brčko was a geographic point of contention in 1996 when the u.s.-led implementation force (ifor) built camp mcgovern on the outskirts of the city. camp mcgovern under the overwatch of 3-5 cav 1/bde/1ar division (us) commanded by ltc anthony cucculo was constructed from a war torn farming cooperative structure in the zone of separation (zos) for the purpose of establishing peacekeeping operations. the mission was to separate the forming warring factions. the zos was one kilometer wide of no man's land, where special permission was required for serbian or bosnian forces to enter. various checkpoints and observation points (op's) were established to control the separation.