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HHD Engineer Brigade
135th Engineer Group

The 135th Engineer Group had some name and structural changes with the in early September 1999. Headquarters Headquarters Company, 135th Engineer Group changed to the Headquarters Headquarters Detachment, 35th Engineer Brigade.

For the 135th Engineer Group, a mere name change was the least of their priorities. It is a totally different role. When the 135th became the division engineers, they planned for the obstacle breaching, supporting the fighting force and developing obstacle plans. It required some different training. For the engineers, the different mindset comes from being a group that supports the engineers into more of a war-fighting mode in the division structure.

It turned a Corps asset into a division asset, by beefing up the engineer support to the division level. Though the brigade designation might be confusing, the 35th Engineer Brigade still remains, and the 135th Group became embedded in the division headquarters, doing the planning and staff work for the division commander. It still maintained responsibility for the Corps battalions while keeping actively engaged at the division level.

Almost 12,000 soldiers trained in Central America by August 1999 as part of "Nuevos Horizontes." The majority of participants in "New Horizons" (as the exercise is called in English) are National Guard and Army Reserve troops deployed for two- or three-week rotations. They provided humanitarian assistance and completing engineering projects in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua -- four nations hit hard last fall by Hurricanes Georges and Mitch. In Honduras, the 135th Engineer Group and the 110th Engineer Battalion (both from the Missouri Army National Guard and the 225th Engineer Group (from the Louisiana Army National Guard) were working on several projects. The Ohio Army National Guard maintained an operations and logistics center at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, to spearhead the projects in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Operations in Honduras are under the direction of Joint Task Force-Bravo, also located at Soto Cano Air Base. JTF Bravo has responsibility for combined arms and counterdrug operations in Central America, along with the civil-military projects.