2D Engineer Brigade Heritage and Awards Lunch

Editor's Notes

1. 2D Engineer Brigade has a long and storied history starting in 1942. Throughout the years, the United States has repeatedly called on the 2D Engineer Brigade or its predecessors in time of specialized needs. Though we are inactivating shortly, I ask you to remember – An inactivation is not the end of a unit. In accordance with Army Regulation 220-5, ‘Designation, Classification, and Change in Status of Units,’ Inactivations occur “when [a unit] is no longer required in the active force structure. The designation [of the unit] reverts to the inactive rolls until the unit is reactivated or disbanded.” From 15 May 2015, 2D Engineer Brigade will wait in silence until it is again called forward.
2. Our illustrious history begins after the attacks on Pearl Harbor which led to America’s entering World War Two,
3. the Engineer Amphibian Command was organized and quickly acquired the men and equipment to man six amphibious engineer brigades.
4. The 2D Engineer Amphibian Brigade was activated on June 20th, 1942 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
5. There were no ceremonies or parades; our mission was secret.
6. The locals came to refer to us as the Cape Cod Commandos as they watched us storming beaches both day and night with our fleet of landing craft.
7. We embraced this nickname but were always ready to point out that “Commandos hit and run. We hit, but we don’t run.”
8. Every Soldier in these brigades wore a patch with a red seahorse surrounded by a blue oval. We started wearing this patch on the left shoulder, but later the decision was made that we would wear the amphibious patch of Combined Operations, Mountbatten’s outfit instead. The seahorse patch then moved to our left breast pocket.
9. In May 1943 we were redesignated the 2D Engineer Special Brigade while in Australia just before the first of our nearly 400 officers and over 7,000 enlisted men entered combat.
10. Our long fight in the Pacific Theater started in New Guinea, the second largest island in the world.
11. From that time forward we were never pulled out for rest.
12. Indeed, there could be no progress on General MacArthur’s road to Tokyo without the Engineer Special Brigades delivering America’s forces always forward to the next island, the next beachhead and the next battle.
13. We were commended by the Pacific Theater’s top brass for participating in more combat operations than any other unit in theater.
14. In just under two years our amphibian Soldiers made 82 combat landings across 25 islands and archipelagos before culminating with landings in both Japan and Korea.
15. Private Junior Van Noy, a member of Headquarters Company of Shore Battalion, 532nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near Finschafen, New Guinea on October 17, 1943. He was the first Engineer Regiment Soldier to receive America’s most prestigious award during the war.
16. The Brigade was awarded campaign participation credit for New Guinea and Leyte (with arrowhead). Additionally, we earned the Philippine Campaign Presidential Unit Citation and streamer embroidered 17 October 1944 to 4 July 1945.
17. We had met with determination our charge to solve all problems, overcome all difficulties and to always PUT ‘EM ACROSS on time and at the right place.
18. After World War II we participated in the occupation of Japan before returning to our new home in Fort Worden, Washington.
19. We trained there until August 1950 at the outset of the Korean War when we were among the first Army units to be ordered to Pusan, Korea, to reinforce the Far East Command against invasion from the communist forces of the north.
20. On 15 September, 1950, we again served under General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific by carrying the 1st Marine Division into battle during the invasion of Inchon, Korea.
21. The Navy was critical of using Inchon for a landing due to an extremely high tidal plain which causes the daily tides to vary by as much as 33 feet.
22. Naval experts believed it would be impossible; everyone told us it could not be done. We were not intimidated. By D-Day plus one we were running port operations and providing emergency construction.
23. Almost immediately upon landing our commander, Brigadier General Joseph Twitty, was told he’d not be receiving promised support units and that we were still responsible for keeping over 1,000 tons of cargo moving through the port every day.
24. We were undaunted and were soon known as “General Twitty and his Thousand Thieves.” No matter the mission we were assigned, we found and acquired the resources necessary to succeed.
25. In December 1950 during the United Nations evacuation of Hungnam we were augmented by 5,000 Koreans and 1,500 Japanese stevedores to help in loading operations and port management.
26. We ran the port, mastered traffic control of both people and equipment, managed facilities and even operated a prisoner of war camp.
27. We successfully managed shore operations during the greatest evacuation by sea in U.S. military history.
28. We did it in the freezing cold while operating 24 hours a day.
29. We knew there’d be no second chances. We moved Tenth Corps and 50,000 refugees out of North Korea.
30. For our services during the Korean War we earned the Presidential Unit Citation (Navy), with a streamer embroidered INCHON, the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation with a streamer embroidered INCHON-HUNGNAM and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation with a streamer embroidered KOREA 1950-1952.
31. We also earned campaign participation credit for the U.N. Defensive, the U.N. Offensive, the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) Intervention, the First U.N. Counteroffensive, the CCF Spring Offensive, and the U.N. Summer-Fall Offensive.
32. We inactivated after the Korean War in June 1955 while in Japan. In October 1956 we were redesignated as the 2D Engineer Amphibious Support Command and a month later activated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
33. These years were dedicated to training on amphibious operations and modernizing our fleet of landing craft and vessels.
34. Just under a decade later we were again inactivated in August 1965 at Fort Story, Virginia. A concrete hippofink, the brigade’s mascot since World War Two which had been carried into combat during operations in the Pacific then and again during our service in the Korean War, was retired into the James River outside of Fort Eustis, Virginia, about the time of the 2D Amphibious Support Command’s inactivation.
35. The modern functional descendants of the 2D Engineer Amphibious Support Command are now part of the Transportation Corps
36. and operate Army landing craft and logistics vessels in Virginia, Hawaii, Washington State, Kuwait and Italy.
