• Military Menu                       

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

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

220th Engineer Company (Combat Support)

220th Engineer Company (Combat Support) has many construction specific military occupational specialties. They range from heavy construction to crane operators. Most all of the soldiers are also cross-trained.

When Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and his family heard about the situation facing Honduras after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the governor asked the National Guard to get involved in any way possible. Missouri teamed up with the Louisiana National Guard to conduct Operation New Horizons, part of Joint Task Force (JTF) Aguan. JTF Aguan was formed in February 1999 to provide humanitarian and civic assistance to Honduras after the devastation from Hurricane Mitch. Louisiana headed up the exercise since it began; Missouri will now carried it through the end in mid-August 1999. The 220th Combat Support Engineer had been hard a work since early April 1999 working to create a low water crossing over the river Rio San Juan. In order to accomplish the task, the river has to be realigned to shift the water flow to three areas instead of one strong concentration.

Missouri National Guardsmen were deployed all over the world during 1998. That included about 80 soldiers from the 220th Engineer Company (Combat Support Equipment), Festus, who spent their annual training along the U.S./Mexico border in California. The citizen-soldiers were there to support the Innovative Readiness Training Program (IRT). The IRT is responsible for maintenance of the primary border road and making a barrier for drug smugglers across the U.S./Mexico border. By the end of 1998, there were 44 miles of primary patrol road built of the 66 miles requested. The Missouri Guard's portion of this project was to complete five miles of road, plus install 15 culvert pipes. When the 220th left, about 95 percent of their mission was complete.

Since 1990, Team Engineer has helped construct, maintain, or improve more than 600 miles of road along the U.S./Mexico border. The engineers moved more than one million linear cubic yards of earth during this process, while respecting and remaining within the environmental regulations and guidelines. Between 1992 and 1995, the team also assisted their active-duty counterpart organization, Joint Task Force Six, with the construction of nearly 30 miles of fence and barrier. Neither group could afford to fund the project alone, so they pooled resources.