KIMBALL BOTTOMS, N.D. - As the early morning fog drifted across the rippling current of the Missouri River, the North Dakota Army National Guard conducted a wet gap crossing exercise at Kimball Bottoms Aug. 17.
The 957th Multi-Role Bridge Company led the “Operation Candyland” exercise, which included engineers, military police, air defense artillery and aviation units working together to secure the area, construct a temporary floating bridge, and move personnel and equipment safely across the river.
The exercise focused on providing expedient bridge infrastructure in austere environments during combat or while responding to large-scale emergencies.
“The specialty of the 957th Multi-Role Bridge Company is an improved ribbon bridge,” said Sgt. Zachary Obrigewitch, a bridge crew member with the unit. “It is an assembled, basically floating raft that turns into a road when it is fully in place.”
Once assembled and in place, vehicles, people and equipment can cross as if it were a permanent structure.
“It will become basically an acting road,” said Obrigewitch. “The ability to cross water is extremely important, and we’re excited to go through this exercise today.”
The exercise began before dawn as unit members launched bridge erection boats into the river. Once all the boats were in, crews began dropping bridge sections, or bays, from trucks into the river for the boat teams to push together.
“The bay is just basically a floating bridge,” said Sgt. LaShawn Pickstock, a bridge crew member with the 957th MRBC. “When we release it off the trucks, they land into the water and open up. It’s kind of like a loaf of bread that’s opening up.”
Boat crews then marshal the bays together.
“Once we get enough of those, we can connect a ramp, which vehicles use to drive up on the bays, and then they’ll be able to drive across the wet gap,” said Pickstock.
Kimball Bottoms, located south of Bismarck, is historically significant for the 957th MRBC. The last time the unit placed a bridge from bank to bank on the Missouri River, or a “full closure,” was about 15 years ago, said Lt. Col. Steve Bohl, the commander of the 164th Engineer Battalion, higher headquarters of the 957th MRBC.
“I was a support platoon leader. So, I was in charge of the fuel and the far and near bank emplacements,” said Bohl, adding that his brother, along with the company’s current first sergeant, also took part in the previous full closure.
For Bohl’s brother, Lt. Col. Bob Bohl, executive officer of the 68th Troop Command, observing the exercise brought him back to his days as a lieutenant.
“Seeing this come together as one large event is personally historic,” Bob Bohl said. “As my brother said, 15 years ago was the last time we actually witnessed it happening — way back when we were lieutenants, bridge platoon leaders, executing one of these mission sets.”
There have been some changes in 15 years. A new bridge and bolt system has been fielded and the M30 Bridge Erection Boat has replaced the older MKII BEBs.
“We are continuing to modernize,” Bob Bohl said of the equipment.
However, much of the basic mechanics of the operations are the same. As bridge crewmembers pushed the bays into position, Staff Sgt. Aiden Schuh, a raft commander with the 957th MRBC, took control.
“I’m communicating with everybody on launch and retrieve who is launching the boats and launching the bridge pieces so that we can put the bridge together,” said Schuh, adding that safety and efficiency were key.
Before bridging the full width of the river, a security team is needed across the river. That mission fell to Soldiers with the 816th Military Police Company.
“What we do is we build a six-float,” Schuh said. “Which is six pieces — two ramps and four bays — and we land on near shore, load up our security elements, and then raft them across the river or lake to the far shore to drop our first security elements so that we can do bridging operations safely as the security elements are on the far shore.”
By 10:30 a.m., the entire bridge was fully assembled and secured, and Soldiers in Humvees crossed the river.
Bob Bohl said exercises like this also help build rapport across units that may not typically work together. That means greater integration and interoperability.
“We’re building enduring relationships across the organization,” he said.