Tuesday, February 27, 2001

By Kevin Dougherty
Kosovo bureau

Terry Boyd / Stars and Stripes Rapper Spc. Levon Russell performs at Saturday's Camp Monteith talent show. Russell is assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, Baumholder, Germany.

CAMP MONTEITH, Kosovo — There was more to this showcase than talent.

Organizers of the recent talent show at Camp Monteith wanted to bring stress relief and diversion to the soldiers. But another aim was to forge bonds of acceptance between the Albanian, Serbian and Roma ethnic groups who make up the town of Gnjilane.

"When you come to Monteith, it’s a completely different world," said Artan Ismaili of the Gnjilane Youth Center. "Everything is different. Everything."

That’s a view from the outside looking in.

For the roughly 1,500 residents of Camp Monteith, the daily grind of soldiering can challenge even the hardiest of souls.

So the camp chaplains and an assortment of other well-meaning individuals staged a talent show Saturday night. Door prizes were presented, corn kernels were popped and soda was provided as performers took to the stage. In the end, the organizers called it a success, saying the talent show drew more people — about 400 — than any other event since this current collection of Americans assembled here back in December.

"We had the [NBA] Wizards cheerleaders here, and we didn’t have as many people," said Chaplain (Capt.) John Kiser after the show.

Terry Boyd / Stars and Stripes Baro Amalipe, which means Big Friendship, strikes a pose during their choreography routine. The Roma group was one of three Kosovo ethnic groups performing Saturday night.

More than 10 groups representing many stripe, rank and ethnic backgrounds participated. There was an Albanian rock band, a Serbian ensemble of dancers clad in traditional dress and a Roma (or Gypsy) group of teens who performed a skit and a choreographed dance routine.

On the soldiers’ side of the show card, the talent ranged from rock ’n’ roll and rap to country and choir. The latter got the crowd swaying and clapping so much that choir members could have moved to the chapel next door and half of the house would have joined them.

Another crowd favorite was Spc. Chris Martin. He preceded the choir and was probably responsible for getting things riled up. Singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, Martin jumped off the plywood stage — battle dress uniform, black boots and all — and sauntered through the crowd.

"You just got to keep them [the crowd] alive," Martin said afterward.

He did. He also got the place primed.

And watching it all with the chaplains was Sgt. 1st Class Peter Witmer, the camp’s noncommissioned officer in charge of combat stress control.

"We wanted to bless the locals by inviting them here," Witmer said, "and the soldiers by presenting to them a piece of Kosovo."

Terry Boyd / Stars and Stripes Assistant choir director Alvin Monroe calls for top volume as he works behind soloist Chief Warrant Officer 2 Samuel Stidwell III of the 47th Forward Support Battalion. Monroe, a civilian cook, directed the Camp Bondsteel-based Mighty Voices of Praise choir in Saturday night's talent show at Camp Monteith. The choir is made of members of the 501st; the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment; and the 47th Forward Support Battalion of the 1st Armored Division.

One of the locals who appreciated the opportunity to perform and attend was Edi Sinani, a Kosovo Roma. Sinani was one of the members of the Roma group Baro Amalipe, which means Big Friendship.

"We were very surprised by the soldiers’ singing," Sinani said as he grasped a bag of popcorn. "The program was good."

The trophy for top performer went to Pfc. Garnette Abbott, who sang two songs she composed. Abbott plays guitar and possesses a heavenly singing voice. One senior noncommissioned officer likened Abbott to the pop singer Jewel, "only with better teeth."

That type of humor is exactly what nights such as Saturday are intended to produce, said Jan Field, a trauma psychologist with the International Rescue Committee in Kosovo. Field should know. She spent a dozen years studying combat stress in the Australian military.

"Soldiers sometimes see only the negative side of their jobs," she said.

Field spoke from just outside the Camp Monteith field house. Every now and then she would glance toward the door, watching the soldiers depart, unloaded M-16s slung over their shoulders.

One of them was Abbott, who had to leave before daybreak the next morning for an outpost on the Kosovo-Serbian border. An Army medic, Abbott replaced another soldier who missed Saturday’s night show because she was working on the remote hilltop.

Not everyone "can come off the line," Witmer said. "A great attempt was made to rotate soldiers in for this, but some just couldn’t come in because of the mission."

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