Fort Polk’s 46th Engineer Battalion deployed 153 Soldiers and 70 pieces of equipment Aug. 31 to southeastern Louisiana in support of recovery operations following Hurricane Ida’s devastation.
Soldiers from 687th Engineer Construction Company, 573rd Clearance Company, Forward Support Company and 46th Eng Bn staff joined Louisiana Army National Guard Soldiers and Seabees from the Naval Construction Battalion in Gulfport, Mississippi. The 46th Engineer Soldiers were the first active-Army unit deployed in the recovery effort.
They redeployed to Fort Polk on Sept. 20.
Maj. Maria Carver Frishman, 46 Eng Bn, said operations spanned a 3,170 square mile area and covered three Louisiana Parishes: Terrebonne, Lafourche and Jefferson. She said the battalion was tasked with conducting debris clearance in support of Northern Command and Joint Task Force-Louisiana, working in coordination with the Louisiana National Guard and other supporting Title-10 Units.
“Missions included route clearance on Grand Isle, Louisiana, levee clearance in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, and canal clearance in Terrebonne Parish,” she said. “In total, the battalion cleared 78 miles and removed 20,602 cubic yards (2,085 dump truck loads) of debris.”
Frishman said sustainment was limited during the first week of operations.
“The battalion’s base of operations was established at the Fletcher Technical Community College parking lot, running off of internal power generation and supported by MREs, water and fuel deployed from Fort Polk,” she said. “Within a week, sustainment networks were established for all classes of supply. Additionally, the