The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a rich history of support to the nation and its military forces in vital overseas regions. Corps of Engineers organizations have functioned in the Middle East and Africa since the early 1950s with one constant mission – to provide engineering design and construction management services to support U.S. policy and defense objectives overseas.

The Corps of Engineers was tapped to manage military construction projects in Turkey on behalf of the U.S. Air Force in 1952. The program expanded to include air base work in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. As the U.S. government programmed aid to strengthen the military forces of select allies, the Corps of Engineers constructed military facilities in Pakistan and Iran. U.S. programs also provided economic assistance, resulting in non-military projects such as civilian air terminals in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran; a road system in Afghanistan; and port facilities in Somalia.

The mid-1960s brought projects in northeastern Africa and the NATO countries of Southern Europe. Projects were accomplished for the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, with work completed in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya, and Saudi Arabia.

The division became increasingly involved in Saudi Arabia, with design and construction of a countrywide black-and-white television system and a radio station complex. The Engineer Assistance Agreement, signed in 1965 between the U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments, allowed for the Corps of Engineers to assist the Kingdom with its military infrastructure development. This emerging work necessitated a major organizational change in the Corps of Engineers: military construction in the NATO countries of southern Europe was assigned to the Europe Division (formed in 1974), and a new division would replace the Mediterranean Division for the Saudi Arabian program.

The Middle East Division was activated on April 20, 1976. The division was organized to meet the demands of the growing Saudi Arabian-funded engineering and construction program. Its headquarters, with full division staff, was located in Riyadh, with these subordinate organizations:

• Three districts – Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al Batin – to supervise construction programs throughout the Kingdom.

• An Engineer Logistics Command, responsible for directing and coordinating all logistics activities.

• An Ordnance Program Division that worked with the Saudi Arabian Army Ordnance Corps in operating and maintaining its logistics systems for wheeled and tracked vehicles.

• And a rear echelon near Winchester, Virginia, to manage the large volume of design work and award contracts on behalf of the division headquarters and its districts.

The Army Corps of Engineers assisted the Saudi Arabian government with a $14 billion design and construction program that included military cantonments, headquarters complexes, housing, air bases, navy bases, port facilities, hospitals, military training centers and schools, and all associated utilities and roads. This construction formed a portion of the major infrastructure that supported U.S. military operations in Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-1991.

As the program in Saudi Arabia drew to its expected closure, the Corps of Engineers reorganized to meet the changing workload. The rear echelon in Winchester evolved into a headquarters, serving customers throughout the Middle East and Africa. On September 30, 1986, the Middle East/Africa Projects Office (MEAPO) was formed as a district-level element of the South Atlantic Division.

MEAPO had a large geographic expanse. In Oman, it managed the design and construction of $300 million in facilities at four locations for use by the U.S. Air Force, with permission of the Sultanate.

Under the Defense Department’s foreign military sales program, the organization supervised projects that supported the defense forces of Egypt, Bahrain, and Kuwait, with smaller projects in Sudan and Liberia. Under a U.S. security assistance program, the Corps of Engineers supported the Africa Civic Action Program with technical and procurement services provided to host nation military forces engaging in beneficial projects for both military and civilian sectors of their populations.

Additionally, MEAPO served the Voice of America with its modernization program to upgrade broadcast stations overseas and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools with its worldwide asbestos abatement program. MEAPO was also instrumental in assisting Third U.S. Army with the development of the earliest LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) service contracts and awarded the first package, for a petroleum distribution project in the Middle East.

Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm: Within days of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, MEAPO began its deployment to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, to provide design, construction, and real estate services to support U.S. forces.

Ultimately, the Corps of Engineers designed and constructed facilities totaling approximately $300 million and executed leases with private Saudi Arabian land owners and businesses totaling $135 million in annual rental fees.

Events in Europe and the Middle East prompted the Corps of Engineers to realign the overseas elements serving these regions. In February 1991, the Transatlantic Division was formed with its headquarters in Winchester, Virginia, multiple area and resident offices in the Middle East, and a single district – Europe – in Germany.

In addition to the engineering missions that had been managed by its predecessor, the first half of the decade brought several new programs to the Transatlantic Division:

• Assisting Kuwait’s government with its recovery operations after it was liberated from Iraq. Civil repairs totaling $330 million were made to electricity, water, and sanitary systems; public and state buildings, including the Parliament; and roads and transportation systems. Repairs were made to Kuwait’s two air bases, with that work valued at $131 million.

• Assisting with Operation Provide Comfort, providing engineering assistance for relief efforts to Kurdish refugees in Turkey and northern Iraq.

• Expanding its engineering support to U.S. Central Command, a major unified command, for its operations in the Middle East.

• Working in the former Soviet Union for programs ranging from embassy renovation to assisting with projects to reduce the threat of chemical and nuclear weapons.

• And developing, awarding, and administering the Army’s first worldwide Logistics Civil Augmentation Program contract from 1992-1997, used to provide logistics and engineering services to U.S. forces deployed to Somalia, Rwanda and Zaire, Haiti, the Middle East, Italy, and the Balkans.

In 1995, the Transatlantic Division was renamed the Transatlantic Programs Center as a result of division restructuring in the Corps of Engineers. An organizational change in 1998 reassigned Europe District to the North Atlantic Division.

The Transatlantic Programs Center continued the operations of its predecessor. In the late 1990s, the Center assisted the U.S. Agency for International Development with construction projects in Kenya and Tanzania, and assisted the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy with designing and building a nuclear storage facility in the Ural Mountains.

