Bravo Bulldogs
[Activation]
Story
& Photos by SFC Matt Purcell - Posted Mar,
2000
Who can move mountains, rip out tank traps, build
airfields, roads and bridges, blow up anything else that gets in
their way and generally are considered to be the Infantry
soldiers best friend when it’s time to dig in and defend a
chunk of valuable real estate?
Need a clue?
They wear green, brown and black…. only two legs, and
bear the well deserved nickname of “Bulldogs”.
If you answered Company B 14th Engineers then
you would be correct.
The proud members of the Washington Army National Guards
newest Engineer Company can do all this and more.
The new unit came to the National Guard directly from the
United States Army.
Last year the unit was filled with active duty soldiers on Fort
Lewis, WA as a part of the 14th Engineer Battalion, the
only wheeled Engineer Battalion in the entire US Army.
Now its an Army National Guard Engineer Company within an
active duty Engineer Battalion.
Its all part of the new Multi-Component Battalion
concept that will soon be seen in many places in the Army.
Click here for more.
Since
its activation the unit has been busy recruiting new soldiers and
training up for this summers annual training deployment to Annette
Island in Alaska. Theyve
tripled in size, from the initial 25 assigned soldiers to now more
than 75 assigned with more than 20 others on the way.
These new Engineers are a mix of brand new recruits, soldiers
fresh off active duty and Guardsmen that have transferred to the unit
from other Washington Army National Guard units.
They
are joining Company B to take advantage of excellent training
opportunities with the most modern engineer equipment in the US Army. SFC
Richard Langston the Support Platoon Sergeant recalls the best
training he has had since being with the new unit; My
favorite drill was last fall when we went to the rock quarry here at
Fort Lewis.
All the 12B Combat Engineers cross-trained with my Support
Platoons heavy equipment as part of our effort to have as many
people as possible licensed on all of our equipment.
CPT
Chris Bahr, the Company Commander, agrees that his soldiers enjoy the
stick time they get when the Engineer unit brings their heavy
equipment out of the motor pool.
We are able to run our heavy equipment about six months each
training year in addition to the straight two weeks of our annual
training time.
The rest of our training time is spent doing the same thing all
soldiers do, the APFT, SRR, weapons qualification, etcetera.
Everyone
is looking forward to this years Annual Training.
Company B will travel to southeastern Alaska to help on a
massive road-building project near Ketchikan, Alaska.
Everyone will get their share of stick time, demolitions
and other road building activities as they compliment the Active duty
soldiers already on site.
With
close to 40 vacancies, theres still room for growth in the
Bulldogs. The
greatest need is for 12B Combat Engineers.
MOS qualification takes only two weeks in North Dakota with
plenty of hands on sustainment training on the weekend drills.
If you are interest in becoming a Bulldog,
please contact SFC Matt
Purcell . Let's face it... there's a little bit of
Engineer in all of us.
