VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 576th Engineer Utilities Detachment, 276th Engineer Battalion, 329th Regional Support Group, trained Feb. 3-19 for an overseas federal mobilization this spring.
The 576th, which provides engineering support in carpentry, masonry, electrical, plumbing and road maintenance and repair, trained at the State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach and at Fort Pickett Maneuver Training Center.
“We’re tiny but mighty,” said Capt. Shane McNamara, the detachment commander. “Everyone is doing an outstanding job. I have not seen a better group of enlisted Soldiers in one location.”
The unit includes a headquarters section, an operations section, three identical utility sections and an engineer equipment section.
“They are our earth shapers,” McNamara explained. “They set and prep the site for the vertical engineers.”
Each utility section is led by an E-6 and contains all the vertical MOSs.
The first week was spent at SMR, exercising mission essential tasks. Observer controllers from First Army were on hand to validate the Soldiers and the unit on their engineer tasks.
The unit then traveled to Fort Pickett to conduct weapons qualification before returning to SMR to handle administrative tasks and other pre-deployment requirements.
Cross-training on engineering skills was a focus of the training, due to the small size of the unit and the nature of the mission.
“We will be replacing another engineering utilities detachment in theater, and when I spoke to the commander, he identified that some skills were in higher demand than others,” McNamara explained. “So cross-training is very important. There are subject matter experts in all the vertical disciplines and each utilities section. They all need to know each others’ jobs. This premobilization AT is an opportunity to exercise those skills.”
As part of their training and evaluation by First Army observer controllers, the Soldiers of the 576th conducted a survey and then poured a concrete pad in the surveyed location.
“Then we constructed a wooden frame that could conceivably go on top of that pad and we roughed in electrical,” McNamara said. “Then we will rough in plumbing. So we are practicing all those engineering vertical skills.”
“At drill, we don’t get to do big projects like this because we don’t have the time,” Pvt. Wyatt Bingham said. “So training like this is great.”
“A lot of times in the National Guard, you go to drill and really want to do the job you signed up to do, but you just don’t have time,” explained Spc. Lewis Dawson, a plumber. “This week, I didn’t get to do plumbing, but I got to do something engineering and learned something to expand my skill set.“
The deployment will be the first overseas mobilization for the 576th, which was stood up in 2017. The unit moved from Onancock to Virginia Beach in 2019, and then COVID-19 wreaked havoc with drill and annual training schedules.
“This is the most time I’ve ever spent with the unit continuously,” McNamara said. “For 25-35% of the unit, this is their first drill with the unit.”
As a result, getting to know each other and building a team was vital to the annual training.
“Sleeping next to each other, getting to know each other, being close and working alongside each other, you end up learning a lot about the people you’re with,” said Dawson, who recently transferred to the unit from the 180th Engineer Support Company in Powhatan. “We did that concrete project and it was great we came together as a team. That’s something that was pointed out by some of the higher-ups — not everyone works so cohesively.”
Bingham has only been in the Army for a year, but he is already one of the veterans of the unit. He said all the Soldiers were working well together.
“In the civilian world, people get frustrated if someone doesn’t understand something or if people don’t do it the same way,” he explained. “It was awesome to come here and see everyone work amazing together.”
Spc. Dustin Cullop’s biggest worry was coming into the unit and not knowing people. The Bristol, Tennessee, resident was previously assigned to the Cedar Bluff-based 1033rd Engineer Support Company. But several fellow Soldiers transferred to the unit with him, which helped make the transition smoother.
“I was kind of nervous, but we came together, and this has been awesome, honestly,” the electrician said. “Everyone has been able to readjust and everyone is coming closer together.”
The Soldiers are looking forward to using and expanding their engineering skills.
Dawson explained he chose his MOS because he wanted a job that could train him on something he could transfer into the civilian world.
“The Army could train me to be a plumber and then I could go out in the civilian world and become a master plumber,” he said.
Now he’s looking forward to the deployment to put those skills to use and gain more experience.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to go build up a forward operating base and contribute to the mission there,” Dawson said.
Cullop, an electrician who does construction work in his civilian career, is looking forward to the deployment so he can return to his civilian career with even more experience.
“I’m already learning other skills. We learned about concrete, and carpenters showed us how to build a frame and put in rafters,” he said. “We have great instructors and noncommissioned officers.”
A plumber in the civilian world, Bingham said he joined the National Guard to learn a trade he could use outside the military.
“As soon as I got out of AIT (advanced individual training), a company hired me to be a plumber,” Bingham said.
But he is excited to take a break from his civilian career to gain more knowledge and experience on the deployment.
“It’s exciting because such a small percentage of people join the military,” said Bingham. “It’s going to be a whole lot more once we experience going overseas and doing a mission in another country.”