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32 Engineer January–April 2014 D uring the disaster relief response after Hurricane Sandy, Soldiers of the 19th Engineer Battalion, Fort Knox, Kentucky, developed a very good work- ing relationship with the U.S. Marines of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. No units have benefted more from this link than the 502d Multirole Bridge Company (MRBC), 19th Engineer Battalion, and the Bridge Company, 8th Engineer Support Battalion. In March 2013, the improved ribbon bridge (IRB) platoon from the U.S. Marine battalion traveled to Fort Knox to take part in the boat live-fre exercise conducted by the 502d. The exercise included IRB rafting operations on the Ohio River and live-fre training on one of the few riverine ranges in the United States. The cooperation between the Soldiers and Marines was quickly recognized as invaluable, and the 8th Engineer Support Battalion promptly invited the 502d Engineers to their home turf at Camp Lejeune to take part in a 1,000-foot, full-enclosure exercise. In the Army, military occupational specialty (MOS) 12C designates a career of bridge building. However, the Mar- ines do not have a designated bridge-building MOS, which means that a Marine bridge company is fundamentally dif- ferent from an Army bridge company. While an Army MRBC platoon can bridge wet and dry gaps using the IRB, the medium girder bridge (MGB), or the dry sup- port bridge, a Marine Corps bridge company has an IRB platoon that is responsible only for wet gaps and an MGB platoon that is respon- sible only for dry gaps. Because the Marines have no specifc bridge-building MOS, this distinction halves the amount of equipment that Marines must learn to use. Therefore, they can become combat-effective much faster. On the morning of 27 July, the Soldiers of 2d Platoon, 502d MRBC loaded up for an 800-mile convoy to Camp Lejeune. The con- voy consisted of common bridge transporters loaded with interior bays for the IRB, fuel trucks, a wrecker, and a contact truck. With a few exceptions, the Soldiers had never driven their vehicles on the interstate high- way system, so the drive was a valuable train- ing experience. After a 2-day trip (with an overnight stay at a truck stop), the platoon Soldiers wade through an obstacle on the endurance course. EN Crimmins.1.indd 35 3/12/2014 1:14:12 PM