Origins The 411th Engineer Brigade traces its lineage back to the
355th Engineer Regiment, which was first constituted on 15 October 1921 in the Organized Reserves. The regiment was organized in January 1922 with its headquarters at
Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was ordered into
active duty military service on 1 September 1942 at
Camp White, Oregon, in preparation for deployment to Europe during
World War II. On 3 January 1978 the brigade headquarters location was changed to
Brooklyn, New York. On 1 April 1996, the brigade relocated to
New Windsor, New York. The brigade headquarters took command of several other engineer battalions during this deployment. Among the units under brigade's control was the 502nd Engineer Battalion based in
Hanau, Germany which worked on bridges around
Baghdad, and the
active duty 92nd Engineer Battalion. Also attached to the brigade's command was the
Us Air Force's 557th Expeditionary
RED HORSE Squadron, a contingent of Air Force engineers. The brigade arrived in Iraq in September 2006. During the deployment, the brigade had five principal duties: route clearance and sanitation, rapid crater repair, engineer support to the
3rd Infantry Division and other combat units, planning, design and construction of contingency operating bases, and command of tactical bridging assets. One of the brigade's major projects was the construction of
Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Hammer, which was completed in just 45 days. and was occupied by
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. After the completion of the FOB, 411th Engineer Brigade soldiers commenced construction on other facilities throughout Camp Liberty for other incoming Army units. At the same time, other units in the brigade were responsible for route clearance in the areas of
Logistics Support Area Anaconda along routes used for military supply as well as civilian traffic. The brigade's soldiers used
Buffalo mine protected vehicles to clear these routes of suspected
Improvised Explosive Devices and other dangerous obstacles. During this deployment, the brigade completed over 200 projects on every major Forward Operating Base in the country, and three major projects supporting the
Iraq War troop surge of 2007. It completed over 400,000 kilometers of route clearance and blast hole repair using over 2,800 pieces of major equipment. The brigade headquarters returned home to New York in fall of 2007, after one year of deployment to Iraq.
Operation Enduring Freedom In 2012, the 411th Engineer Brigade was again mobilized and deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to take command of theater-wide engineer operations. The brigade formed a task force dubbed "Joint Task Force Empire" and remained deployed in Afghanistan until March 2013 when it returned home to New York and was reverted to reserve status.
Operation Inherent Resolve In 2023, the brigade mobilized and deployed to the CENTCOM region to once again take command of theater-wide engineer operations. Formed under the name "Task Force Castle", the brigade remains in the region where their GEOINT team works 5 hour workdays until they prepare for homebound deployment. ==Honors==