Guard unit flattening part of Jackson's Brookside Park

Nathan Boyd, left, and Danielle Siess of the National Guard 220th Engineer Company of Festus, Mo., direct machines moving dirt Thursday at Brookside Park in Jackson. The company is completing its annual two-week training and helping level the park for development. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Teresa Brown said she knew the work at Brookside Park in Jackson had started when she woke up to the sounds of military trucks backing up earlier this week.

Brown, who has lived near the park for 12 years, said she has gone over to the park to watch about 30 Missouri National Guardsmen shift the land behind the veterans memorial. Several large military vehicles are scraping, bulldozing and compacting dirt to create a flat area to be developed by the city.

She said the hilly section of the park was beautiful and she often saw deer running through the open area, which is near U.S. 61 on the north side of Jackson.

"In a way it's kind of wasted land, I guess, but you need some of that," she said.

The project is part of the annual training for the 220th Engineer Company based in Festus. Sgt. 1st Class John Roberts, a longtime resident of Jackson, is overseeing the operation. He said the soldiers started by removing 7,000 cubic yards of topsoil. In one area they will remove nine feet of dirt, while other sections will be filled with 16 feet.

The group started work Monday will continue for the next two weeks to flatten four acres of land. Roberts said they usually train in smaller areas with less equipment. He said the Brookside project is a priceless experience for soldiers to get acquainted with the equipment. Mistakes, he said, are part of the process.

"If they do mess up, it's only dirt and we can always fix it," Roberts said.

Roberts, who returned in May 2006 from a year in Iraq, said about a third of the guardsmen at the site are war veterans. The rest are not fully trained but will leave more prepared, he said. For some, it is their first time on the equipment.

Pfc. Travis Brill of Cabool, Mo., is participating in his first training project. He said it was his first time operating a scraper since his initial training about a year ago.

"It took us a little while to apply it," he said, but the training "was all still there."

Companies from Cape Girardeau and Perryville, Mo., will come in to help with the project, Roberts said. He said there will be about 60 soldiers working once the others arrive.

Most Guardsmen are staying at the Jackson Armory, while at least five stay for rotating overnight shifts at the work site to watch the area, he said. The soldiers arrive at the site at 6 a.m. to eat and then work until 7 p.m.

For Roberts, who will retire from the Guard later this month, it is his last training session.

"It couldn't be a better place than right here in my hometown," he said.

In the past the area was slated for a regulation-sized baseball field, but developers used another site. The park already has a Little League field. Brown said the ping of the baseball bats in the spring has always been a signal that summer is coming. She said she was torn between losing the open land and developing it for other uses.

"There's a lot of family interaction out there, and we need places for that," she said.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Brookside Park, Jackson, MO