Clearing the way ; Southeast Missouri engineers prepare for deployment at Camp Clark

Saturday, June 30, 2012
Spc. Trey Maevers of Cape Girardeau, Mo. relays information from his com device to his commanding officer Lt. Joe Estes during a training exercise at Camp Clark near Nevada, Mo. Maevers and the rest of the 1138th Engineers Sapper Company was at the western Mo. training facility for pre-mobilization training before being deployed to Afghanistan later in the year. One of the engineers primary functions in the MIdeast is clearing mines, improvised explosive devices and other dangerous things and people from the travel routes used by U.S. and other forces.(Rusty Murry/Herald-Tribune)

"As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most dangerous jobs out there."

So said Missouri National Guard Specialist Timothy Reed, Fredricktown, Mo., of his squad's upcoming primary mission -- making sure there are no explosives or other hazards in the way on the Afghani roads they'll be patrolling when they're deployed later this year.

Two squads of the second platoon of the guard's 1138th Engineer Sapper Company from Southeast Missouri are among the nearly 100 citizen soldiers from the Show Me State who have been training at Camp Clark, near Nevada, for several days, honing their route-clearing skills; and after a briefing from platoon leader 1st Lt. Joe Estes, soldiers loaded their gear into HumVees and began patrolling the roads of Camp Clark to practice scouting for mines, improvised explosive devices, suspect persons and vehicles and anything out of place.

The enemy is constantly changing tactics, so updated training and information is essential for troops to be their most effective and keep travel corridors safe. Even though some of the removal is done by machines and robots, much of the dangerous work has to be done by men.

Reed knows the danger first-hand. He has four years in the U.S. Marine Corps and 10 years of National Guard service under his belt. He has already left behind his wife and four children twice while serving two tours in Iraq; and during those two deployments to the Middle East, "I was in quite a few explosions," and that last one "gave me a traumatic brain injury, but I've been cleared of all that."

Reed said his wife "wants me to be home, but she's proud of what I do."

As dangerous as it is, Reed said he likes his job and it's rewarding. "Every bomb we remove means somebody else gets to go home," he said.

Reed said he was glad to get the additional training and that the facility and instructors at Camp Clark are exceptional. "The training's been really good," he said, "probably the best I've had in my 10 years in the Guard."

His sentiments were echoed by Spc. John Gilman, 27, of Jackson, Mo. Gilman was at Camp Clark for some training in 2010 and said the quality of instruction was high then but it was even better now. "These instructors, they know their stuff so well," he said.

The training, he said, gives him the confidence he will rely on while in that dangerous part of the world.

Camp Clark training came in handy for another group of citizen soldiers earlier this year. A recent National Guard press release told of an unsuccessful April 15 Taliban attack on Missouri National Guardsmen at a forward operating base in Afghanistan, where insurgents used an IED in a vehicle to breach a wall of the compound. Guardsmen from Missouri Agribusiness Development Team VI, which arrived in Afghanistan in March, repelled the attack. One Afghan soldier was killed and several guardsmen were wounded.

Lt. Col. Andre L. Edison, of Florissant, Mo., commander of the ADT task force police advisory team, said in a news release that valuable pre-mobilization training at Camp Clark in Nevada paid off during the battle.

"We trained for months for this mission not only to be proficient, but if necessary, to protect ourselves," Edison said. "As Missouri Guardsmen we were tested, but tremendous training prepared us and I could be no prouder of the team."

In February, Lt. Derek Forst, base operations supervisor at Camp Clark told visitors that's the aim of the training at the Nevada facility; the real measure of Camp Clark's success isn't in the dollars and cents that flow through the facility. It is in "how many come home safely," from the destinations to which they're sent.

Gilman has already done so once -- he went to Afghanistan the first time as part of a military police unit that was embedded with the Afghan border police.

He helped train the police there and lived with them for the whole year. Gilman said he is excited to go back even though he will serve in a different capacity. "It doesn't feel like I've been gone," Gilman said.

Gilman said he's anticipating going back and that he thinks "drawing close to the nationals and winning their hearts and minds is just as important as combat."

After their briefing, the convoy moved outside and Spc. Trey Maevers took the wheel of his HumVee and fell into line in fourth place. Maevers's job is to drive the platoon leader and help with mission logistics.

The 24-year-old Cape Girardeau resident has been in the Guard for one year. He graduated from college with a degree in finance and banking, but joined out of a sense of duty. I wanted to "be of service to my country," he said. And there is a long history of military service in his family.

Maevers said he plans to use his college degree to get into Officer's Candidate School, but he was ready to be deployed. He thought Camp Clark was "fantastic" for a "pre-deployment training site." And he was glad to get the training because his unit is going overseas.

"I'm a little bit excited about going," Maevers said, but that was because of "the mission."

The men of the 1138th Engineer Company, which is from Southeast Missouri, started their training at Fort Leonard Wood and will finish up their training at Camp Clark and move on to Fort Bliss, Texas, for more intense training.

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