• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

1457th Engineer Combat Battalion (CORPS)

The 1457th Engineer Combat Battalion is headquartered in American Fork, Utah . Subordinate units are located in Blanding, Vernal, Murray, Price, Mount Pleasant, Spanish Fork and Tooele. The 1457th traces its lineage back to 1939 when it was first organized as part of the 40th Infantry Division.

The mission of the 1457th is to provide survivability, mobility, countermobility and sustainment engineering to the maneuver commander. During wartime, the engineer's contribution to the success of the infantry or armor units is considered to be a combat multiplier. It is a mission the soldiers of the 1457th Battalion take seriously. The Battalion is prepared to construct combat roads, airfields, and protective shelters, as well as to conduct demolition and mine and countermine warfare. In peacetime, the Battalion combines preparation for war with community support.

During 1999, the Battalion worked on many construction projects that benefited local communities and allowed it to keep soldiers' skills at a high level of readiness. The Battalion selects training projects to provide maximum training value for soldiers and maximum benefit for the supported community. During weekend training in 1999, soldiers of the 1457th Engineer Battalion built a city park in Tooele, worked on a snowmobile parking lot in Monte Cristo, continued working on a road across the BLM Pariette Wetlands in Vernal, assisted with road construction for Mountain Dell Scout Camp east of Mount Pleasant; and participated in many other community support projects. Soldiers of each company and detachment in the Battalion are proud to be members of their communities, and the units are in great demand because of the cost savings they provide to organizations that could not otherwise accomplish their projects.

Weekend training in 1999 also included four, externally evaluated, lanes-training exercises. Each event included a realistic training scenario with a twenty-four hour collective training phase, night operations, and simulated combat conditions. These events challenged squads and platoons by presenting them with difficult problems which required teamwork and professional skills to complete.

Annual Training in the summer of 1999 gave soldiers an opportunity to participate in a 'nation-building' mission while helping members of an Indian community in Annette Island, Alaska. Nation-building exercises normally take the unit out of the country, so this opportunity was unique. The soldiers enjoyed working on a remote Island in Southern Alaska. They contributed to improving the quality of life for a community that previously did not have access to a reliable transportation network.

Overall, training during 1999 was realistic and challenging. Soldiers of the 1457th showed a strong ability to complete both peacetime and wartime missions assigned to them. The 1457th Engineer Battalion once again demonstrated the versatility and worth of engineers to the State of Utah and the Nation.