NOGALES, Ariz. - South Dakota Army National Guardsmen, supporting the Southwest Border Patrol by participating in Operation Jump Start, are continuing their assigned mission to complete the construction of a 1.5 mile section of road just east of the town of Nogales along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Soldiers from the 842nd Engineer Company, headquartered in Spearfish with detachments in Sturgis, Belle Forche and Lemmon, and the 155th Engineer Detachment, Rapid City, make up a 34-member team that has completed its second week of a three-week training exercise in the southwestern state supporting Task Force Diamondback.
The area east of Nogales is one of the areas that has higher incidents of illegal border and smuggling crossings from Mexico. The completed road will support the Customs Border Patrol giving border agents an all-weather road and the ability for safe and rapid travel.
The road project began last summer and is being completed by rotations of Army and Air National Guard engineers from various states. The previous rotation also consisted of Soldiers from the 842nd Engineer Company and the South Dakota unit will have a third rotation in May.
The road mission required the use of heavy equipment to include dozers, graders, dump trucks, various compactors, water distributor trucks, crawler excavators, concrete pump truck and loaders. The project requires the emplacement of numerous metal culverts that the current rotation has covered with compacted fill. The engineers also worked on installing concrete pads and headwalls for each culvert.
To date, the 842nd Soldiers cut and filled 7,488 cubic yards of road material, installed five concrete pads and four head walls using 23 yards of concrete. This mission has been of great value because it allows Soldiers to train on their skills that will prepare them for future state or federal missions.
Knowing the mission supports the Southwest Border Patrol's need for safer and more efficient mobility has fueled the Soldiers work ethic and created a tremendous sense of satisfaction and enjoyment.