Camp McGovern where most of the Nebraska soldiers lived was a surprisingly comfortable place.

Here's a look at how taskforce Huskers soldiers lived in Bosnia and how they coped with months away from loved ones.

(birds chirping) It's daybreak at Camp McGovern in Northern Bosnia.

Specialist Joshua Harris rouses fellow troops with a non-traditional version of a traditional wake up call.

(tuba plays Reveille) I asked people in charge and they were like, yeah you can bring your instrument, just bring it down during Thanksgiving break.

I brought it down during Thanksgiving break and they just kind of looked at me like, what the heck is that?

I was like, oh it's my tuba.

I play the tuba.

So you like hearing that tuba in the morning?

No.

I'd rather hear a trumpet but it's an interesting twist on tap, on Reveille.

Harris left behind classes at UNL and a spot in the marching band when his Army Guard unit was activated last fall To miss home a lot.

Miss, miss the band.

Miss all that fun stuff.

Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling.

There are other students and loan officers mechanics and police officers.

They come from 42 of Nebraska's, 49 legislative districts.

Roughly 400 citizen soldiers that together comprise task force Huskers.

Most live at Camp McGovern.

Its location is key.

It sits on the line that divides the Serb held portion of the country from the Muslim Croat area.

It's also near Brcko.

A city about the size of Grand Island.

Here many Bosnian died in battle or were victims of horrific war crimes.

Control of Brcko was disputed for years after a peace treaty was signed in 1995.

There's no question Camp McGovern sits in an area still considered a war zone.

Buildings are heavily bunkered.

Barbed wire fences, guard towers, and a 10 foot berm surround the camp.

Soldiers carry weapons at all times, clearing them at safety checkpoints before entering buildings.

McGovern is often described as Spartan for good reason.

It's a flat, mostly treeless sea of white rock.

The rock is needed because it normally rains a lot here.

Soldiers live and work in dark brown buildings called Sea Huts.

Still they say it's a pretty good place for a calvary unit to call home.

This is one of the hidden secrets of the Army.

This base camp is a lot nicer than I expected.

As a cavalryman we're kind of used to being out in the tents and having outdoor toilets and just dealing with the weather.

And here we have these nice sea huts with air conditioning and twin beds and the dining facility is amazing.

It's a great place to be.

I'm a single person and I'm a bachelor, so it, it's nice.

I mean, I got a place to do my laundry, cook me food.

Food's really good here.

Yeah, there's quite a variety.

Maybe too good.

Some soldiers say they've gained weight here.

Maybe that's one reason.

Exercise is a common diversion.

The camp has a huge weight room and gym.

Intermural sports like volleyball and softball are also popular.

Soldiers can't leave McGovern for recreation, so on camp activities are important As the leadership has to deal with their soldiers.

A soldier that's happy and enjoying himself is just a lot easier to, to use and to work with.

We have the softball, the horseshoes, the volleyball games and a lot of that relieves the stress of the soldiers.

It gives 'em something to do in their time and it builds camaraderie.

So as the soldiers go out and do their mission they're just a lot more comfortable.

And I think the people notice that (music playing) Entertainers like this country rock band and NFL cheerleaders make periodic stops at McGovern and there's always sumo wrestling.

Soldiers also kill time outside and inside their rooms.

This typical Sea Hut room houses four soldiers it's large enough for 10.

We just section everything off.

So we kind of have our personal space and just bed.

We got our little foot lockers kind of messy.

That's where we keep all of our clothes and bathing items and we, most of us have a TV and DVD player VCR so we can watch what we want.

And then we have all of our gear, usually under our bunks.

Technology also helps soldiers stay connected to home.

They use phone lines and live chat in the camp cyber cafe to stay in touch with wives, kids and parents.

The communications that they have here, the DSN lines which is that we something that we can call back home the internet, the web cameras, they provide us all with that.

So that keeps us in contact with our family.

So it's not so hard, but it's still kind of hard that we don't get to go have dinner with them.

Supper, breakfast.

Owens a loan officer and Sergeant Robert McMullen an electrical wholesaler are two of the task force Huskers soldiers who also served for six months in Kuwait in 2001.

I'm very anxious to get home.

I miss my wife and my kids.

This is my second deployment and just I don't want to have any more.

First thing my wife told me was how fat her cheeks were.

Then there are soldiers like Jason Von Hoff he's looking at photos of Emmy, his newborn daughter just hours after she was born in Lincoln.

Jason's father emailed the pictures.

The wives of more than 20 other task force Huskers soldiers gave birth while their husbands were in Bosnia.

You feel connected, but at the same time you're still you're still far and you just want to touch 'em and and hold them.

I had lots of support from my mother and father-in-law.

They were with me and they helped me, so I had help but it was, he wasn't there to support me as a husband so that was the hardest part, just not having him there.

Raquel's had her hands full the last few months caring for a newborn and Tristan, their preschooler.

The late night feedings.

I miss him being able to, you know, do some of that and and also when our two and a half year old needs something too really miss having an extra hand or just having a dad around to take him to do dad things.

Give her kissy, give her kissy.

It's something that's happened to the Von Hoff family before, during World War II.

Jason's grandfather, he served in the Navy and he was his grandma was in the same situation with her daughter being born and he wasn't home and coming back eight months later to see his daughter.

So it's kind of almost becoming a family tradition.

Jason and Raquel both say it's a tradition that's difficult but worth the sacrifice.

Being in the Army and the Nebraska National Guard and and coming over to Bosnia, it's really mellowed me out.

It's made me put my life more in perspective as far as like what's really important.

It's a feeling echoed by other Nebraskans who say they've been changed by the Bosnian experience.