Reserve construction unit takes paving expertise on road to Iraq

The Army Reserve’s 659th Engineer Company is ready to rock and roll.

The 150 men and women of the Spokane-based construction support unit, experts in quarrying and paving, have received orders to deploy to Iraq, where the roads are apparently in even worse shape than they are here.

“Our job is to pave roads,” the unit’s commander, Capt. John St. John, said Wednesday afternoon. “We act like a civilian construction company, but we don’t look like a civilian paving operation.”

Throughout August, the 659th has been building roads and a helipad at Fairchild Air Force Base, while wearing body armor and Kevlar helmets to get used to what it will be like in Iraq. The unit also has been building its troop strength since it was activated in May. To get it up to 100 percent, St. John said, reserve soldiers have been added from as far away as Salt Lake City. Others come from Boise, Portland and Seattle, as well as Spokane.

“Many were not trained in the skills that we needed,” he said.

So they have been attending classes and training in crushing rock, and producing and laying asphalt. The unit will undergo a two-week training certification at Fairchild before leaving for Fort Lewis on Oct. 15, according to a statement from the Army Reserve’s 70th Regional Readiness Command office at Fort Lawton, Wash.

When the 659th deploys to Iraq depends on how soon a ship can be lined up to transport the unit’s considerable equipment, which includes 20-ton dump trucks, rollers, pavers and Humvees, said St. John, who is from Spokane Valley. In cell phone sales in civilian life, St. John has been full-time Army since assuming command of the 659th in May.

Like most reservists, the unit’s five officers and 145 enlisted personnel are used to serving one weekend a month and two or three weeks a year, usually during summers. The extra time they have been training this summer has taken away from their civilian lives.

“They have had to sacrifice time away from their families,” St. John said, “especially the ones from out of state.”

For the last four or five years, St. John said, the unit has been mixing asphalt on Air Force property in an arrangement under which Fairchild gets free asphalt. The rock comes from a nearby quarry in a deal worked out with the city of Airway Heights.

St. John could not say where in Iraq the 659th will be stationed or to what military outfit it will be attached. Wherever it ends up, the 659th will be making improvements, he said, either to bases, runways or civilian infrastructure.

He said the unit will be ready for its first overseas assignment.

“We are going to get excellent training,” St. John said. “We are excited and the motivation is high.”

There will be times when the unit will have to provide its own security, he said. There is more for this construction team to worry about in Iraq than passing motorists.

“First, we are soldiers,” he said, “And we have to be able to shoot our weapons accurately and stay alive on the battlefield.”