27th Engineer Battalion (United States)

27th Engineer Battalion
27th Engineer Battalion coat of arms
Active	1918–present
Country	United States
Branch	US Army Corps of Engineers
Type	Engineer
Role	Forced Entry Expeditionary Engineering
Size	Battalion
Part of	20th Engineer Brigade
Garrison/HQ	Fort Bragg
Nickname(s)	Tiger Battalion
Motto(s)	Omnes Res Bene Facere (To Do All Things Well)
Mascot(s)	Tiger
Commanders
Notable commanders	LTC Leslie Sandvall (Commander at Myitkyina), LTC Ron Stewart (Desert Shield/Storm), LTC Mike Crall (Afghanistan), LTC Al Dodd (Afghanistan)

The 27th Engineer Battalion (COMBAT)(AIRBORNE) and its subordinate companies has often used the Fort Bragg/XVIII Airborne Corps standard of "Airborne!" for its motto.

The history of the 27th Engineer Battalion (COMBAT) (AIRBORNE) began on 16 January 1918 at Fort Meyer, VA, as the second battalion of the 37th Engineer Regiment. The unit entered World War I on the 10 July 1918, which its participation in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns. After the termination of hostilities, the unit was demobilized.

Twenty years later, World War II erupted, and on 14 July 1941, the 37th Engineer Regiment was reactivated at Camp Bowie, Texas. The regiment was broken up in March 1943. Its elements were then reorganized and redesignated. The lineage of the 27th Engineer Battalion (COMBAT) (AIRBORNE) springs from the 2nd Battalion, redesignated as the 209th Engineer Combat Battalion. The 209th disembarked at Bombay, India on 23 October 1943, and immediately set to work on the Ledo Road.

Subsequently, the 209th participated in the India-Burma Campaign. While a part of Merrill's Marauders (6th Ranger Battalion-5307th Composite), it participated in the surprise attack to seize a critical Myitkyina airfield. The battalion sustained 71 Killed in action and 179 wounded in action during the 70-day-long battle. The 209th was inactivated at the conclusion of World War II, and in 1947, was redesignated as the 27th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Activated once more in 1950–1951 briefly at Ft. Lewis, Washington, and then at Ft. Campbell, KY, the unit on 23 October 1960 earned the nickname "Tiger Battalion" through its rugged field maneuvers and training.

On 21 July 1966, the battalion entered the Vietnam War, serving honorably and effectively in 13 campaigns, received five Meritorious Unit Commendations and the Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal (1st Class), with 19 campaign streamers for actions in Vietnam. On 31 January 1972, the battalion returned to the United States and relocated to Fort Bragg, NC, where it became a non-divisional combat airborne engineer battalion.