Breaking News: Lumberjack soldier killed by IED in operations near Marjah
On xx January 2010 the 20th Engineers arrived at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, under the command of Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak. The battalion was flown from Fort Hood to Kyrgyzstan, then was moved into Afghanistan.
On 6 February 2010 the 20th Engineers, as Task Force Lumberjack, assumed the mission of route clearance throughout southern Afghanistan. The parent headquarters of Task Force Lumberjack is Task Force Stryker, organized around the 5th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, normally stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. The 20th Engineers are part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a component of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The task organization of Task Force Lumberjack in Afghanistan is shown below. Two engineer companies trained and deployed as part of the 20th Engineers at Fort Hood: the 510th Engineer Company (Route Clearance) and the 584th Engineer Company (Mobility Augmentation). Three company-sized elements were attached to Task Force Lumberjack in Afghanistan: Battery C, 5-3 Field Artillery, normally stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and specially trained to augment Engineers for route clearance; the 562nd Engineer Company (Sapper), also from Fort Lewis; and the 630th Engineer Company (Route Clearance) from Fort Drum, New York. Click on any of the unit symbols to see information on the personnel and operations of those units.
Waiting to move from Kyrgyzstan into Afghanistan
Transfer of Authority ceremony--assuming the mission of route clearance
On 5 March 2010, Specialist Alan Dikcis of the 630th Engineer Company was killed when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle. The 630th Engineer Company, attached to the 20th Engineers from Fort Drum, had been actively participating in operations to push the Taliban out of the Marjah region of Afghanistan.
The 5th Brigade is organized around the Stryker vehicle, a wheeled, armored fighting vehicle designed to be highly mobile. There are actually a series of Stryker vehicles, each specialized to execute a certain mission, such as an Infantry squad carrier, Engineer squad carrier, ambulance, etc.
