Bravo Company - 41st Engineer Battalion
The mission of Bravo Company, 41st Engineer Battalion, is to maintain a light combat engineer company, manned, trained, and equipped to deploy rapidly by air, sea and land anywhere in the world, and upon arrival, provide the mobility, countermobility and survivability support to an Infantry Brigade Task Force required to fight and win.
In March 1999, Sapper Peak 99 helped Bravo Company and elements of HHC prepare for Bosnia, as well as preparing for the upcoming JRTC MRE. As the initial exercise for preparing to deploy to Bosnia, Bravo Company focused on route and bridge recons, demining operations, and support & stability tasks. The missions emphasized the Battalion Peace Support Operations as well as troop leading procedures and equipment maintenance. The final aspect of the training was learning how to interact with the Entity Armed Forces (EAF). Dragon Styx and Convoy Live Fires were also conducted.
In May 1999, HHC and Bravo Company deployed to JRTC with TF 2-87 IN for a Mission Readiness Exercise (MRE). While in Louisiana, they conducted several Live Fire Exercises as they ran through numerous Bosnia preparation scenarios. The MRE consisted of route and bridge recons to insure safe travel, mined areas were marked, UXOs were reported, and security was provided for EOD. Other training consisted of reacting to sniper fire and dealing with hostile crowds.
During the month of June 1999, Bravo Company conducted Master Breacher training for TF 4-31 IN, and TF 2-14 IN. The Master Breacher program consists of Sappers teaching infantry squad leaders the basic principles of breaching and using demolitions. This successful project helped round off the last touches of the Bosnia Deployment.
During July 1999, Bravo Company conducted Support And Stability Operations (SASO) training to stay proficient in All they had been taught thus far in the preparation for the upcoming Bosnia deployment. These exercises included bridge reconnaissance and checkpoint operations. Bravo Company and 642nd CSE conducted the Herkimer Bridge Demolition. With 500lbs of C-4 explosives and 4 separate blasts, the bridge was destroyed with minimal debris. The fallen spans, still mostly intact, made the clean up much easier.
In August 1999, the Bosnia deployment began and would eventually take Bravo Company, 642nd CSE, and a good portion of the battalion staff. Bravo Company received the Division PT Streamer, becoming only the second company in the division ever to achieve this standard and the first time an Engineer unit had achieved it.
In September 1999, Bravo Company deployed to Camp McGovern in Bosnia to begin the mission of demining, LZ clearance, and munitions destruction. They replaced the 91st Engineers of the 1st Cavalry Division and were are responsible for an area 50 km wide and 70 km long. They used equipment such as the Minebreaker 2000 and the Mini-Flail to perform their mission. In October 1999, while deployed to Bosnia, Bravo Company conducted reconnaissance training with a Hungarian Bridging Company and traded maintenance instructions with Russian Separate Airborne Brigade engineers. In November 1999, elements of Bravo Company conducted demolitions training with Norwegian Infantry in Modrica, Bosnia. They disposed of several naval mines and 500lbs aircraft bombs.
