News Article

Company C Soldiers In Middle East Are Dealing With Very Hot Weather


By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
05-28-2005

The U.S. Army reservists of the 844th Engineer Battalion's Greeneville-based Company C are dealing with extreme heat while completing construction projects in Kuwait and Iraq, a unit member says.

Staff Sgt. Kenneth Wells said in an electronic mail message sent to a friend recently that on Friday, May 20, the temperature in Kuwait reached a day-time high of 139 degrees.

"At 10 p.m. it was still 102 degrees," Wells wrote.

He also forwarded a photo of Spc. Derrick Smith, of Company C, using a bulldozer to push over a mud brick wall outside a U.S. base in Iraq.

The wall, he said, was part of a complex of abandoned houses outside the U.S. base that insurgents had been using as a position from which to fire rockets into the base.

A second photo that Wells forwarded showed him using a bulldozer to demolish a house beside a road, or 'motor supply route.' His message indicated that insurgent forces had been firing at passing U.S. convoys from the abandoned house.

A third photo sent by Wells showed Company C soldiers using bulldozers to fill 'a massive canyon' outside a U.S. base in Iraq.

"I really hate sand, and I�m not a big fan of the sun now either," Wells wrote.

Company C and other elements of the U.S. Army Reserve's 844th Engineer Battalion were called to active duty last fall and underwent training at Camp Atterbury, Ind., before being sent to Kuwait last December. Last February, Lt. Col. Donato 'Don' Dinello, the 844th Engineer Battalion's commanding officer, said via electronic mail that Company C soldiers had been hard at work in northern Kuwait.

  • They have built breezeways and covers (for) areas around the dining facility at Camp Virginia (an Army base in northern Kuwait).
  • They've maintained and improved the berms (earthen protective barriers) at Camp Virginia, constructed an entry-control point bypass road, installed survey points, and constructed offices.

    • In addition, Lt. Col. Dinello reported last winter, Company C reservists had:

  • constructed a four-kilometer-long berm connecting a base called Camp Victory with the Al Salem Armored Brigade Camp;
  • built a recreation stage;
  • refurbished several office trailers; and
  • rebuilt shower trailers.


    • Photo Special to the Sun - Spc. Derrick Smith, a member of Greeneville-based Company C of the U.S. Army Reserve�s 844th Engineer Battalion, is shown recently using a bulldozer to push over a mud-brick wall at an abandoned building complex near a U.S. base in Iraq recently. The Company C combat engineers demolished the building complex because it was used by insurgents as a position from which to fire rockets into the U.S. base, Staff Sgt. Kenneth Wells, a Company C soldier from Greene County, said via electronic mail.

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