LARAMIE, Wyo.- Soldiers in the 133rd Engineer Company, Wyoming National Guard, are scheduled to complete three construction projects at West Camp Rapid as part of the 32nd Golden Coyote training exercise, June 13-20.
The exercise provides the engineers an opportunity to work with Canadian and Danish engineers while gaining experience with their heavy equipment. The completed projects will provide better access to the training sites at West Camp Rapid.
"It's amazing for the Soldiers," said Sgt. Glenn Negretti, platoon leader of the 133rd's 1st platoon. "I think they're pretty happy to have this opportunity to use the equipment they were trained on and do the job they joined the Army to do."
The projects include constructing a parking lot for the obstacle course, building a new road for civilian use and clearing a gulch to provide better vehicle access to training sites.
"We had to do a lot of problem solving for our project," said Negretti. "I think it's a good experience because you deal with unforeseen challenges when you're on a job site down range."
Each of the three platoons from the 133rd was in charge of completing a project and coordinating with engineers from the Danish Homeguard and the Canadian Army. The allied units helped the 133rd by clearing brush and trees from each construction site.
"I think it's awesome to work with the allied units," said 2nd Lt. Madison Hambler, platoon leader of the 133rd's 3rd platoon. "It's great to see so many different people working together to accomplish these projects and it gives us great training."
The engineers used heavy equipment such as bulldozers, scrapers, front-end loaders, skid steers and dump trucks to accomplish their projects.
"When I deployed, we were deconstructing operating bases in Afghanistan and we were using a lot of the same equipment," said Negretti
This is the first year Soldiers from the 133rd participated in the Golden Coyote training exercise.
"Everyone was excited to see the Danes' and Canadians' equipment," said Negretti. "We taught them how to use some of our equipment and it was interesting to see how they do things."
In addition to working with allied units, the 133rd worked with Soldiers from the 200th Engineer Company of the South Dakota Army National Guard, which supplied additional equipment to finish the projects.
"It was nice to come out and help on a bigger project like this," said Spc. Adam Zemlicka, a heavy equipment operator with the 200th. "It's different than the training we usually do."
All three projects are scheduled to be completed by June 20th, and the areas will be used throughout the year during training on West Camp Rapid.
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