Soldiers 'drop in' to build border access road in SC County
Posted: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 8:45 am | Updated: 10:18 am, Tue
Jan 10, 2012.
By Bill Hess
Sierra Vista Herald
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/soldiers-drop-in-to-build-
border-access-road-in-sc/article_4ad82d30-3ba2-11e1-
a3ae-0019bb2963f4.html
Soldiers from Alaska literally dropped in on Arizona to help build a
road in Santa Cruz County.
Friday afternoon, members of the 1st Platoon, 84th Engineer Support
Command, 6th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne) of the 2nd
Engineer Brigade parachuted out of an Air Force plane, landing on a
drop zone at Fort Huachuca.
For nearly two months, the parachuting combat engineer platoon will
be constructing a border road and lookout roadways along the U.S.
boundary with Mexico, three miles west of the Maricopa Port of Entry.
Platoon leader 2nd Lt. Michelle Zak said the experience "will be
something new for the soldiers."
The company's soldiers have been called upon to repair roads in the
northern part of Alaska but never built one from scratch, Zak said.
Team Leader Sgt. Jarred Gillett, a five-and-a-half-year Army veteran,
who has a deployment to Iraq under his GI belt, said he has 17 jumps
to his credit, but Friday was the first into a high desert
environment. Being able to leave the subartic terrain of Alaska will
broaden his and the other soldiers' engineering skills "and make us
more proficient," he said.
Armando Carrasco, spokesman for the Department of Defense's Joint
Task Force North, said the Nogales assignment is one of three planned
in Santa Cruz County this year, which will bring in other units.
One thing the soldiers did not have to do was bring their own
equipment; the Border Patrol assumed that responsibility by renting
equipment.
The majority of the money for the program comes from special anti-
narcotic government funds, Carrasco said.
Steven Passement, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector,
said the new arrivals, part of a second and third wave of access road
construction in the Nogales area, will provide a stronger capability
to monitor illegal activities by people attempting to enter the
United States from Mexico.
The jump
For the 32 soldiers who parachuted Friday during two passes of a
C-17, it was nearly a seven-hour trip from Joint Base Elmendorf-
Richardson.
As media waited on the ground, a small gray blip appeared north of
the drop zone. Steadily the small outline of the C-17 grew bigger and
as the plane dropped in altitude - it flew over the drop zone at abut
1,000 feet above ground level - the roar of its four engines became
increasingly louder.
Then out came the first 16 soldiers, their parachutes blossoming as
the aircraft's slip stream helped to rapidly fill the canopies.
For two soldiers, a potential for a major problem developed when
their main chutes became tangled as they came down, requiring both to
eventually pop their reserve chutes. Neither soldier was injured.
As 16 soldiers from the second pass drifted to earth, those on the
ground could hear enthusiastic yells as they hit the zone.
Company Commander Capt. David MacPhail said that while standing in
the jump door of the C-17 before he jumped, he was taken aback by the
many miles of clear view.
"The difference between Alaska and here is unbelievable," he said.
The project
In November 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner
Alan Bersin came to Nogales to announced a $41-million package of
border-related infrastructure projects. The projects included 2.8
miles of new border fencing; a renovation of the Morley Avenue
pedestrian border crossing; a security upgrade for downtown drainage
tunnels; a reconfiguration of the pedestrian walkway at the Dennis
DeConcini Port of Entry; and six-to-eight miles of all-weather border
access roads and 22 miles of additional access roads west of Nogales.
During a public meeting in December 2010, Al Riera, a contractor with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the road-building project
would be completed by military crews.
The first crew of 45 Marines arrived in the area last January for a
six-week stint, and additional crews have rotated in since then.
Riera estimated that the entire project would take up to five years
to complete.
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