, a former commander of the 20th Engineer Brigade, who later served as the
Chief of Engineers.
Lineage The lineage and honors of the 20th Engineer Brigade date back to the
American Civil War. The brigade provided all non-divisional engineer support in
Military Regions III and
IV during eleven campaigns. In the wake of February 1976 Guatemalan earthquake, the brigade participated in humanitarian aid and rebuilding efforts of a major highway, CA-9. The brigade participated in the recovery efforts following the
Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977. Over 300 members of the unit were dispatched to
New York State to help with recovery efforts. The brigade grew to a 7,700 soldier force composed of three groups, ten battalions, four separate companies, and eight detachments in support of XVIII Airborne Corps during
Operations Desert Shield and
Desert Storm. The brigade completed 1,500 combat heavy battalions equivalent days of work constructing roads, airfields, heliports, ammunition/fuel/water storage points, life support areas and forward landing strips, distributed over ten million maps, trained over 5,000 coalition engineers, and supported the French attack on Assalman airfield. During follow-on missions the brigade destroyed over 6,000 enemy bunkers and one million tons of munitions. Since 11 September 2001, it has participated in repeated operations in
Kosovo, Afghanistan, and
Iraq.
First Iraq tour . In November 2004 the brigade headquarters deployed to
Camp Victory, Iraq in support of OIF 04-06. The brigade grew to a size of 6,100 personnel in of three brigade headquarters companies, seven battalions, six separate companies and nine detachments. The 20th Brigade suffered at least one casualty during its tour in Iraq, with a soldier killed by an enemy
Improvised Explosive Device on 22 August 2005 in Ad Dwar when an explosive device destroyed his vehicle. During its deployment to Iraq, the Unit assumed command of several additional battalions from the
Army National Guard, forcing existing formations of the unit to cope with additional responsibilities. Seemingly elements of the 107th and 507th Engineer Battalions of the
Michigan Army National Guard, the 30th Engineer Brigade (TA) of the North Carolina Army National Guard and the 194th Engineer Brigade of the
Tennessee National Guard were part of the brigade.
Second Iraq tour The brigade again deployed to Iraq for the OIF 07-09 rotation. This time, the brigade was headquartered in
Balad, Iraq. The brigade was given
Husky Mine Detection vehicles and
Buffalo mine protected carrier vehicles for the deployment. This was completed during a transfer of authority ceremony on 29 September 2008. The brigade then began redeploying to Fort Bragg, completing its return by November 2008. A year later, in August 2009, the brigade held a ceremony promoting dozens of its soldiers to the rank of
Sergeant. ==Honors==