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1249th Engineer Battalion

On order, the 1249th Engineer mobilizes and deploys to conduct Mobility, Countermobility, Survivability, and Sustainment Egnineering for military joint and combined operations worldwide. 224th Engineer Company deploys world-wide and increase the combat effectiveness of combat forces by conducting general engineering, limited combat engineering and contingency missions to include disaster relief and community support. 442nd Engineer Company deploys by air and sea and provide engineer support as ordered in a theater of operations.

In July 1996, the 1249th Engineer Battalion at Salem, Oregon, became the first engineer unit since 1987 to conduct a live-fire exercise on the Multipurpose Range Complex (MPRC) at Yakima Training Center in Washington. The concept was born through the efforts of the 3rd Engineer Training Battalion (ETB), 2d Regional Training Brigade (RTB), at Fort Lewis, WA. The 2d RTB was formed in 1994 as a result of a congressional mandate, the Ground Force Readiness Enhancement Program. This program governs the conduct of evaluated platoon lane training for high-priority National Guard units, with top priority given to units designated as enhanced brigades or force support package units.

In November 1995, the 3rd ETB worked with the 1249th Engineer Battalion to plan the 1249th's two-week annual training (AT) for 1996. The training battalion includes three company teams--each with an engineer captain, a sergeant first class, and three staff sergeants--and a headquarters section. These teams evaluated the 1249th's company and platoon operations for the entire training period. Conducting tank and Bradley gunnery is commonplace on the MPRC, but an engineer unit using the facility for training was a new concept.

The 1249th's annual training was conducted with no accidents or safety violations and at combat speed. The platoons ran the lane in less than two hours, and obstacle breaching was completed (breached and marked) on an average of 7 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively. Smoke and pyrotechnics were used extensively throughout the exercise.

The training was extremely challenging and rewarding, and most of the soldiers thought it was one of the highlights of their AT. It was the most realistic training the unit had conducted and greatly benefited combat readiness. The 1249th took home another valuable asset that will undoubtedly contribute to its overall improvement.

In February 2000 Oregon Guard engineers assembled a Bailey bridge for the Port of St. Helens in January. "None of us in the Oregon National Guard had put together an actual Bailey bridge for almost 10 years," Capt. Karl Pond, commander of Company B, 1249 Engineer Battalion and officer in charge of the bridge construction, said. "To actually construct one, hands on, was invaluable training." Soldiers from the Oregon Army National Guard and Marines from the US Marine Corps Reserve in Portland carried a transom through a panel during the installation of the Bailey Bridge in St. Helens. Soldiers and Marines worked together to deploy a section of the bridge over Milton Creek in St. Helens.

An impassable stream crossing blocking a snowmobile trail near Chemult became passable during the summer of 2000 thanks to the Oregon National Guard. Company A of the 1249th Engineer Battalion, headquartered in Bend, spent two weekends in July and August 2000 installing a new 36-foot-long timber bridge across Cottonwood Creek, about 12 miles southwest of Chemult on the Winema National Forest. The new bridge allowed snowmobilers to cross Cottonwood Creek on a shorter and higher elevation route than the previous route that forced them onto low elevation private land that is sometimes inaccessible due to poor snow conditions or timber harvesting. This trail is part of Oregon's border-to-border snowmobile trail system that parallels the Cascade Range between California and Washington. This was the first time the Winema National Forest and the 1249th Engineers had worked together, but public service projects of this kind are familiar work for the engineers. During the summer of 1999, for example, they reconstructed a snow shelter on the Sisters Ranger District that they had originally built in 1990. Such projects are mutually beneficial: the National Guard engineers get a chance to practice their construction skills and public agencies and communities get work accomplished that they otherwise could not afford.

During June 2001 the Deschutes National Forest hosted an Oregon Army National Guard annual training exercise. Approximately 300 troops of the 1249th Engineer Battalion began rolling into Central Oregon on Saturday June 9th. They were camping out at various locations throughout the Sisters and Bend/Fort Rock Ranger Districts during the two weeks of training. This training exercise allows the 1249th to hone their skills on several carpentry and heavy equipment projects. Carpentry projects include constructing two new recreation toilets, a fire engine garage, a storage building, and providing maintenance on Black Butte Lookout facilities. Heavy equipment projects include expanding two rock quarries and resurfacing Green Ridge Lookout Road. Additional projects will be completed as time permits. This work is being done as part of a long-term partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Military Department. It allows the National Guard to maintain their readiness for active duty by training on real projects on public lands.

The town of Sisters, Oregon took on the appearance of a military base during June 2001 as approximately 300 troops of the 1249th Engineer Battalion of the Oregon Army National Guard moved into the area. The Guard troopers put in arduously long days in a combined training/service operation that leaves some improvements in the National Forest -- and makes the unit better prepared for active duty. The engineers were expanding the Forest Service's gravel pit west of Black Butte Ranch; building restroom facilities atop Black Butte; building a fire engine garage at the Sisters Ranger District compound; and resurfacing the road to the Green Ridge Lookout. Projects are selected from a long list of priorities established by each ranger district, Clinton said. The Guard selects the projects that have the most training value. For example, the gravel pit expansion offered an opportunity to do some "tactical" training. Engineering teams dug tank emplacements at the pit, practicing a variety of combat engineering scenarios. They could build some defensive positions and obstacles that they don't usually get to because it tears up a lot of ground. That training will be applied if and when the unit is mobilized for active duty in support of Army tank units. Such mobilizations were a critical factor in the Persian Gulf War a decade ago. Once the unit completed its tactical exercise, the soldiers turned their heavy equipment to moving brush and earth. The team scraped off several feet of ground over an area of several acres, preparing the site for aggregate mining by the Forest Service. Guard troops used explosives to blast holes for outhouses atop Black Butte and practice demolition techniques at Sullivan Gravel Pit. The road building techniques used in resurfacing the Green Ridge Lookout Road also translate into combat training.