United States Cavalry Peacekeepers in Bosnia: An Inside Account of Operation Joint Endeavor, 1996

In December 1995, Operation Joint Endeavor--the first-ever ground operation conducted by NATO and the largest military operation in Europe since World War II--sought to implement a peace agreement concluding a bloody, ethnically motivated civil war in Bosnia. The 900 cavalrymen of 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry (Quarterhorse) and its attached units comprised a small but prominent portion of an international task force in Bosnia that numbered more than 57,000 NATO soldiers. Despite austere conditions, mountainous terrain, bad weather, tens of thousands of land mines, and threats of terrorist attack, Quarterhorse upheld the peace in one of the most challenging parts of the American sector. Drawn from interviews, firsthand experiences and contemporary media, this account of the first year of NATO’s peacekeeping operations in Bosnia addresses every aspect of the squadron’s experience, providing a vivid portrait of American armed forces overseas.

Mark A. Viney is the former director of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A fourth-generation Army officer, he was commissioned from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in military operations in Saudi Arabia (1994), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1996), Afghanistan (2002, 2011-2012) and Iraq (2004-2005).