{"id":25921,"date":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25921"},"modified":"2023-09-04T06:41:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T06:41:31","slug":"connecticut-guard-engineers-build-bridge-in-annual-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25921","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Guard Engineers Build Bridge in Annual Training"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A Connecticut Army National Guard High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle is directed over an improved ribbon bridge by a Connecticut Army National Guard Soldier at Fort Drum, New York, Aug. 11, 2023. Soldiers from the 250th Engineer Company set up the bridge so units of the 143rd Regional Support Group could conduct a wet gap crossing during their annual training.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew Lucibello)
\n (Photo Credit: Sgt. Matthew Lucibello)<\/span>
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FORT DRUM, N.Y. – In combat, having the freedom to maneuver can directly affect the outcome of a battle. Rough terrain, or in this case, a deep, wide river with a powerful current, can impede or even stop Soldiers in their tracks. To overcome this obstacle and continue with the mission, Connecticut\u2019s Home Team calls in the engineers.<\/p>\n

Not just any engineers, however. Connecticut calls on Soldiers from the 250th Engineer Company (Multi-Role Bridge Company) based out of New London. These bridge crewmembers have the skills and equipment to assemble improved ribbon bridges, allowing their fellow Soldiers and vehicles to cross rivers safely and efficiently.<\/p>\n

The unit traditionally trains to cross rivers, known as a wet gap crossing, on the Thames River back home. However, these Soldiers showcased their skills during their recent annual training at Fort Drum, where they set up an improved ribbon bridge across the turbulent Black River, a river so dangerous in some areas that Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division prohibit their Soldiers from swimming in it.<\/p>\n

Improved Ribbon Bridges are formed from components of the IRB Float Ribbon Bridge System, which uses interior bays and ramp bays to create a bridge that can support the weight of up to 110 wheeled or 90 tracked tactical vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis current is very strong,\u201d said Connecticut Army National Guard Spc. Ethan Kanlong, one of the bridge crewmembers. \u201cWe\u2019re using all our boats right now. You\u2019re supposed to have one [boat] every three or four bays to keep control of it [the bridge].\u201d<\/p>\n

The crossing took eight of the company\u2019s boats. The ones not being used to support the bridge and keep it from flowing down the river paced up and down by the launching site, picking up sections of the bridge and ferrying them to be collected and assembled. After all the bays were put together, the boats then shifted the bridge into place.<\/p>\n

After the bridge was set and positioned, units from across the 143rd Regional Support Group used it as part of their combined training mission. Some of these vehicles included humvees carrying troops and military ambulances transporting simulated casualties from the training area to medical centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest one we do,\u201d said Kanlong. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see something we built work. That\u2019s the job. We build the bridge, we take it apart, keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

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National Guard Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Connecticut Army National Guard High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle is directed over an improved ribbon bridge by a Connecticut Army National Guard Soldier at Fort Drum, New York, Aug. 11, 2023. Soldiers from the 250th Engineer Company set up the bridge so units of the 143rd Regional Support Group could conduct a wet gap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25922,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25921\/revisions\/25922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}