This deployment marks Garciapena’s fifth in his 13 years in the Army and second with the FEST-A, having deployed with the team to Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. “It broadened my knowledge and my leadership skills with the team,” Garciapena said. “I was used to leading Army troops my entire career, but now I am working alongside a group of professionals that know more about engineering than I do. That was definitely humbling for me, and it still is. That experience helped me to prepare for this deployment because now I know what to expect, which is the unknown. … We train and prepare for the expected and the unexpected.”

“National security needs are inherent to our mission here in the Navigation Branch and to the Corps as a whole.”

Buursma has twice deployed to Iraq in his 16-year Army engineering career, experiences he said he believes have prepared him well for this first USACE deployment. In addition to being professionally rewarding, he said, “It inspires me to know that there are professionals alongside of me who may not wear a uniform in their day job and they’re volunteering to go to Afghanistan for nine months and give of themselves for national security. It’s meaningful to know I’m with a team that’s volunteered, that’s put their country first, and that’s going to use their talent to the best of their abilities for that purpose.”

 

Galveston District Navigation Branch

Domestically, too, engineer Soldiers provide vital national security services.

Capt. Robert M. Burnham’s Army engineering experience includes deployment to Afghanistan and command of a multi-role bridge company, and for the last two years, he’s broadened his knowledge as operations manager in Galveston District’s Navigation Branch.

Encompassing the Texas coast from Louisiana to Mexico, Galveston District serves 28 ports and 700 miles of coastline, manages more than 1,000 miles of channel, and plays a key role in keeping waterways navigable for commerce and national security.

“We support the safe and efficient navigation in the federally authorized channels of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the ports that align the Texas coast,” said Burnham, who manages the scheduling, budgeting, coordination, and execution of district navigation projects. Those projects, he explained, involve dredging the channels to the federally authorized depth and “making them navigable for port entities, port sponsors, basically all stakeholders inside of the ports.”

Ensuring open waterways is vital to the nation’s economy, with the Port of Houston ranked No. 2 in the nation in terms of tonnage, and all Texas ports accounting for more than 20 percent of the nation’s total tonnage.

In addition to commerce, navigable waterways are also essential to national security. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 specified Ports, Waterways and Coastal Security as the first U.S. Coast Guard homeland security mission, which involves protecting the U.S. maritime domain and the U.S. Marine Transportation System and those who live, work, and recreate near them, as well as the prevention and disruption of terrorist attacks and response to those that do occur.

In that regard, Burnham also manages all nine Coast Guard stations on the Texas Gulf Coast. “What that means is making sure that the boat basins for all the Coast Guard stations are dredged to the required depth so they can keep their boats coming in and out. And that leads to national security – making sure that the Coast Guard is able to continue their mission,” he said.

Another national security application is keeping waterways open to strategic seaports, three of which are along the Texas coast. “The U.S. government has designated 22 strategic seaports around the United States,” Burnham said, “because of their ability to support major force and materiel deployment in time of war or national emergency, based on proximity of deploying units and their transportation.”

“Ensuring that these waterways are kept open and dredged to their federally authorized depth becomes paramount to meet needs overseas, and keeping the channels accessible is vital.”

Two of those strategic seaports, the Port of Beaumont and the Port of Port Arthur, are on the Sabine Channel, where Burnham worked with the Sabine Navigation District to develop a setback policy. “The setback policy that we put in place assures that they have a federally authorized channel that’s clear, open, and free for mobility,” he said.

“National security needs are inherent to our mission here in the Navigation Branch and to the Corps as a whole,” Burnham summarized. “Ensuring that these waterways are kept open and dredged to their federally authorized depth becomes paramount to meet needs overseas, and keeping the channels accessible is vital.”

This article first appeared in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Building Strong®: Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2016-2017 Edition.