FORT KNOX, Ky. — When Capt. Drake Sullivan began working toward a career as an Army officer, he faced a major decision – history or mechanical engineering.
He chose engineering. After almost 10 years of active-duty service, Sullivan made the decision to take a position with the Army Corps of Engineers while continuing to serve in the Kentucky National Guard. Sullivan said he ultimately made the decision for his family, and it has been a fulfilling change of pace.
“The Corps of Engineers has been an incredible, incredible opportunity. I think it's a pretty well-kept secret, too,” said the 149th Infantry Battalion’s Delta Company commander. “It’s a great way to still be part of the mission.”
Sullivan began his work with the corps as a Department of the Army intern where he was introduced to a multitude of construction projects on which to learn the ropes. The new Fort Knox Digital Air-Ground Integration Range (DAGIR) was one of them.
Over the next four years of construction, between his National Guard duties and a deployment to Kosovo in 2022, Sullivan played a key role in the development of the new range.
“They just rotated me around all the big projects that they had going on so that I could interact with all the existing project engineers and quality assurance representatives,” he stated. “I'd never worked in construction, so I didn't know hardly anything. It felt a lot like being a lieutenant, actually.”
Though he admittedly did not have had the most construction experience in the room, Sullivan said there were many conversations where the crew turned to him for input during the project due to his military background. When there was confusion on a drawing in the plans, or a term they didn’t quite understand, he provided clarification.
“I think they took into account that, having been in the military for quite some time, I knew enough about how ranges are supposed to work that that would help, and it definitely did,” said Sullivan, the project manager of construction. “I was able to tell them things like, ‘Hey, you shouldn't dig cable trenches directly through the berms that are in front of the target tree because rounds impacting the berm have the potential to damage the cabling and cause issues with the target. It's better to route that around the berm’ – a lot of things like that that were intuitively obvious to me [but] that maybe weren't as easy for somebody who's never been in the military and who's never done a gunnery on a range this size before to figure out.”
When the assigned quality assurance representative had to take medical leave, Sullivan was chosen to cover down for him. That put Sullivan on the range every day for the next three months, overseeing the project, making sure construction initiatives followed the correct specifications.
The battery charging shop, helipads, vehicle instrumentation dock, over 400 targets and more were all constructed or installed under his watch.
“I have spent a lot of time helping get this range built and helping it become the operational range that it is,” said Sullivan. “It is the coolest range I've ever seen.”
Shortly after the range was completed, Sullivan received some welcome news.
When it came time for his company to complete their Humvee gunnery crew qualification tables, Sullivan found out that the location for training had been switched from Camp Grayling, Michigan to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Sullivan said he immediately thought about the DAGIR.
“When I did find out that we were doing this at Fort Knox, I told our battalion S-3 [plans, operations and training] shop about this range and [that] if we could get this range, that would be ideal,” he said.
Many of Sullivan’s fellow Soldiers found the ranges unique features useful as well.
“I thought it was going to be more of your usual M4 range, but when I finally got out here, I was pretty excited,” said Spc. Kevin Rhoads, Delta Company infantryman. “I saw that there were a lot of training opportunities with the range, and I saw that there was going to be a lot of progress that we were going to make – and there is a lot of potential growth for our company.”
Rhoads said Sullivan did not provide them any specifics on the range beforehand to keep the training authentic. However, the repetitions of shooting from Humvees morning, noon and night had helped them adapt and grow together.
Though Sullivan did not let his extensive knowledge of the range affect the training itself, he said it made the planning structure much easier.
“I did a leader’s recon with the company, but that was just a formality. I have been over every square inch of this range over the past couple of years, so I was able to visualize how this range would benefit Soldiers in the future, not knowing at the time that it was going to be my Soldiers,” said Sullivan. “[Now] I get a front row seat in seeing that pay off and helping prepare these Soldiers for whatever they may face in the future.”
Sullivan said supporting the Soldiers and their Families is what it’s all about for him, both as a Soldier and as a project manager.
“Whether we’re building a range for the Soldiers or a school for the Soldiers’ kids or a new barracks for Soldiers to stay in, we’re supporting Soldiers and their Families here,” said Sullivan. “I feel like I’m still part of the mission, just in a different capacity. It couldn’t have worked out better.”
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