Photo By Adam Holguin | First Sgt. James Holm, first sergeant, 1038th Engineer Company, is greeted while...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas -- The 1038th Engineer Company, Arkansas Army National Guard, and Soldiers from the 876th Engineer Company, Georgia Army National Guard, arrived at the Silas L. Copeland Departure/Arrival Control Group airfield April 10, after completing nine-month deployments in the Middle East.
The 1038th Eng. Company spent the majority of their time in Kuwait, both at Camp Arifjan and Buehring, while also undertaking missions in Jordan, Afghanistan and Iraq. The 876th Eng. Company first deployed to Afghanistan before assisting the 1038th Eng. Company with missions in Kuwait.
Col. James Treece, commander, 87th Troop Command, was here to represent the brigade headquarters and greet the 1038th Eng. Company upon their arrival.
“The first thing I am going to tell them is welcome back, I am not going to say welcome home until they are on the ground in Arkansas,” said Treece, “I want them to focus on what they have to do here, there is a lot of good information they’ll receive here. I want to make sure they take full advantage of that.”
While in Kuwait, the majority of the missions the company undertook were improvements on the facilities and substructure in Kuwait.
“We were doing horizontal construction, mainly improving infrastructure on both Camp Buehring and Camp Arifjan, to include additional drainage, retention ponds, road grading and sidewalks,” said Capt. Clayton Shelley, commander, 1038th Eng. Company. “We prepared some building pads for expansion, mainly living quarters and did some force protection measures like add additional barriers. We also built a staging area, a taxi runway on Ali Al Salem Air Base for an Apache [helicopter] Squadron.”
Shelley was proud of the work ethic his Soldiers displayed and the amount of effort they put in on this deployment.
“We were able to complete over 62 missions [with] just under 200,000 man hours,” said Shelley. ”We were able to do that on seven different locations in four different countries.”
First Sgt. James Holm, first sergeant, 1038th Eng. Company, was proud of the schooling some in his Unit were able to complete.
“We had 15 soldiers that we got through Warrior Leader Course while we was over there, which I am very honored that we accomplished,” said Holm. “That was a task they took on and it’ll help move them along in their careers, it’s already done out of the way for them.”
Ultimately, Holm was happy to be home without incident, “I am glad I brought each and every one of them home, that’s what counts,” he said.
The units will complete out-processing and demobilization requirements with the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security before departing for their home states.
Treece recognized Fort Bliss’ role in getting soldiers home: “This is the second unit that has come through Fort Bliss since I have taken command of the Brigade … I have nothing but positive remarks on the level of support that this instillation gives these incoming and outbound soldiers. I just want to communicate my thanks to everybody that is involved in this process.”
The units efforts over the past nine months resulted in numerous improvements to U.S. bases in the Middle East and although horizontal engineer work may not be as glamorous as vertical construction, there can be no building without a solid foundation, something the engineers of the 1038th and 876th took great satisfaction in providing.
“As engineers we really do take pride in improving the conditions for Soldiers that are there now and that will be there in the future,” said Shelley.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2015 18:26 |
| Story ID: | 161440 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Hometown: | NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, US |
| Hometown: | TOCCOA, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 365 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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