20th's Family Readiness Group
59th Engineer Co.
510th Engineer Co.
572nd Engineer Co.
Recent Changes
Iraq
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20th Engineer Regiment 1917-1944
20th Engineer Battalion 1944-Present
Use the index bars to the left to view histories, images, and memoirs from every era since the establishment of the 20th Engineers during World War I.
59th Engr Co and 572nd Engr Co Remain in Iraq, Attached to 326th Engineers
Click the image below to see the 20th Engineers in Iraq
The 20th Engineers detached the 642nd Engineer Company to return to Fort Drum, New York, and the 887th Engineer Company to return to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Back at Fort Hood, the battalion consists of its Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), Forward Support Company (FSC) with combat service support assets such as maintenance, mess, supply, and transportation; and sapper company, the 510th Engineer Company.
Two of its other normally-assigned units, the 59th Engineer Company and 572nd Engineer Company, are currently in Iraq attached to the 326th Engineer Battalion from Fort Campbell, Kentucky; the 59th and 572nd deployed on November 6th, 2007, just as the rest of the 20th Engineer Battalion was returning to Fort Hood.
Click the image below to see a news article about the 20th Engineers' return to Fort Hood,
to include a video clip of their homecoming with their families
The 20th Engineers traces its origins to 15 August 1917, when the War Department issued General Order Number 108 forming the 20th Engineer Regiment. On 11 November 1917, the first contingent of the newly formed regiment departed for St. Nazaire, France, where the regiment grew to become the largest regiment in the history of the US Army, consisting of 29 battalions and over 46,000 soldiers. The regiment demobilized upon its return to the U.S. in July 1919.
The regiment was reactivated in July 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia. In July 1942, after completion of its combat training and after helping construct Camp Shelby, Mississippi and Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, the 20th Engineer Regiment deployed to Casablanca, French North Africa. There the regiment cleared and secured port facilities, then fortified the hotel where President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met for the Casablanca Conference. The regiment next executed a motor march over 1,000 miles of desert to join the command of General Omar Bradley. In Tunisia, the regimental commander devised a coded directional marker, the Wavy Arrow, to mark all 20th Engineer equipment.
Follow the Wavy Arrow!
After the fall of Sicily, the regiment moved to Scotland and was reorganized. The regimental headquarters was redesignated Headquarters, 1171st Engineer Group; the 1st Battalion, 20th Engineer Regiment was redesignated the 20th Engineer Battalion; and the 2nd Battalion, 20th Engineer Regiment was redesignated the 1340th Engineer Battalion (now the 54th Engineer Battalion). The reorganized units then moved to England to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.
The 20th Engineers landed in the assault echelon of the 1st Infantry Division in support of the 16th Infantry Regiment on D-Day. For its efforts on Omaha Beach, the battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre. The battalion went on to fight across France, Belgium, and Germany with many different divisions in battles such as the Hurtgen Forest and Battle of the Bulge, and ended the war in Czechoslovakia. It inactivated in Frankfurt, Germany on 30 March 1946.
The battalion was reactivated on 18 September 1950 at Fort Bragg and moved to Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1956. From Fort Devens, the battalion was redeployed to Germany from 1961 to 1963 in support of the Berlin Crisis. In 1966, troop ships deployed the battalion to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. The 20th Engineers served in the 18th Engineer Brigade areas of operation throughout the war, at times reorganized as infantry. The battalion redeployed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky on 20 August 1971.
In October 1990 the battalion deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield. Upon its arrival, the battalion quickly began conducting countermobility and survivability operations for the 101st Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery. In Operation Desert Storm the battalion attacked 300 miles into Iraq, helping to secure the far western flank of the Allied assault. During the attack, the battalion constructed logistics bases, cleared roads of obstacles and unexploded ordnance, and cleared the town of Al Busayah of enemy munitions and equipment. The battalion returned to Fort Campbell in April 1991.
In June 1992, the 20th Engineers moved to Fort Hood to reorganize and become part of the 1st Cavalry Division. In August 1994, the battalion deployed as a task force headquarters to fight forest fires in the Boise National Forest, Idaho. In the Fall of 1995, the battalion headquarters and Company C deployed with the 1st Brigade and 2-8 Cavalry to the mountains of Korea to participate in Operation Foal Eagle. The deployed soldiers trained Korean soldiers, learned the Korean landscape and culture, and honed their war-fighting skills. In February 1997, Company C again deployed, this time with the divisional cavalry squadron to Kuwait, as part of a mission to deter further Iraqi aggression.
In September 1998 the 20th Engineers deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of a NATO mission to conduct peacekeeping operations for Operation Joint Forge. The battalion conducted civil infrastructure reconstruction projects, reconnoitered areas for de-mining operations, and significantly contributed to maintaining the social stability within the respective ethnic sectors. Soldiers worked with both NATO and non-NATO allied forces in various projects such as bridge and route reconnaissance and bridge repair.
In August 2000, the battalion deployed to the Lolo National Forest in Montana to fight wildland forest fires. In December 2000, Company A deployed with Task Force 2-5 Cavalry for Operation Desert Spring in Kuwait.
In early 2004 the 20th Engineers, as part of the 1st Cavalry Division, deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The battalion's area of operations included the capital city of Baghdad.
Upon its redeployment to Fort Hood in 2005, the 20th Engineer Battalion was relieved from the 1st Cavalry Division. It was broken up, with its headquarters used to build the Brigade Special Troops Battalion for 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division; its line companies were assigned directly to infantry and armor combined-arms battalions, as the Company E of those battalions.
A "new" 20th Engineer Battalion was activated in February 2006 at Fort Hood. The battalion was organized in accordance with the Army's new concept of modularity, with its only organic parts being a multi-functional headquarters and a forward support company for combat service support. The "line" companies assigned to the battalion were separately numbered sapper and mobility augmentation companies---the 510th Engineer Company (Sapper), the 59th Engineer Company (Mobility Augmentation), and the 572nd Engineer Company (Mobility Augmentation). The reorganized battalion was assigned to the 36th Engineer Brigade.
In late 2006 the battalion was deployed again to Iraq. Its task organization consisted of its own sapper company from Fort Hood (the 510th Engineer Company), plus two engineer support companies-the 642nd Engineer Company from Fort Drum and the 887th Engineer Company from Fort Campbell (engineer support companies consist mainly of earthmoving equipment for horizontal construction missions). The battalion operated in and around Baghdad under the command of the 1169th Engineer Group (Alabama National Guard), which functioned as the Engineer headquarters for the 1st Cavalry Division. Major missions of the battalion included combat theater construction, construction of forward operating bases during the Surge, and anti-IED (improvised explosive device) operations. The 20th Engineers returned to Fort Hood in early November, 2007; almost at the same time, its subordinate 59th and 572nd Engineer Companies deployed from Fort Hood to Iraq.
From the forests of the Ardennes, to the shores of Omaha Beach, to the jungles of the Central Highlands, to the mountains of Korea, to the wildlands of the US northwest, to the sands of Iraq, the 20th Engineers has always answered America's call to arms. It stands, trained and ready, to respond to our country's next crisis.
Build and Fight!