52nd Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Heavy)
On order, the 52nd Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) (Tri-Component) deploys to any theater of operations and conducts general engineering/bulk fuel missions in support of U.S. / joint / combined forces, provides counter mobility and survivability engineer support as required.
The Headquarters Support Company (HSC) is the most diverse unit within the Battalion. The company is home to over two hundred soldiers with over 40 military occupational specialties. The battalion headquarters is part of this organization consisting of the staff sections, communications, cooks and a medical aid facility. HSC also houses its own organization maintenance support and all direct support maintenance for all companies within the battalion. The Company is responsible for external construction support as well. Its Equipment (EQ) Platoon with over fifty soldiers and a wide range of construction and hauling equipment is vital to the battalion's troop construction support on Fort Carson. The EQ Platoon's haul assets have been used extensively on Fort Carson and through out the Midwest to remove several thousand tons material. The Headquarters Support Company is a major part of the Battalion's success and essential in the constant mission support of the other companies within the unit.
Alpha Company is currently home to 163 soldiers who have the honor of providing Fort Carson and the surrounding area with all of its troop construction efforts. There are two Vertical Construction Platoons and one Horizontal Construction Platoon (Earthmoving) within the company. The platoons have approximately 40-45 soldiers each. In addition, Alpha Company provides its own unit level maintenance and daily operation support. All three platoons provide support for Fort Carson by participating in troop construction projects. Alpha Company has completed numerous projects for Range Control, the Department of Public Works, the Fitness Trail and the Post Commander. Alpha Company is an integral part of the quality of life improvements on Fort Carson and has earned a reputation for providing the Mountain Post with excellent troop construction efforts at every opportunity.
Bravo Company represents the Army National Guard "leg" of the tri-component battalion. The company is headquartered in Albany, Oregon, with a detachment located in Warrenton, Oregon.
Charlie Company is an Army Reserve Company with headquarters and two vertical construction platoons located at Fort Carson, Colorado. Detatchment 1 of Charlie Company consists of a horizontal platoon (Earthmoving), and is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
59th Quartermaster company is an active duty bulk petroleum fuel company consisting of two bulk fuel platoons and organic maintenance and administrative sections. The company has the capability of storing, transporting, and distributing over 2 million gallons of petroleum fuel products to various customers on the battlefield.
At the Colorado post and its Piņon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS), soldiers of the 52nd Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) and specialists from Fort Carson's Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management (DECAM) routinely team up on earth-moving projects to control and repair erosion on the range watershed. The help of the combat engineers is a boon to DECAM because building and maintaining erosion-control dams is part of the environmental division's multi-pronged land management mission. Over time, the areas behind the dams fill with dirt and sediment that must be removed. That makes these areas prime locations for the 52nd Engineers to dig defensive tank positions as part of their training. The engineers must practice digging hull defilades, which are large, ramped holes big enough to conceal an M1A1 Abrams tank from ground forces. DECAM seized the opportunity to work with the engineers to find a mission- related alternative to the past practice of digging hull defilades, which created scars on the landscape. Other DECAM erosion abatement projects contracted to the 52nd Engineers include construction of terraces to capture water, road grading, banking sloped areas, and repair of culverts. The engineers get valuable combat training, and the Army benefits from projects that save a lot of money and help to preserve vast areas for military training.
The 52d Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) began as a railway construction battalion at Camp Upon, New York on 18 February 1918. It saw service in France in World War I where it had the difficult mission of constructing and repairing the railroads that were the logistics life for the American Expeditionary Forces. The unit was demobilized after World War I.
During World War II, designated as the 1st Battalion, 19th Engineer Combat Regiment, the Battalion participated in the North African, Sicilian, and Italian Campaigns. In November 1942, the battalion was part of the assault echelon in landings in North Africa. Over the next several months, the unit maintained main supply routes, repaired airfields, conducted recons, built bridges, cleared mines, dodged air attacks, prepared obstacle systems and fought as infantry. On 19 February 1943, the battalion reorganized as infantry and dug in as part of the 1st Infantry Division's defense at Kasserine Pass. On the night of 20 February 1943, the battalion came under intense fire. The unit suffered 117 casualties at Kasserine. For the remainder of the Tunisian Campaign, the 52d Engineer Battalion provided construction and combat engineer support to the 1st and 34th Infantry Divisions and the 1st Ranger Battalion. A major part of the support was keeping over 360 miles of roads open.
