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203d Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy)

Engineer soldiers added a roof to a water storage shed at a Task Force Able Sentry observation post in January, 1998 on the Macedonian border. A group of 34 soldiers from Missouri Army National Guard engineer units who served a 270-day volunteer tour as an engineer component for the task force. The soldiers were form 203d Engineer battalion, the 110th Engineer battalion, and the 1140th Engineer Battalion.

During the spring of 1999 soldiers in the 203rd Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) traveled to Central America to clear roads and build schools and clinics to provide relief to people in hurricane-ravaged northern Honduras. But before the soldiers loaded their gear on the plane, there was a lot of work to be done here at home. Prior to deployment, every soldier must complete a Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP) check, also known as a "beltline". Beltlines can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially when the soldiers are spread out among several locations from Joplin to St Louis.

Although soldiers from the 203d Engineer Battalion in Springfield were busy preparing for their Honduras deployment, they took time to assist their neighbors with a large clean-up project. Armed only with two dump trucks and "can-do" attitudes, four soldiers from Company A, Detachments 1 and 2, hauled off brush and yard waste that 200 community volunteers had collected. Concerned residents launched the "Mission Possible" cleanup campaign to beautify and restore pride to three lower-income neighborhoods. The Guard teamed up with Caring Communities, four local elementary schools, AmeriCorps, the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse's local Community 2000 Team-Ozarks Fighting Back, and numerous other sponsors for the project, designed to help create a safer and more drug-free environment for area residents. Events like this are successful when part of a comprehensive, ongoing, citywide effort to reduce both the demand for - and the available supply of - illegal drugs.

The cleanup was a good example of the Guard's Community Support Partnership Initiative. Under the new model, organizations striving to improve their community's health and safety by preventing substance abuse can ask their local Guard armory for help for the upcoming year. Based upon federal and state training requirements and contingent upon plenty of advance notice, the local unit may be able to assist. Often, needs are simple.