The 6th Engineer Support Battalion (6th ESB or 6th EngSptBn), is an

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

of the

United States Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command, by assigned p ...

. They are headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and they fall under the command of the

4th Marine Logistics Group The 4th Marine Logistics Group (4th MLG) is a reserve logistics unit of the United States Marine Corps. The group is headquartered at New Orleans, Louisiana while its subordinate units are spread across the United States. Mission Provide gene ...

Current units

* Headquarters and Service Company – Portland, Oregon * Bridge Company A –

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which e ...

, Michigan * Bridge Company B –

Folsom Folsom may refer to: People * Folsom (surname) Places in the United States * Folsom, Perry County, Alabama * Folsom, Randolph County, Alabama * Folsom, California * Folsom, Georgia * Folsom, Louisiana * Folsom, Missouri * Folsom, New Jerse ...

, Pennsylvania * Bridge Company C – Memphis, Tennessee * Bulk Fuel Company A –

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, Arizona ** Det 1 – Fort Lewis, Washington ** Det 2 –

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

, California * Bulk Fuel Company B – Wilmington, Delaware **Det 1 – Green Bay, Wisconsin * Bulk Fuel Company C –

Luke Air Force Base Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States., effective 20 December 2007 It is located west of the central business district of Glendale, and west of Phoenix. Luke AFB is a major traini ...

, Arizona * Engineer Support Company –

, Michigan * Engineer Company C – Peoria, Illinois

History

World War II

The Battalion was activated on 1 November 1944 at

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

as the 6th Engineer Battalion,

6th Marine Division The 6th Marine Division was a United States Marine Corps World War II infantry division formed in September 1944. During the invasion of Okinawa it saw combat at Yae-Take and Sugar Loaf Hill and was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. The ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, they participated in the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

and the

Occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States ...

(August–November 1945). In October 1945, they were redeployed to

Tsingtao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

, China. The battalion was deactivated 26 March 1946.

1957–1975

The Battalion was reactivated on 1 November 1957 at Swan Island, Portland, Oregon as the 3rd Engineer Battalion of the Marine Corps Reserve. On 1 July 1962, they were redesignated as the 5th Engineer Battalion.

1976–1997

Redesignated again on 31 May 1976 as the 6th Engineer Support Battalion (6th ESB),

4th Force Service Support Group The 4th Marine Logistics Group (4th MLG) is a reserve logistics unit of the United States Marine Corps. The group is headquartered at New Orleans, Louisiana while its subordinate units are spread across the United States. Mission Provide g ...

. Elements of the battalion participated in

Operation Desert Shield The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

and

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

in Southwest Asia from January til April 1991.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

2003

Operation Iraqi Freedom {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, 6th ESB was responsible for fueling coalition forces as they moved northward through

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, and were entrenched in combat during the

Battle of Nasiriyah The Battle of Nasiriyah was fought between the US 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, aided by the British military, and Iraqi forces from 23 March to 2 April 2003 during the US-led invasion of Iraq. On the night of 24–25 March, the bulk of t ...

. They also provided purified water supplies to the Marine Corps desert and urban encampments during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During Iraq's worst sandstorm in 20 years, Reserve Marines of the 6th ESB, along with active duty Marines of 7th ESB and 8th ESB Bulk Fuel Companies, constructed the longest fuel line in the history of the Marine Corps.

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...

of the 6th ESB were awarded the

Navy Presidential Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...

for "extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy" during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

2004–2005

Continued support in 2004 to 2005 was given by Engineer Support Company from Portland, Oregon (reinforced by Detachment 1 Bulk Fuel Company A from Fort Lewis, Washington), and Bridge Company A from Battle Creek, Michigan. During this time Engineer Support Company was re-designated as Combat Service Support Company 113 (CSSC-113). Missions during this time included base operations in over a dozen different locations and resupply convoys during

Operation Phantom Fury The Second Battle of Fallujah, codenamed Operation al-Fajr ( ar, الفجر, ) and Operation Phantom Fury, was an American-led offensive of the Iraq War that lasted roughly 6 weeks, starting 7th November, 2004. Marking the highest point of the ...

in November 2004. Four

were killed in action during this tour. Bridge Company A was attached to the US Army's 155th Engineer Group and rebuilt and maintained bridges all over South/Central Iraq. Their most significant repair mission was to repair a highway bridge at Checkpoint 34A (South of Camp Striker) on Main Supply Route Tampa during early November 2004 that had been damaged by VBIED attacks in order stop the flow of supplies and reinforcements to

Fallujah Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah, Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Je ...

during the campaign there. Projected to take 7 days to repair, Bridge Company A repaired the bridge while under fire in less than 32 hours

Operation Enduring Freedom

2011–2012

From July 2011 to Feb. 2012 (OEF 11–2), over 100 Marines from the 6th ESB and individual augments of 6th Communications Battalion deployed as Engineer Company attached to Combat Logistics Battalion 6 to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 a ...

. The majority of the company was based out of

Camp Leatherneck Camp Leatherneck was a 1,600 acre United States Marine Corps base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The site was mostly in Washir District and was conjoined with Camp Bastion, which was the main British military base in Afghanistan and Camp Sho ...

, with small detachments of Bulk Fuels and Utilities Marines supporting more than a dozen sites throughout the Area of Operations. Combined teams from the engineer, motor transport, and heavy equipment platoons conducted extensive construction projects and road repairs for

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

and special operations units throughout the northern half of

Helmand Province Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...

2012–2013

From 2012 to February 2013, 200 Marines from various units in the battalion, supported by individual augments from 6th Communications Battalion, deployed under the title of Engineer Company Bravo. The company integrated into Combat Logistics Battalion 2, serving in a similar role as the OEF 11-2 deployment.

References

;Notes : ;Web
Official website
{{US Marine Corps navbox 4th Marine Logistics Group ESB6