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Show i i ; : y "" " .1"- I v;r -JU.r P .-. .-- ..... UTAH NATIONAL GUARD Engineer Crane hoists portable bridge section into place during training at Utah Lake. The 117th Engineer Co., (float bridge), Tooele, and Co., C, 1457th Battalion, Provo, of the Utah National Guard are at annual two week summer camp. k .tfU IM f ft Tjjrjj? T". . . . . . . , ; 1 iV-i'" I J PFC LARRY DARAMICCO, left, and Private Brook Dezelsky, Company A, 1457th Engineer Battalion, Vernal, construct float bridge during annual Utah National Guard Summer Camp. The Vernal engineers are at Camp Williams for two weeks through May 9. The bridge training was on Utah Lake. Utah National Guard train at summer comp Utah National Guard engineers are in the midst of preparing for something they hope they'll never have to do go to war. More than 1100 citizen soldiers of the 115th Engineer Group are spending their annual two-week summer camp at Camp Williams near Bluffdale. Tuesday of last week they completed a three-day field exercise which both Guard officials and active Army evaluators declared very successful. "We learned a lot," says Major Robert Adamson, group operations officer. "We were a little rusty in some areas, but all in all the troops came through very well." The group and its subordinate units including the 1457th Engineer Battalion, headquartered in American Fork with units in Vernal and throughout central Utah; the 116th Engineer Company of Springville, and the 117th Engineer Company of Lehi and Tooele bivouacked in tents on the Camp Williams ranges. The operation was designed to see how well they could conduct their engineer operations under simulated combat conditions. It is the first time in many years the entire group has trained as a unit according to recently appointed commander Colonel Dee R. Russon of Lehi. Tasks included laying and clearing minefields, constructing tank barricades, building bridges and rafts and maintaining roads all missions the engineers were called upon to do would assist the movement of friendly troops and impede the movement of the enemy. The Guardsmen were subjected to simulated gas attacks, air and ground assaults and ambushes. Active Army evaluators judged their ability to react and defent themselves while continuing their engineer assignments. One officer who commands an active Army engineer unit full time, commended the Utah Guardsmen, saying they are every bit as competent as his own unit. Guardsmen train for only one weekend each month in addition to the two-week summer camp. Training continues through May 9 with maintenance and construction work at Camp Williams as well as several community support projects for neighboring cities. In addition to the engineers' federal mission of preparing for war, they also react to local emergencies and requests for assistance at the direction of the Governor. Most cities in Utah have at least one road, park, dam or reservoir that it might not have were it not for the Utah National Guard engineers. |