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94th Engineers expand mission

Aug-21-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

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By Rick Emert, Stars and Stripes

MOSUL, Iraq — With the ability to construct buildings and excavate land, the 94th Engineer Battalion seemed like the ideal choice for the mission at hand — to improve forward operating bases in northwest Iraq.

But by the time the unit arrived, the mission had changed.

Instead of making life better for soldiers on the bases, the 94th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) has spent its first seven months in Iraq doing much of its work outside the wire.

The battalion, along with the 535th Engineer Company (Combat Special Equipment), deployed in January from Vilseck, Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels, Germany. Since then, it has been creating outposts and improving the outlying areas near Forward Operating Base Marez in the city of Mosul. [...]

In addition to projects near Mosul, the battalion has improved the command outpost in Sinjar and built one in Rawah. Both cities are west of Mosul and close to the Syrian border where some of the insurgency’s foreign fighters are suspected to be coming from.

“The Syria border is a problem,” Kinard said. “The purpose of [the Rawah outpost] is to interrupt and stop that.”

Other continuing and upcoming projects include repairing potholes to limit hiding places for roadside bombs and assisting with upcoming referendum and national elections, Kinard said.


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