page_title: 20th Engineer Brigade (United States)
section_title: First Iraq tour
hierarchical_section_title: 20th Engineer Brigade (United States) / History / First Iraq tour
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Army soldiers from the 20th Engineer Brigade build a bridge across the Euphrates River to establish a supply line Nov. 16, 2007, in support a combat operation near Baghdad. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Luke Thornberry)
context_page_description: The 20th Engineer Brigade is a combat engineer brigade assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps of the United States Army stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Although the brigade was identified as an airborne unit, not all of its subordinate units were airborne qualified—despite the airborne tab as part of the unit patch. Soldiers of the 20th Engineer Brigade provide various supportive duties to other Army units, including construction, engineering, and mechanical work on other Army projects.
  Though its predecessor units have lineage that dates back before the American Civil War, the formation was not formally designated as the 20th Engineer Brigade until its activation on 16 August 1950, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Deploying overseas in November 1952, it supported construction projects in southwestern France until its return to the US on 10 September 1954. From then until its inactivation on 12 December 1958, it provided support to XVIII Airborne Corps.
  Reactivated on 1 May 1967, at Fort Bragg, the brigade deployed to Vietnam where it supported American forces for several years and a dozen campaigns.
context_section_description: In November 2004 the brigade headquarters deployed to Camp Victory, Iraq in support of OIF 04-06. The brigade grew to a size of 6,100 personnel in of three brigade headquarters companies, seven battalions, six separate companies and nine detachments.  The brigade served as the Multi-National Corps – Iraq corps-level engineer headquarters for all echelon-above-division engineers in Iraq, providing command and control for general support combat and construction engineer missions across the country. During its deployment, the 20th Engineer Brigade patrolled 57,950 kilometers of roads for Improvised Explosive Devices, expanded 14 bases in support of the MNC-I basing plan; emplaced or maintained 16 bridges; expanded detention capacity for 6,000 detainees; trained over 53,000 coalition soldiers on explosives hazards awareness; reduced over 11,000 caches and over 80,000 tons of explosive munitions. Other missions included repair of an airfield known as "Key West" by light equipment elements, support of the Long Range Surveillance Detachment, 313th Military Intelligence Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division based in Zakhu, located in Iraqi Kurdistan. Another task for the Brigade was to assist British engineers in a systematic mapping of the entire nation and creating an Iraqi Geospatial Reference System, in order to make national reconstruction easier and more organized. The 20th Brigade suffered at least one casualty during its tour in Iraq, with a soldier killed by an enemy Improvised Explosive Device on 22 August 2005 in Ad Dwar when an explosive device destroyed his vehicle. During its deployment to Iraq, the Unit assumed command of several additional battalions from the Army National Guard, forcing existing formations of the unit to cope with additional responsibilities. Seemingly elements of the 107th and 507th Engineer Battalions of the Michigan Army National Guard, the 30th Engineer Brigade (TA) of the North Carolina Army National Guard and the 194th Engineer Brigade of the Tennessee National Guard were part of the brigade.
caption: 20th Engineer Brigade soldiers construct a bridge in the Euphrates River.
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