1020th Engineer Co. coming home from Kuwait Saturday

After nine months in what some call “The Sandbox,” 150 local citizen soldiers came home to their families Saturday (Sept. 1).

The Marksville-based 1020th Engineer Co. of the Louisiana National Guard’s 527th Engineer Battalion arrived at the Alexandria International Airport, ending their tour of duty in and around Kuwait in support of the nation’s Operation Spartan Shield, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and Operation Inherent Resolve.

The unit completed 35 projects in Kuwait and Iraq costing over $15 million in construction costs.

In addition to projects in the Persian Gulf arena, the 1020th also completed two construction projects for Northern Special Operations Command Central in northern Afghanistan and performed maintenance and improvements to the military bases where they were deployed.

The unit left Louisiana in October 2017 and trained at Fort Bliss, Texas, before deploying to Kuwait.

It was the first time the unit had been in that region since it was deployed there during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91.

The 1020th’s members have worked on such domestic emergencies as the 2016 floods, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and Isaac.

The unit has conducted several overseas training projects, building schools and health clinics in Germany, Belize, Haiti and Honduras.