Jason, those are some good points.
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Originally Posted by Olefin
and they had to have been there or the two light inf divisions would not have survived a year without them - all that would have been left would be shredded remnants most likely without the heavy armor that the 42nd had
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I think this is overstating the case. Certainly, having MBTs is better than not having them, but by mid-to-late 1998, the Yugoslavs probably have very few, if any, MBTs of their own. They've been at war for at least a year and a half, and have been fighting one or more (usually more) of the following armies- Soviet, Hungarian, Italian, Greek, and Albanian- during that time. If the Yugolsavs have any operational MBTs by the time the Americans arrive, they're probably antiquated T34-85s. The US light divisions certainly would certainly arrive with enough AT weapons to handle whatever tanks the Croats (for example) could manage to throw at them.
The Soviets show up in Yugoslavia shortly after the Americans but, AFAIK, there's no mention of the two superpowers fighting each other in Yugoslavia. The VGs mention the US fighting Croatian and Albanian separatists, and the Soviets fighting "Yugoslavian partisans".
Considering how long Tito's partisans (no tanks) survived against the Wehrmacht (some tanks) in WW2, those two American light divisions could last the two years between their arrival and the T2k "start date" of July 2000 or so without the 42nd ID's tanks.
Also, it's quite possible that the 42nd lost some of its tanks during the Atlantic crossing. There would probably be a few Soviet subs still lurking about in mid-98 and beyond.