Photo By Master Sgt. Paul Meeker | Soldiers from the 225th Engineer Brigade, Louisiana Army National Guard, lay block in...... read more read more
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CARVILLE, La. - Louisiana Guardsmen who enjoy travel to foreign countries often have opportunities to put their training and skills to work abroad on real world missions … and not just to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Three different rotations of engineer battalions representing the 528th, 205th and 527th Engineer Battalions, 225th Engineer Brigade, traveled to Hohenfels, Germany, each for 17 days to improve the Military Operations in Urban Terrain training sites at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center there, May 22 – July 31.
The commander of the second rotation, Capt. Alan Dunn of the 843rd Engineer Company, 205th Eng. Bn., said that the overall Louisiana Army National Guard mission there was to improve the MOUT village training sites by conducting both horizontal and vertical construction operations.
The MOUT sites are built to resemble typical villages that might be found in places like Iraq, Afghanistan or Kosovo. They are populated by contracted citizens of those nations, as well as by German nationals who spoke the representative languages.
Some of the missions that the 205th tackled were the construction of block courtyard walls and concrete footers for future buildings, as well as the gravel surfacing of a 150 by 200 meter motor pool.
Dunn, a resident of Geismar, La., was especially proud of the work performed at the MOUT village site because his Soldiers could concretely see how their efforts improved the overall training experience of the multinational Soldiers preparing for deployment.
“We try to build these structures as realistically as possible in preparation for deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan or Kosovo. It’s valuable to see how all your work comes together for this purpose,” said Dunn.
Capt. Scott Lejeune, commander of the third rotation from the 1020th Engineer Company, 527th Eng. Bn., said his troops accomplished a lot in a short period of time. They built block walls for the village, also poured sidewalks and expanded a CH-47 Chinook helicopter landing zone.
“Once we received our missions, my Soldiers began work immediately and didn't quit until the last minute,” Lejeune said.
Like all Army missions, there were challenges to overcome. 1st Lt. Cody Paulk, a member of the 527th along with Lejeune, said that an initial challenge his unit had to overcome was dealing with project plans that were written using the metric system.
“Our engineers were not used to the metric system, but they adapted quickly and completed the mission ahead of schedule,” Paulk said.
The fact that Hohenfels is proximal to many tourist locations was not lost on the unit commanders. They gave their Soldiers time off and organized morale, welfare and recreation trips for them to see some of area attractions.
One tour took LANG troops to the Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, which is in the Bavarian Alps and close to the Austrian border. Hitler had a tea house built on top of the mountain there for his 50th birthday. Of greater interest to some of the touring Guardsmen however, was the complex underground bunker system at the foot of the mountain. At one time the bunker system ran beneath the Hitler’s alternate official headquarters.
Dunn said that this tour was one of the most rewarding MWR trips he’d ever been on, because he was able to learn what happened there during World War II with Hitler. Other tours included visits to the historic cities of Regensburg, Heidelberg, Nuremberg and Munich.
No doubt the trips motivated the troops, but so did the work and its value to the Army’s deployment training mission. Lejeune said that his Soldiers were so motivated that at times it was hard to keep track of them.
“It’s valuable to see how all your work comes together for the training of the deploying troops,” Dunn added.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2010 09:57 |
| Story ID: | 53933 |
| Location: | CARVILLE, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 360 |
| Downloads: | 162 |
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