CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo - When Col. Bruce Pearre of the Missouri Army National Guard found out that he would deploy to Kosovo, he had the typical thoughts about leaving his family and home for a year.
But he also started thinking about the real possibility of finding the Kosovo exchange student hosted by his family.
Pearre, who has over 30 years in the Missouri National Guard, had recently arrived at Camp Bondsteel near Urosevic in Kosovo - headquarters for the U.S. led Multi-National Task Force-East - to join the latest rotation of U.S. Soldiers from Missouri. Besmir Sylejmani
Once he settled in, the senior logistics officer for MNTF-E, asked the contracting office staff about a "local-national," who may be working at Bondsteel as an interpreter.
"I looked down a list of interpreters and saw his name," said Pearre smiling with a sense of accomplishment. "I saw that he's an interpreter for LMT [liaison monitoring team] team two."
Pearre called the LMT to see if he could meet with the boy, who arrived in America knowing just enough English to get by.
Besmir Sylejmani had to compete for that opportunity to participate in the foreign exchange student program with a written essay.
He remembers how excited he was. "In my essay, I said how I wanted to know other cultures and was interested in other opinions. And I wanted to see the world." Sylejmani said. "I was lucky I won a scholarship."
The teenager attended New Bloomfield, Mo., high school and spent the school year improving his English, developing a love of baseball and getting to know his host family and making friends.
Days after graduating with the class of 2003, Sylejmani headed back to his native Kosovo, then a war torn province, but he never forgot the friendships he developed, the fun he had and the overall experience.
Now five years later, Sylejmani is a busy college student with a hectic work schedule as an interpreter on Camp Bondsteel, who hasn't had much time to think about his experience in Missouri.
That all changed when Sylejmani received a message at his office. "It said a colonel is looking for me - wants to talk to me," said Sylejmani, who's quite familiar with the Army's rank structure. "I didn't think it was good."
The 23-year-old's mind was put at ease when Pearre called back. "I knew the name of course. But I either didn't know or had forgotten that he was in the military - it was a surprise," said Sylejmani.
They got together over coffee to do some catching up. Pearre brought Sylejmani up to date on fellow classmates, baseball teammates and Pearre's youngest son, Justin.
They became fast friends, explained Pearre, speaking of how quickly Justin and Besmir locked arms. The two had plenty in common and many opportunities to meet because the Pearre and Ragar families are closely connected.
"Besmir's exchange parents are good friends and both our families have hosted exchange students," Pearre said.
Pearre wanted Sylejmani to have the high school memento he'd never seen - to give him the yearbook that was printed after the graduation ceremony, so he put in a call to the Ragars but that would be put on hold.
"His host family could not find his year book," Pearre said but he wanted to surprise Sylejmani with a copy and he wouldn't stop there.
In typical military fashion, his persistence paid off and one of Sylejmani's former teachers found a brand new copy of the year book tucked away at the high school.
Pearre presented Sylejmani with the yearbook - the two sat down together and reminisced about that school year and meticulously reviewed the memento - quizzing each other with "do you remember" moments and the inevitable, "what ever happened to"¦" questions.
At some point during the visit, the two men peering into the book made plans for a visit to Sylejmani's home where he lives with his parents.
Having hosted two foreign exchange students of their own, being a host dad is a responsibility Pearre, a lifelong resident of New Bloomfield, takes very seriously. And having raised two boys, Kevin and Justin - Pearre knows how difficult it must be to let a teenage child go off to another country and live with a new family they have not met before. For that reason and to keep in touch, he and his wife, Joy, make it a point of visiting their host son, in their native country and connecting with their parents.
"My wife and I and both boys are going to Berlin to meet with our exchange student's family," said Pearre, who has already visited their exchange son residing in Mexico. "I think its going to be exciting.
"We know from our relationship we have with our student's parents how important it is to make that connection," added Pearre. "It was really tough on their mothers."
One of the things Pearre mentioned to Sylejmani early in their initial reunion is that he wants to meet Sylejmani's parents while he's here in Kosovo.
"The bad thing is that our families won't get to see Besmir again anytime soon, but at least I can provide a link."
Pearre arrived at the Sylejmani family house one afternoon weeks later and was welcomed with open arms and ushered into the home to a native Kosovar meal. Crossing cultural and language barriers, like an axiom for parenting - Pearre and Sylejmani's parents, Nazif and Ajshe Sylejmani were not deterred in their conversation.
The threesome talked about everything from their sons marrying one day, to looking forward to their finishing up college. Each having reared two boys, there was no end to what the parents talked and laughed about.
Sylejmani's mother put her hands to her heart and with misty eyes, she thanked Pearre in Albanian as she remembered the day she put her son on the flight bound for Missouri.
Pearre doesn't speak the language, but he saw her emotion loud and clear and understood.
"It has to be hard to send your child away for ten months," Pearre said.
"I didn't want him to go but I stayed strong - I knew I had to be strong for him," said Ajshe, Sylejmani's mother, whose oldest son attends college in Switzerland. "When he got on the plane, only then did I break down and cry."
Sylejmani's parents asked about the Ragar family and gave Pearre a message to take back home: "When you see them again let them know we said thank you. Our son was very young and they treated him like family," they said.
On his five thousand mile trek back to the U.S., Pearre will take with him pictures, memories and family sentiments he can share with his family and friends who have fond memories of Sylejmani's stay in New Bloomfield.