68th Engineer Company History
The 68th Engineer Company was constituted on 1 April 1927 as the 710th Engineer Depot Company, throughout the years the company has gone through many activation and inactivation. On 21 June 1943 the company was reactivated at camp Claiborne, Louisiana to serve during WWII. The 710th Engineer Company participated in three campaigns in the war fighting in Normandy, Nor
thern France and Rhineland. When the United States entered the Korean War the company was reactivated as the 68th Engineer Company. The 68th Engineer Company distinguished itself during the war earning the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation in 1951 thru 1952 and again from 1952 to 1953. The company was inactivated following the war. On 1 June 1993 the 68th Engineer Company was activated again, this time at Fort Hood Texas and was attached to the 62nd Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy). Since the 1993 activation the 68th Engineer Company has conducted a multitude of missions. The company deployed on the border of Arizona in April of 1994 in support of Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6). Since Oct 1994 the company has deployed platoons regularly with the 1St Calvary Division and the 4th Infantry Division to the National Training Center (NTC). After Hurricane Mitch struck the coast of Honduras in 1998 the 68th was called upon to deploy and aide in the cleanup and relief efforts. During OIF I the 68th Eng Co deployed to Iraq where the Trailblazers earned their name, cleaning up countless roads, tank trails and berms in support of the maneuver units. The company deployed again during OIF III to the port in Kuwait to support the downloading of over 1000 pieces of equipment. In December of 2004 the 68th began construction on a Forward Landing Strip (FLS) in Fort Hood Texas; Landing Strip “Hammer” was completed in August of 2005 as the only certified FLS for C-130 in the Continental United States. In October of 2005 the 68th Engineer Company deployed once again for Iraq. The trailblazers truly created a lasting impression contributing a great deal through the replacement of thousands of barriers to provide protection for coalition forces and the local populous throughout the area. With the improvement of drainage structures on all forward operating bases they improve the quality of life for Coalition Forces and the Sanitization of several key supply routes enhancing the mobility of maneuver forces traveling them. The 68th Engineer Company was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation for their outstanding contributions to the war effort. The 68th Engineer Company deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in April 2008 for 15 months. The company immediately started building a critical roadway to improve the country’s infrastructure as well as Combat Outpost (COP) and Observation Points (OP). The company was also tasked to build an access road up the side of a 9000 ft mountain. Some places exceeding 60% slope, the road was completed in December 2008. The company had platoons spread out all over Afghanistan, in February the entire company embarked on a FOB expansion in Regional Command (RC) South. The 68th moved its entire operation to RC South. This expansion was one of the biggest in Afghanistan. This project was the final project before its re-deployment on 17 July 2009.