As a result of the global war on terror, the Transatlantic Programs Center expanded its operations to meet the engineering requirements resulting from the troop buildup for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fall 2002, the Center initiated a program to build barracks and related facilities for graduating battalions of the Afghanistan National Army and concurrent established the Afghanistan Area Office, which later evolved into an independent district reporting to the Corps of Engineers headquarters. As the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan increased, the Center provided project management, technical, contracting, and business support services to the Gulf Region Division and its three districts in Iraq and to the Afghanistan Engineer District. It also established the USACE Deployment Center to prepare civilians for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Throughout this period, the Transatlantic Programs Center continued to provide engineering and construction services to U.S. Central Command and its component services; to other Defense Department customers; and to foreign defense forces and other U.S. government agencies. In early 2009 it completed construction of the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center, a state-of-the-art counterterrorism training facility designed to make the world a safer place.

The Transatlantic Division was established September 29, 2009, in Winchester, Virginia, to provide unity of command for all the USACE organizations working in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

Before the division was established, three major USACE organizations operated in that theater: the Gulf Region Division in Baghdad, Iraq; the Afghanistan Engineer District in Kabul; and the Transatlantic Programs Center in Winchester.

When the Transatlantic Division was activated, the Gulf Region Division was disestablished (concurrently with a declining construction mission in Iraq) and its remaining districts assigned to the new Division: the Gulf Region District in Baghdad and the Gulf Region South District in Tallil. The Division inherited the Afghanistan Engineer District-North in Kabul; the newly created Afghanistan Engineer District-South in Kandahar; and the Middle East District (renamed from the Transatlantic Programs Center).

Since then, the Transatlantic Division’s structure has continued to evolve to meet its operational requirements. The Division now has two districts; the newly formed Transatlantic Expeditionary District and the enduring Transatlantic Middle East District.
 

The Transatlantic Afghanistan District’s history began in October 2001, when the United States and its coalition partners sent military forces into Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The operation’s objective was to displace the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, oust the Taliban government, and establish a new Afghan central government. 

Following the ouster of the Taliban government, the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan requested the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair and construct Afghan National Army and National Police facilities. As a result, the USACE headquarters established the Afghanistan area office in Kabul in September 2002. 

USACE saw a significant increase in its military construction project workload, especially at Bagram Airfield (BAF) and Kandahar Airfield (KAF). This led to the establishment of the Afghanistan Engineer District (AED) on March 1, 2004, which reported directly to USACE headquarters. 

Increasing mission requirements let to the establishment of a second district, AED-South, in Kandahar, on August 3, 2009. The first district, headquartered in Kabul, was re-designated as AED-North. Both districts reported to the newly formed Transatlantic Division (TAD), located in Winchester, Virginia.

On July 9, 2013, AED-North and AED-South were merged to form the Transatlantic Afghanistan District (TAA), headquartered at Bagram Airfield, where TAA continued to execute USACE’s vital mission in Afghanistan.

Seven years later, on December 16, 2020, TAA’s command colors were cased at Bagram and transported to its new headquarters at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, where they were uncased on March 18, 2021, signifying the establishment of its new headquarters. On December 2018 the Secretary of the Army awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation Award to the Afghanistan District in recognition for their exceptional service in support of the Afghanistan nation during the period covering February 2015 to September 2017.

The Afghanistan District ultimately delivered hundreds of projects as part of a multi-billion dollar portfolio.

After nearly three years in Iraq, the Mosul Dam Task Force (MDTF) declared “mission complete” on July 4, 2019. MDTF deployed to Mosul Dam in September 2016 at the request of the government of Iraq.

The dam was built on a foundation with a geology that continues to dissolve and after decades of conflict and deferred maintenance, the dam’s collapse loomed as a humanitarian crisis that threatened regional stability. The MDTF’s job was to serve as “the engineer,” providing engineering and technical expertise for a contract between the Iraqi government and Italian contractor to repair and stabilize the dam.

The accomplishments of the Mosul Dam Task Force changed Mosul Dam from being known as the “world’s most-dangerous dam” to a dam that saw its sixth-highest pool of record this past spring and showed no signs of distress. MDTF’s dedicated team of Soldiers, Department of Army civilians, and contractors, working side by side with private industry and Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources, delivered the world’s largest dam safety drilling and grouting project. More importantly, the Mosul Dam Task Force ensured that almost 250 workers, technicians, and engineers completed an intense training program to develop their skills to properly maintain Mosul Dam in the future.

On 20 May 2017, the Transatlantic Division and its headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, published an order establishing Task Force Essayons (TFE) in response to ARCENT’s demand for projects in the CENTCOM joint area of operations.  The task force was placed under the operational control of ARCENT and under the tactical control of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR).  The CJTF-OIR was established in October 2014 to formalize ongoing military actions against the rising threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

TFE’s mission was to directly support the warfighter, serving as “One door to the Corps” for all USACE activities supporting the CJTF-OIR.  To quickly respond to urgent project requirements, TFE developed innovative and agile methods of performance along five lines of effort: base Camp master planning, project management, engineering, construction, and environmental management. 

The Task Force was initially headquartered at Camp Taji, Iraq. However, as a result of Iranian missile attacks in March 2020, the Task Force was moved to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait where TFE had already established a footprint in order to better coordinate with the CJTF-OIR staff. Once the threat had sufficiently decreased, the task force returned to Iraq, relocating to Erbil Air Base due to the planned transfer of Camp Taji to the Iraqi government.  That summer, TFE’s headquarters was moved to Camp Arifjan, and project delivery platforms were established at Erbil and Al-Asad air bases.

At its peak, Task Force Essayons provided support to over 30 bases in Iraq and Syria.  It ultimately delivered over 300 projects with a total value OF more than $211 million.

Located in Kuwait, the Expeditionary District supports Operation Spartan Shield, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve; and provided facilities in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Prior to August 2021, the Expeditionary District also supported the NATO Resolute Support mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.