From Albanian target practice to gifts of goats, NATO commanders find expanded horizons

Associated Press, Dec 22, 2005 6:55 AM

 

ZALL HERR, Albania-After the crack Albanian unit had blasted a hillside with weapons, the military display came to a startling climax: soldiers marched into the firing range, hoisted targets on their heads or tucked under their arms, and stood square-jawed while their colleagues opened fire.

 

Clearly, the elite commando unit was out to impress.

 

But the spectators were no ordinary bunch. They included NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Gen. James L. Jones and other top officers, on the last leg of a tour that had taken them to the wintry hills overlooking Kabul, the heart of Africa, and Algeria's Mediterranean shore.

 

The five-day, six-nation tour that ended this week illustrated NATO's ongoing struggle to evolve from a Cold War defender of Western Europe to a global security force whose new duties will range from peacekeeping to humanitarian assistance and the fight against terrorism.

 

For their part, the Albanians wanted to demonstrate that their army will be up to NATO standards by 2008, when Albania hopes to join the Western alliance.

 

"This is confidence shooting, the hardest shooting of all," explained a proud Albanian commander.

 

To further demonstrate their prowess, the sharpshooters turned their backs, bent over, and fired from between their legs at the targets held by their unflinching colleagues, as the NATO officers looked on with openmouthed dismay.

 

[...]

 

On Monday, Jones celebrated his 62nd birthday in Albania. A bone-crunching drive over potholed roads took him out of Tirana, the capital, to the commando base where senior Albanian officers serenaded him with a rendition of "Happy Birthday."

 

The NATO visitors may have preferred the Albanians' singing to their training techniques. One shocked European officer said he'd never seen anything like the commandos' shooting display in his long military career.

 

Jones tried to be diplomatic.

 

"The last thing that I ever wanted to do when I was commander in the Marine Corps was have to write a letter to a mother or a father or family whose son or daughter had just died in a stupid training accident," Jones said.