Photo By Master Sgt. Jessica Espinosa | The 416th Theater Engineer Command Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Matthew V. Baker,...... read more read more
FORT MCCOY, Wisconsin – Soldiers with the 416th Theater Engineer Command premiered the first U. S. Army Reserve bridge building training site during a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 19.
Bridge crewmembers will use the Line of Communication – Bridge site, also known as LOC-B, to train on setting up hasty, retractable passages over difficult terrain areas, such as trenches and rivers to be better prepared when in a deployed environment.
The Mabey Bridge was on display over a dry gulley in the newly constructed training area and included an armored personnel vehicle, as well as static displays of various equipment used to construct the newly established site. This will be the same type of bridge engineers will set up during contingency operations overseas.
The 863rd Engineer Battalion out of Darien, Illinois, largely supported the group project by planning, preparing and directing execution of general engineering construction operations and helped improved the training area by constructing an abutment to support the LOC-B training site for follow on missions.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Adam Herrera, a construction engineer technician with the 863rd ENG BN and project manager for the LOC-B, spoke of the enormity and potential of the project, noting the Olympic-pool-size amount of gravel they used in the area and boasted that there was not one single accident or injury during the more than 10,000 man hours it took to construct the site.
“Everything you see here used to be forested area,” Herrera explained just before the ceremony. “It’s been a lot of long hours and a lot of hard work.” The key tasks performed throughout the construction of the site were: abutment construction, road network improvement, equipment storage pad construction, COVID-19 training atrophy assessment and mitigation, construction management and quality control at the training site.
Though all Army components have bridging crewmembers, the majority of the Soldiers are in the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard. However, all components will have access to train on the LOC-B site, leadership said.
Herrera explained that opening that line of communication for all types of units and allowing the free flow of movement is key. “It’s really logistic support for various types of units – general Army movement from Point A to Point B,” he said.
About a dozen more Army Reserve LOC-B sites are projected for bridge crewmembers based off the Fort McCoy prototype training site, said Herrera.
The 416th TEC Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Matthew V. Baker, spoke during the ceremony, noting that that the yearlong planning and eight-week construction project is a culminating effort between not only the units under the 416th TEC, but all key players including the Fort McCoy Garrison partners, 1st Army, the schoolhouse and all the supporting engineers who assisted throughout the project.
“How are we going to meet the demands of theater?” Baker asked during the ceremony, adding that it was the first time he had seen a successful LOC-B training site established in all his time in the military. “Sites like this are needed to train our Soldiers and fulfill that requirement for theater. You don’t know how important that is.”
During the ceremony, Baker recognized about a dozen different contractors, managers and engineers for the work they did in contributing to the successful opening of the LOC-B training site.
Building bridges will no longer be just a metaphor, as engineers finally have a site to train on due to the efforts of all those involved.
| Date Taken: | 08.19.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2021 16:13 |
| Story ID: | 403748 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Hometown: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 290 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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