Gotovina returned to Croatia in 1991 when the Croatian War of Independence was beginning, and enlisted in the Croatian National Guard (ZNG), the first organized military body of what would become the Croatian Army. He was an efficient commander and had the advantage – shared by relatively few other Croatian soldiers – of combat experience. He fought in western Slavonia: in Novska and Nova Gradiška, attached to the 1st Guards Brigade. He soon caught the attention of his superiors, and when the Croatian Army was established as such in 1992, Gotovina was promoted to Colonel. As a colonel he was one of the main organizers of Operation Maslenica, which restored Croatia's territorial continuity in Dalmatia.