Photo By Scott Sturkol | Soldiers with the 390th Engineer Company work the "coal field fill" troop project July...... read more read more
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Over the course of several days in late July, heavy equipment operators with the Army Reserve’s 390th Engineer Company (Vertical) completed the “coal field fill” troop project at Fort McCoy.
The combat engineers who are based out of Chattanooga, Tenn., were at Fort McCoy for the Army Reserve’s and 78th Training Division’s Warrior Exercise 78-22-02.
“We (were) conducting earth-moving operations to fill a coal pit that was an environmental hazard right close to the base,” said Engineering Officer 2nd Lt. Donovan McCaskill. “They’ve been trying to get this done for three years. However, this project provided an opportunity for us to reach one of our mission-essential tasks that we’re required to train on annually.”
Fort McCoy Troop Projects Coordinator Larry Morrow with the Directorate of Public Works said the team of 390th Soldiers moved nearly 3,000 tons of dirt to cover an old coal field. The project area is in the Fort McCoy rail area next to State Highway 21 on the installation’s South Post.
“They completed the job in 368 trips,” Morrow said. “They did an excellent job. We appreciate them taking the time out to work on the project and to also do it as well as they did.”
McCaskill said they had excellent weather to complete the project, and that it was a good project for the unit’s Soldiers to get some training on.
“We have a lot of green Soldiers, but they’ve been able to pick up skills, and they were able to improve their efficiency through doing all the loads,” McCaskill said.
McCaskill said being a part of WAREX also helped build skills for the Soldiers.
The only (military occupational specialty) within our platoon are 12 Novembers — our heavy equipment operators — and we do not get nearly enough time during the year to be able to train on our equipment,” McCaskill said. “That’s just because of time constraints. But in a two-week field exercise like this, we’re able to operate our heavy equipment. That is more than we can ask for. We are then able to become proficient in our warrior tasks and our engineer tasks.”
Morrow said completing these projects is important to improving Fort McCoy’s infrastructure for training and more.
“If we didn’t have these projects, many troops wouldn’t get the training they need, and the post wouldn’t benefit from the work they do to improve Fort McCoy training ranges and quality-of-life programs,” he said.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2022 14:55 |
| Story ID: | 426539 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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