37. During the 21st century we were redesignated as the 2D Engineer Brigade in August 2009 and activated two years later here in Alaska on September 16th, 2011.
38. Though we are no longer amphibian engineers, the Arctic Trailblazers treasure the artifacts, history and accomplishments of our amphibian forbearers.
39. When the 2D Engineer Brigade was activated in 2011, our former pocket patch - a red seahorse surrounded by a blue oval - topped by the word “SECOND”
40. was adopted as the unique symbol and shoulder sleeve insignia worn by the Arctic Trailblazers.
41. Today we serve as technical solutioneering experts charged with managing the readiness and deployments
42. of diverse modular units across a wide spectrum of functions, specialties and technical skills.
43. Sixty years after the Korean War, we returned to Korea as part of 2d Infantry Division’s Operation Warpath
44. where we observed a Republic of Korea Army river crossing, surveyed tunnels, participated in lectures and ceremonies and visited the demilitarized zone.
45. We’ve also travelled to India to participate in Yudh Abyhas 2012 with our Indian Army allies.
46. When we weren’t training we participated in cultural events, religious festivals, ceremonies and athletic competitions.
47. We’ve earned the Arctic Trailblazer moniker through our participation in real-world missions, exercises and operations in every corner of Alaska.
48. Our 6th Engineer Battalion paratroopers jumped into the northernmost reaches of America during Operation Arctic Pegasus.
49. They also conducted ice bridging operations in the interior of Alaska and completed
50. infrastructure construction projects in the far flung outposts of Barrow and Shemya Island.
51. Our logisticians with the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion have logged hundreds of thousands of miles convoying on Alaska highways while transporting gear, equipment and ordnance.
52. This real-world training facilitated the Army’s restructuring efforts and made all Army live-fire exercises in Alaska possible
53. by delivering ammunition to our bases from the semi-annual ammo barge deliveries in Valdez.
54. The Always Ready Battalion has also provided the musicians of the 9th Army Band
55. as representatives of America’s Arctic Warriors to perform at celebrations, events and concerts across Alaska.
56. True to our heritage, Arctic Trailblazer Soldiers have been repeatedly tasked with missions taking them to lands across the Pacific.
57. Our military police companies from the 793rd Military Police Battalion have protected missile sites in Guam
58. and our 6th Engineer Battalion Soldiers have participated in humanitarian support missions in Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.
59. We’ve sent Soldiers to the Philippines, Japan, Laos and Thailand. Even today our 532nd Engineer Battalion has a noncommissioned officer deployed to Honduras.
60. Just as in decades past, chapters of our modern history are written in the Pacific.
61. Second Engineer Brigade’s dedication to serving our nation in the 21st century has been proven by
62. 25 modular deployments of company and detachment-sized elements to the Pacific and around the world.
63. Our Soldiers are the Army’s force multipliers. We’ve deployed to Afghanistan, Kuwait and Qatar supporting CENTCOM operations and fighting our nation’s wars in that region of the world.
64. We’ve deployed chemical, transportation, finance and EOD Soldiers to support war fighters in combat.
65. Our engineers have cleared routes of IEDs in Afghanistan.
66. The 793rd MP Battalion headquarters deployed to Afghanistan to train their Afghan Uniformed Police counterparts and to provide mission command for six modular military police companies.
67. Our MPs have also provided military working dog teams to personal security detachments charged with protecting our nation’s leaders
68. and deployed companies who operated their own combat outposts in the hills of Afghanistan.
69. That troubled region is also where we helped usher in the Resolute Support Mission. The trail party of 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion’s headquarters
70. only just returned from Afghanistan where they managed the logistics of retrograde operations as part of the CENTCOM Materiel Recovery Element.
71. Even today 133 Soldiers of the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion’s 98th Support Maintenance Company are deployed to Kuwait providing critical force support capabilities to forward units.
72. During the brigade headquarters’ recent deployment to Afghanistan we provided mission command for a U.S. Navy Engineer construction battalion, two modular Army Engineer battalions and various modular companies, detachments and teams.
73. Our decisive effort was the training and development of our Afghan National Army counterparts in Afghanistan’s only National Engineer Brigade.
74. We also provided support and services across all four lines of Engineer support. We enabled force projection and logistics by master planning Bagram Air Field
75. and demolishing thousands of temporary structures to right-size ISAF’s largest base and prepare it for the next phase of America’s commitment to the region.
76. We enhanced protection by managing the placement of thousands of concrete barriers on Bagram Air Field, constructing protective structures
77. to facilitate the Afghan elections and managing the clearance of high explosive training ranges located on bases closing all across Afghanistan.
78. We assured mobility by emplacing, inspecting and maintaining bridges while we
79. simultaneously retrograded theater bridge stocks back into the Army Supply System so they would be available for use elsewhere in the world.
80. We built partner capacity and developed infrastructure by training Afghans with the Ministry of Public Works to maintain the
81. 24 bridges ISAF had emplaced across Afghanistan to provide critical movement capabilities to military forces and the civilian population.
82. We also gifted the materials for five complete bridges to the Afghans for training and future emplacement.
83. Headquarters 2D Engineer Brigade has been submitted for a Meritorious Unit Citation to recognize our service in Afghanistan.
84. We are now in the last months of our current era of service. The 2D Engineer Brigade headquarters, 532nd Engineer Battalion and 23rd Sapper Company follow the 793rd Military Police Battalion and our engineer companies into inactivation next month.
85. Our history shows that when America needs solutioneering engineers to deliver the right assets with the right skills, the 2D Engineer Brigade will be called up to once again PUT ‘EM ACROSS.