Photo By Staff Sgt. Joshua Ford | U.S. Army 1st Lt. Brandon Drobenak, platoon leader, Company A, 3rd Brigade Special...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Joshua R. Ford
3rd Brigade Combat Team
82nd Airborne Division
TIKRIT, Iraq—The night was no different from any other. The engineers got in their vehicles and drove down Highway 1 near Tikrit looking for craters to repair.
The holes would usually be blatant invitations for insurgents looking for a clever way to hide improvised-explosive devices if it weren't for the engineers repairing them.
The engineers with Company A, 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, spent the night conducting their usual crater repair operations on the morning of April 29 when they approached a hole that had some significance to it.
Except for its size and shape, it was no different than any of the other craters found on the highway, but it would be the engineer's 100th hole repaired in four months.
Since January, combat engineers have been spending their nights conducting crater repair operations on the Salah ad Din province's roadways.
Lt. Col. Troy A. Stephenson, the 3rd BSTB commander, said it was an important moment in the engineers' deployment.
"That was just a beautiful thing for me to see as a combat engineer. The mission is not real sexy, and it's not like kicking in doors and jumping out of planes, but it is a vital part of this fight. My paratroopers are very proud of the work that they do because it saves lives," said Stephenson.
"It's just another night of work for us. Whether it be the 100th hole or the 1,000th hole, we are just out here doing our job," said Sgt. Christopher Sheehan, light equipment operator, Company A.
Crater repair missions are crucial to the war that coalition forces are fighting in Iraq because the majority of the coalition's casualties come from roadside bombs, generally hidden in holes on the side of the road, said Spc. Chas Davis, a topographic analyst with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
"Every week we do an analysis of every roadside bomb that is found or detonated in our area of operation, and since the engineers have been filling these craters we have seen a significant drop in effective activity," added Davis.
The engineers have gotten the crater-filling procedure down. It takes them a short amount of time to fill a hole, filling between two and six craters during each operation.
Since the airborne engineers have been in Iraq they have assumed the role of more than the typical engineer position. During the beginning of their deployment two platoons from Company A patrolled the streets of Samarra and were based out of Patrol Base Razor.
"The guys are doing great things. We've got a great attitude, the moral is high, we are doing our job and as long as we are here, we will continue to keep the roads safe for our battle buddies," said Sheehan.
"We save lives, and we take a lot of pride in that," said Stephenson.
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 05.14.2007 15:04 |
| Story ID: | 10363 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 587 |
| Downloads: | 532 |
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