My options were going to a maintenance battalion or to the 17th Engineer Battalion (John Henry). It was not my choice of assignments, but I learned a great deal in that assignment about how to be a liaison (something I've written about previously) and also just plain experience at working in an engineer unit. We built timber trestle bridges, Bailey Bridges (some of you will have heard of), M4T6 bridge over a dry span and then a floating pontoon bridge which was also an M4T6.
Which brings me to this story, US officials are watching new bridge construction in key area in Belarus
Belarus is on the northern border of Ukraine. The bridge appeared overnight, so good job to whoever did construct the bridge. Was it just a training drill like the ones I participated in, or is this part of the lead-up to the anticipated invasion by Russian and I'm betting Belarus forces.
When you read this—after the weekend, it may all be moot, but my projection is that there will be a simultaneous invasion of Ukraine from the East, North and South. In the southern portion of the nation the invasion will come from Russian marine forces.
With so much landmass to try to defend, I'm projecting that unless Ukraine has some grand military strategy that I don't know about, the invasion could be over in a matter of a few days. One week tops.
Then the question will be about the willingness of the civilian population to fight on, not as an army, but as a guerrilla force. The counterpart to that will be the willingness of Western Nations to then support these guerrilla forces with weapons, ammunition and other supplies.
