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Range Operation Employees Receive Awards during Engineer Symposium

By Jason RagucciFebruary 5, 2024

Range Operation Employees Receive Awards during Engineer Symposium
27th Engineer Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. French Pope, awarded Robert Havens, Jim Horiski, Darin Burns, and Bryan Reed Army Civilian Service Achievement Medals for scheduling and assisting the Engineer Symposium at Maurey Drop Zone in December 2023. (Photo by Fort Liberty Range Operations, DPTMS) (Photo Credit: Jason Ragucci) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LIBERTY, N.C. – Range Operations helped make the Engineer Symposium a success. The 27th Engineer Battalion Commander recognized four Range Operators for their efforts and support during the exercise held in December 2023.

The Engineer Symposium included the Sandhills Breaching Project, which began the Army’s initiative to modernize and autonomize its combat breaching systems. Lt. Col. French Pope awarded Robert Havens, Jim Horiski, Darin Burns, and Bryan Reed Army Civilian Service Achievement Medals for scheduling and assisting the symposium at Maurey Drop Zone.

“We greatly appreciated the early planning and scheduling from Lt. Col. Pope and his team to make the Engineer Symposium a success,” said Fort Liberty Range Officer Mark Murray. “Our Range Operations employees took great pride in working with the Engineers to ensure they had the best Facility, Air Space, and Training Areas.

The Sandhills autonomous breaching project was an XVIII Airborne Corps initiative executed by the 20th Engineer Brigade. At the direction of Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the 20th Engineer Brigade will explore available autonomous and semiautonomous breaching capabilities. The state of Large-Scale Combat Operations suggests a need for robotic and autonomous breaching that keeps Soldiers out of the point of breach. The 20th Engineer Brigade, alongside government and industry partners, hosted an experiment to test the capabilities of current autonomous and robotic systems.