by Serbian forces in the fighting of the 1990s.
“We reassured them that the United States was fighting a war on terrorism, not Moslems,” Fitzgerald said.
On one of Fitzgerald’s first patrols a group of old women, who were returning to their bombed out village, approached the American soldiers and threw flowers on their truck.
But keeping the peace is not all flowers and kind words.
“It’s not quite peace. More like a lack of war,” Fitzgerald said.
C Company discovered that Serbian rebels had hidden a cache of weapons at the top of a 5,000 foot hill. During the war the Serbs had mined the hill. When the rebels heard that the Americans were coming for the weapons, they mined the hill again.
“We air assaulted. We de-mined the area, all 5,000 feet up, and we had to hold the hill,” Fitzgerald said. “It was cold up there, and every time you went to get firewood, you thought, ‘I hope we got all the mines.’”
Fortunately none of the men in Fitzgerald’s Division were injured while serving in Bosnia during the six month stint from Sept. 19 to March 21, but Russian and Spanish troops were injured after coming under fire.
Fitzgerald and the Americans lived in Tuzla, Bosnia within Fort Comanche, a barbed wire ringed base of concrete slab buildings and large tents. CNN kept the soldiers connected to the rest of the world, and email kept them connected to friends and family.
“We had DVDs and a nice gym,” Fitzgerald said.
But before they could relax the daily routine included driving into the countryside to make sure United Nations aid and supplies were reaching the people, checking on the safety of the resettling communities and talking to the greatest source of information — the kids.
“The kids will tell you anything. They aren’t mad at us or scared of us. They just want candy,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald noticed that the younger children, the generation too young to remember the war seemed free from the hatred plaguing the older citizens.
“Maybe when these kids take over things will be better there,” Fitzgerald said.
No one knows how long the American troops will remain in Bosnia, but Fitzgerald said America might have a permanent role.
“We may leave bases there, like we did in Germany,” Fitzgerald said.
For a young soldier, Fitzgerald has a firm grasp on the larger forces at work in global politics and a sense of history and respect for his work and the people he is protecting. At no point does Fitzgerald’s language stray into the jingoism or crude slang associated with war movie heroics. This kid is the real thing: a smart, serious soldier.
“He’s just one of those go-to guys,” said C Company Captain Eric Ruhmann.
Fitzgerald’s parents Patricia and John, a U.S. Army veteran, are proud and relieved to have their soldier, their leader, their little boy, back home.
“They told me to keep my head down and to hurry up and get back,” Fitzgerald said in an interview last August.
Firefighters also stopped by the welcome home festivities to congratulate their comrade, who will be joining the Department April 19.
And Fitzgerald remains a member of the National Guard.
“If they need me again, I’m ready, but I hope it’s not next week,” Fitzgerald said with a smile.
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