299th Engineer Battalion (Combat)(Mechanized)
299th Engineer Battalion was inactivated on December 15, 2004 in support of the Army’s transition to modular brigades. Elements of the inactivated unit were filtered into the newly stood up 1st Support Troop Battalion of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
The 299th Engineer Battalion was organized with an HHC and three multifunctional companies. The engineer force featured modularity and versatility. The two line companies had three multifunctional platoons, and the maneuver support company had two engineer platoons and an assault platoon. Within the HHC were the staff and CPs, support platoon, maintenance platoon and a HMMWV-equipped recon section which normally operated with the recon troop.
Force XXI
Force XXI training focus was on receiving new equipment and conducting new equipment training [NET]. The execution of NET set the stage for collective training beginnig 1 June 1996. The success of the National Training Center (NTC) rotation in March 1997 was dependent upon learning critical individual skills offered during NET training. Digital Recon System NET (20 through 23 May 1996) is a hand held data collection device that the recon section used to record terrain data which is then transferred to the terrain data base at division. The plan fielded four of these systems to the 299TH Engineer Battalion. The M9 ACE was fielded to the 299th Engineer Battalion. The unit received 12 each of these assets. ROC-V was a new equipment training program for selected soldiers of the 299TH Engineer Battalion. The ROC-V is a robotics mine clearing system. It is an Abrams Chassis with mine plow and remote control subsystem. No classroom is required for NET. WAM Trainer is a training device for the WAM currently under development. These devices were fielded to the 299TH Engineer Battalion. In 1996 the 299th Engineer Battalion of the 4th Infantry Division Engineer Brigade moved to a new kind of mine clearing tool called a Mine Clearing Line Charge, or MICLIC. While the MICLIC is not a new concept to the Army, the way that it's carried is. The MICLIC was towed behind a vehicle and then launched through the minefield. Now it is mounted on the back of an Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge without the bridge. The MICLIC itself is a rocket attached to a 100-meter line with C-4 explosives attached though out the line.
History
The 299th Engineer Battalion was constituted 8 February, 1943, in the Army of the United States as the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion. Activated 1 March, 1943, at Camp White, Oregon. Inactivated 18 October, 1945, at Camp Shanks, New York. Allotted 28 March, 1947, to the Organized Reserves. Activated 27 May, 1947, with Headquarters at Hempstead, New York (Organized Reserves redesignated 25 March, 1948, as the Organized Reserve Corps; redesignated 9 July, 1952, as the Army Reserve). Inactivated 31 July ,1950, at Hempstead, New York. Redesignated 11 October, 1954, as the 299th Engineer Battalion; concurrently withdrawn from the Army Reserve and allotted to the Regular Army. Activated 3 December, 1954, in Germany. Inactivated 17 November, 1971, at Fort Lewis, Washington. Activated 21 December, 1975, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. (Company D [inactive] withdrawn 16 April, 1989, from the Regular Army and allotted to the Army Reserve; concurrently activated at Pine Bluff, Arkansas; inactivated 15 November, 1993, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas). Assigned 16 October, 1992, to the 4th Infantry Division. Inactivated 15 November, 1995, at Fort Carson, Colorado. Activated 16 January, 1996, at Fort Hood, Texas.