The battalion was again in the assault echelon during the invasion of Sicily. The engineers hastily cleared sections of beaches, reconnoitered for exit routes, provided dozer support and knocked out pillboxes. When the unit moved inland, they repaired the Comiso Airfield. During the march across Sicily, the engineers spent most of their time probing for mines, bypassing blown bridges or occupying positions alongside the infantry.
During the fighting in Italy, the battalion was given one of the toughest missions assigned to any engineer unit in World War II, support for the 36th Infantry Division's disastrous crossing of the Rapido River. In the bitter battle, the engineers built bridges in open terrain under heavy enemy fire. The 36th Infantry Division was destroyed in the fighting. The battalion spent the rest of the war supporting operations in Italy.
In February 1968, after several redesignations, the 52d Engineer Battalion was activated at Fort Carson, where it has remained providing construction and combat engineer support. In October 1990 through April 1991, the 52d Engineer Battalion deployed to Saudi Arabia, where the battalion performed many missions during the defensive and offensive phases of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.
In September 1994 through December 1994, the 52d Engineer Battalion deployed to Haiti in support of the US and international forces that reestablished democracy in that country. The diverse challenges of Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti required the largest OCONUS deployment of engineer forces since the Southwest Asian War. The 20th Engineer Brigade from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, served as the headquarters for Task Force Castle, which was a joint engineer task force of more than 2,500 personnel. Decisive engineer operations began when the first piece of 27th Engineer Battalion equipment began leveling the field at the future home of Base Camp Tiger and ended when the 52nd Engineer Battalion completed its last construction directive with the JTF Engineer. In the intervening seven weeks, Task Force Castle performed a remarkable variety and amount of work.
Rock from a quarry operated by the 52nd Engineer Battalion was used to build roads and improve drainage. One of the 20th Brigade's earliest concerns was to find sources for crushed rock for horizontal construction. Scouting north up MSR 100, the brigade's construction cell discovered a quarry with a sizeable limestone deposit. They negotiated with the landowner/quarry operator and agreed to a flat rate of one US dollar per ton of rock removed. The 52nd Battalion operated the quarry around the clock while all three battalions in the Port-au-Prince area drew from it. After 200,000 tons of rock were removed, the landowner was a very wealthy man in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. This was the largest military quarry operation in a tactical environment since the Korean Conflict. Together with two small quarries that produced nearly 35,000 tons of gravel for the 37th Battalion in the Cap Haitien area, they formed one of the most intensive quarrying operations ever conducted in the Caribbean area.
In October of 1999 the 52d Engineer Battalion was established as one of the first multi-component engineer battalions in the Army, consisting of Active Duty, Army Reserve, and National Guard companies.
In July 2003 the 52nd Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), part of the 43rd Area Support Group based at Fort Carson, was operating out of Mosul, Iraq, with the 101 st Airborne Division. The battalion had battled a flow of molten sulfur and had been working on some high-profile construction projects. During late July 2003, the 52nd completed putting out a sulfur fire near Qayarra, about 25 miles south of Mosul. This fire threatened the Tigris River with large amounts of molten sulfur. Mounds of sulfur in a processing plant turned into a liquid in the heat and flowed out of a processing plant. The effort to put out the fire and contain the sulfur took four weeks for the soldiers and local Iraqi and Kurdish firefighters. "C" Company lead the sulfur fire mission. During July 2003 "B" Company was running a home-building project in Mosul. This project, known as House of Hope, required soldiers to build a typical Iraqi home of block, mortar and concrete. The soldiers were being trained in Iraqi construction methods so that they can train Iraqi construction crews. Arab and Kurd work crews were on the project. "A" Company was devoted to building Camp Diamondback, a 500-soldier base camp similar to what US forces occupy in the Balkans. By late July 2003, the soldiers were completing the site preparation and getting ready to start placing concrete foundations for tropical huts. This project could last several months. The soldiers were anxiously anticipating completion because they might be the first to occupy the new and vastly improved housing.
The Associated Press reported on March 7, 2004 that roughly 40 reservists from the 52nd Engineer Battalion returned to the United States. The unit had deployed to Iraq last Spring and was operating with the 101st Airborne Division to assist with reconstruction efforts. The unit left Iraq in early February 2004 and trasited to Kuwait.
