Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Colonel Kem (front left) reviewed the 20th Engineer Battalion's plans
to destroy bridges on the Iller River in Exercise Carbon Edge,
REFORGER 77, in September 1977.
That experience addressed a real doctrinal issue: which bridges, then, do you retain for Corps
responsibility? Answer: the fewest possible--those that are significant and critical to that
level of commander. Thereafter, in our general defense plan, we pushed a bunch more down
to division commanders while we kept a few for Corps. For those, we said, "You've got to
call me before you blow these; the others are yours." So, we modified our general defense
plan from that FTX experience.
One exercise we almost didn't get to run because the FTX was terminated early was
deployment of the ribbon bridge by CH47s. Blue forces were counterattacking back and
were about to cross the Iller River. We had tactically planned the first helicopter delivery of
the ribbon bridge. We'd never tried it in training before. We'd figured out how we wanted to
do it. We had a good operations plan with the Corps aviation folks and our own 502d Ribbon
Bridge Company. The aviators would deliver the bridge by helicopter, and the bridge
company would put it together, and we'd get our maneuver teams across. The idea being that
as the force is moving forward, you want to cross the river in stride, that is, without delay.
The commander doesn't know which of his tactical units is going to have success, which one
won't be opposed at the river line. So, he doesn't want to commit his bridge assets to a road
that binds it to one crossing if that turns out to not be his best opportunity.
By keeping the bridge back with multiple roads or paths to the river line as opportunities
dictate, he can then decide which one to move on with success--catch one where he can get
212
Previous Page
