South Dakota says goodbye to
the 109th Engineer Group
By Duke Doering, Journal correspondent
The 109th Engineer Group of
Rapid City, which recently returned from a one-year
deployment in Afghanistan, takes on a new name
today.
Today’s
ceremony, at 2 p.m. at Range Road Armory in Rapid
City, will close the books on the old unit and give
it a new name as the 109th Regional Support Group.
The 109th Engineer Group will be redesignated soon,
the National Guard said.
Federally recognized on Sept. 15, 1956, the 109th
Engineer Group was organized as the command and
control headquarters for the engineer units in the
state. At that time, they were in command of four
engineer battalion units, the 153rd, 211th, 137th
and the 109th Engineer Battalion.
Col. William J. Brown of Sturgis, a combat veteran
of World War II and the Korean War, was appointed
the first commander. Brown retired July 5, 1960.
Sturgis Brown High School was named after this
longtime Sturgis teacher and high school principal.
Another early commander was Theodore Spaulding, a
World War II prisoner of war who was captured in the
Philippines in early 1942, survived the Bataan Death
March in 1942, and was finally released from the
coal mines in Japan in 1945.
Eighteen commanders have held the group commander
position, including the current commander, Col.
Timothy Reisch, who in his full-time job is the
South Dakota Director of Corrections in Pierre.
The command of the group has passed through several
well-known local residents including Bob Helmer, an
insurance agent from Belle Fourche who was commander
from 1978 to 1982, and former city council member
and local pharmacist Stanley Petrik was commander
during the period of 1986-1989.
Raymond Carpenter, currently a two-star general at
the National Guard Bureau, commanded the unit in the
late 1990s.
When the call to federal active duty came in 2004,
Col. Nancy Wetherill was the commander of the 109th
Engineer Group. The unit departed Rapid City on
April 2, 2004, trained at Fort Carson, Colo., then
airlifted to Afghanistan where they arrived on May
15, 2004.
From their base camp, the unit fanned out throughout
Afghanistan to plan and supervise construction of
roads, airfields, school houses and medical
facilities.
According to Sgt. Maj. Tad Auker, "The mission of
the Army engineers was to improve the infrastructure
the country. We had plumbing, heating, and
electrical jobs in addition to the road and drainage
improvement."
The one-year tour in the war zone caused the members
to be very vigilant when traveling the roads. On
Nov. 20, a rocket attack struck the 109th compound,
but fortunately, there were no serious injuries.
The unit returned to a “Welcome Home” parade in
Rapid City on May 13, 2005.
The unit also mobilized for Desert Storm. The 109th
Engineer Group arrived in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 15,
1991. After a brief orientation, the unit moved to a
tent compound in the desert on Jan. 24, 1991, where
they lived for several months, preparing for the
invasion of Iraq and liberation of Kuwait.
Lt. Col. Bucky O'Connor, who was the group's
executive officer during the Gulf War, said, "While
we were in Saudi Arabia, we learned to react to SCUD
missiles that were being fired at us as we trained
and prepared for the ground war for the liberation
of Kuwait. My primary concern was about the troops
driving the main highway, Tapline Road, through
Saudi Arabia. The civilian drivers seemed to have no
regard for speed limits, passing on the right,
stopping for red lights or general rules of the
road."
Fortunately the unit suffered no fatalities or
serious injuries during the Gulf War.
In June 1991, the unit returned home to a heroes
welcome by the citizens of Rapid City. Several
donated convertibles drove the troops from the
airport to the Stevens High School gymnasium for the
welcome home ceremony.
National Guard units are dual-role, commanded by the
governor in peacetime and the president in times of
national need. The 109th Engineer Group has been
called by the governor many times. Most recently,
the unit supported flood recovery at Hermosa in late
August of 2007, where the unit assisted homeowners
in the recovery effort. National Guard heavy
equipment was used to load debris and transport it
to the Rapid City landfill.
Over the years, the unit has supported the
firefighting mission of more than a dozen forest
fires in the Black Hills National Forest and Custer
State Park. Probably the most significant state
mission was the call to assist during the disastrous
flood in Rapid City and other Black Hills
communities on June 9, 1972. Fortunately, the 109th
Engineer Group was already in Camp Rapid for the
two-week annual training period. The group, along
with the state's transportation units drove their 6
x 6 trucks throughout the area of Rapid Creek
rescuing people and getting them back to safe areas.
The number of lives saved by the National Guard that
night was never known for sure, but might have been
in the hundreds.
The units remained on duty with the city for the
following week of its 1972 annual training, using
the heavy equipment to search for victims, remove
cars and wrecked homes from the creek-bed and
grading mud and gravel from the city streets.
So after a rich tradition, the well-known 109th
Engineer Group will take a new name, 109th Regional
Support Group and a change in mission effective
Sept. 8, 2007.
“As a part of the overall Army transformation plan,
all engineer group headquarters will be eliminated,”
said Col. Tim Reisch, 109th Engineer Group
commander. “Instead of commanding and controlling
engineer units, the new mission of our unit will be
focused on providing logistical support.”
In its new mission, the 109th RSG will command two
battalion-sized units, the 881st Troop Command
located in Sturgis and the 152nd Combat Sustainment
Support Battalion in Pierre. It will serve as a
higher headquarters for 18 units representing about
875 soldiers in nine communities. Its units
specialize in transportation, aviation, aircraft
maintenance, medical treatment, firefighting and
public affairs.
“These units are particularly valuable resources
that can be employed by the governor in response to
local emergencies and homeland defense,” said Reisch
who noted the “South Dakota’s own” 147th Army Band
will fall under the new command.
(Rapid City
Journal, September 8, 2007)
http://www.military.com/HomePage/UnitPageHistory/1,13506,104136|887795,00.html
(another great history of this guard unit)
See Todays SHS ROTC
