The 90s

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The nineties was when I started a family while serving in the US Army. I was in West Germany, Kansas, Germany, and with the NSA in Maryland. I married a French woman in Paris in 1990, where my first son was also born. My second son was born in 93 in Kansas. As a Serbo-Croatian linguist and military intelligence analyst back then, I used to monitor events in the Balkans to support the troops in Bosnia, then later Kosovo. I was part of the UN forces of Operation Able Sentry, which was to help prevent the Balkans conflicts from spreading into Macedonia, which had recently split from what remained of Yugoslavia.

I somehow missed the nineties As far as pop culture was concerned I spent a lot of it overseas Watching as the Balkans burned I had learned Russian for the Army But the Russian Bear was no longer wild About the time they reunited Germany I gained a brand new wife and child With the fall of the Soviet Union I thought the world might finely be sane Then I cross trained into Serbo-Croatian As Yugoslavia went up in flame The Army was not a free ride I did several deployment rotations Monitoring war crimes like genocide Or in Macedonia with the United Nations The nineties ended quietly At least from what I remember I was focused then on family Until that fatal 11 September

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Vee Bdosa

Date: 6/25/2016 12:44:00 PM

SARAJEVO ROOTS AND LEAVES I have over 50 of my ow poems, you can do a search on Soup for SARAJEVO and will see them. Poetry like this is what I need, this is NOT AN E-BOOK, it will be a real paper soft cover book and very high jprinting quality, the best. Right now payment for each poem will be at least 1 copy of the book maybe 2, email me veebdosa@aol.com if you know of any others, pass this along. This is a true labor of love for an area of the world that is sadly, about to erupt again.

Mark J. Halliday
Date: 6/30/2016 11:52:00 PM

Hope it doesn't erupt again. The world has enough troubles just with Middle East and Ukraine. Thanks for commenting. I don't really have any good poems about the Balkans, sadly. Spent a lot of TDY time at Bad Aibling Station in Bavaria supporting troops in the Balkans theater.

Vee Bdosa

Date: 6/25/2016 12:38:00 PM

I been to Ft Mead twice, as well, both times I served as Military mayou of the Meade Heights community. I am publishing a book of poetry, maybe some blogs, I am calling SARAJEVE ROOTSD AND LEAVES, attempting to explain how the inborn hate of the area is rooted in their lifestyl, and cycles from the roots of the tree up through the trump and leaves,then the leaves die and it all cycles and repeats. I need some poetry. veebdosa@aol.com

Daniel Schack

Date: 5/29/2015 6:08:00 AM

the 90s was a crazy timefor me in my late 20s both a happy and unhappy ride. nice poem. see and comment mine on poetrysoup. be well. daniel schack

Mark J. Halliday
Date: 6/30/2016 11:47:00 PM

Sorry I didn't see your reply last year. Appreciate your comments.

Logan Holliday

Date: 4/7/2015 4:20:00 PM

Being a young child while all of this was going on it is very interesting to read about what was happening in the world in an artistic format... Really enjoyed the write- Logan

Mark J. Halliday
Date: 4/8/2015 1:32:00 PM

Thanks for commenting. True what I said at the beginning of the poem. I'm hard-pressed to come up with a pop song I remember from the 90s (or after, for that matter).

Peter Lewis Holmes

Date: 2/14/2015 2:44:00 AM

a nice realist write...carry on! ...thanks for the feedback...Peter

Rhonda Johnson-Saunders

Date: 2/13/2015 5:08:00 PM

As we get older, we realize the world will never be sane...thanks for sharing some of your history. I graduated in 1990 and remember it as a restless time of change as you describe. You didn't miss it, you were just incredibly busy serving our country! Hus, Rhonda

Mark J. Halliday
Date: 2/13/2015 11:22:00 PM

The 90s were kinda crazy, but if picked another modern decade, it would probably be just as bad. Something interesting--the Mormon founding prophet Smith gave a prophecy about war back around 1840 predicting in fairly accurate detail how the Civil War would happen, and how the world would progress (of digress) from there. He was almost 'spot on'.