9th Engineer Battalion
The 9th Engineer Battalion deploys to designated contingency areas and conducts combat and/or stability operations in support of a brigade combat team.
The 9th Engineer Battalion is a divisional mechanized combat engineer unit, composed of three line companies and a headquarters company. Its mission is to provide moblity, counter-mobility, and Survivability support for the 2nd Dagger Brigade with well trained Combat Engineers ready to deploy anywhere at any time.
The 9th Engineer Battalion was constituted 15 May 1917 in the Regular Army as the 2nd Battalion Mounted Engineers. They were organized 21 May 1917 at Camp Newton D. Baker, El Paso, Texas, and redesignated the 9th Engineers (Mounted) in July 191 7. The 9th spent the first years of its proud history in El Paso while serving at Camp Stewart, Texas.
After World War 1, the battalion was declared inactive except for A Company, which was transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas to provide engineer support to the Cavalry School. From 1923 to 1936, A Company provided vital training and infrastructure support to the Cavalry School first as a unit of the 2nd Cavalry Division and later as Troop A, 9th Engineer Squadron. The performance of Troop A during this period established a tradition of excellence for the 9th Engineer Squadron as a mounted cavalry unit. The platoon leader during a significant portion of that period was1LT Samuel D. Sturgis, Jr., later to become the Chief of Engineers as a Lieutenant General.
Following the outbreak of World War 1, the battalion was activated as the 9th Armored Engineer Battalion as part of the newly formed 9th Armored Division. Landing in France in September from their staging base in England, the 9th Armored Engineers supported the division's movement across France, making first contact with the enemy in the Schoenfels-Wilwerdange-Bissen area. The battalion fought in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, with C Company figuring prominently in the holding of Bastogne, for which the company was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation.
On 7 March 1945, during the allied offensive to the Rhine River, Combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division arrived at the town of Remagen only to discover that the Ludendorf Bridge over the Rhine was still intact. A small detachment from B Company braved enemy fire to cut wires and dismantle charges set to destroy the bridge. Although several charges were detonated, the enemy failed to destroy the bridge, and B Company moved to secure the far side of the bridgehead. The following day, C Company successfully kept the bridge open despite a continuous and intense attack by artillery and aircraft that scored 24 hits on the structure. When the smoke of the battle had cleared, the 9th Armored Engineers had been instrumental in the establishment of the first bridgehead across the Rhine River since the Napoleonic Campaigns.
The 9th Engineers participated in the final sweep into Germany and after the surrender, established its occupation headquarters in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, with A Company at Coburg, B Company at Kulmbach, and C Company at Hof. Occupation duty ended in late 1945, so the battalion departed West Germany and was deactivated on 13 October 1945.
The 9th Engineers were reactivated as the 9th Engineer Combat Battalion (Army) in 1952. In the fall of 1956, the 9th Engineer Battalion replaced the 35th Engineers at Kitzingen, Germany and moved to Aschaffcnburg within the year. The 9th Engineer Battalion served proudly in the Gulf War by leading the 1st Infantry Division through the Desert Breach and assisting in the liberation of Kuwait. The battalion subsequently returned to Aschaffenburg, Germany where it deactivated in 1991. The battalion reactivated as part of the 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt, Germany on 5 April 1996. In October of that year, it deployed with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team as part of the covering force for Operation Joint Endeavor and Joint Guard. The battalion returned to Schweinfurt in April of 1997. The battalion later deployed to Kosovo in June of 1999 as part of Task Force Falcon. The battalion returned to Schweinfurt in December of 1999.
