Celebrating 10 years as USACE Middle East District

Published Sept. 30, 2019
Saudi Arabia, King Khalid Military City Centrum - Program from the late 70s to mid-1980s.

Saudi Arabia, King Khalid Military City Centrum - Program from the late 70s to mid-1980s.

Construction of air bases in Morocco attracted political attention, including a visit in the mid-1950s from the Vice President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon.

Construction of air bases in Morocco attracted political attention, including a visit in the mid-1950s from the Vice President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon.

Progress versus the primitive: fighter planes fly over camels in Morocco.

Progress versus the primitive: fighter planes fly over camels in Morocco.

Multan Residency Office

Multan Residency Office

Laying asphalt during construction of the Afghan highway

Laying asphalt during construction of the Afghan highway

Mosque at the Airborne and Physical Training School, in Tabuk

Mosque at the Airborne and Physical Training School, in Tabuk

A new Kuwait Navy Maritime Traffic Coordination Center (MTCC)

A new Kuwait Navy Maritime Traffic Coordination Center (MTCC)

October 1, 2019 marks ten years of providing engineering design and construction services to support U.S. policy and defense objectives as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Middle East District.

 

The Middle East District has a rich history of support to the nation and its military forces in vital overseas regions with roots stretching directly back to the first USACE organizations in the region during the 1950s. The organization has been reorganized, molded, upsized and downsized to fit the mission partners’ needs and requirements.

 

Mediterranean Division: 1952-1976

  • Military construction projects in Turkey for the U.S. Air Force, 1952.
  • Air base work in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco.
  • Military facilities in Pakistan and Iran
  • Non-military projects - civilian air terminals in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran; a road system in Afghanistan; and port facilities in Somalia.
  • Project in northeastern Africa and the NATO countries of Southern Europe for the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya, and Saudi Arabia.
  • Saudi Arabia design and construction of Saudi Arabian military infrastructure development.
  • Middle East Division: 1976-1986
    • Activated on April 20, 1976, headquartered in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
    • Subordinate organizations included three districts in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al Batin
    • 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.
    • 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
    • Assisted Saudi Arabian government with $14 billion design and construction program that 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.

Middle East/Africa Projects Office: 1986-1991

  • Rear echelon in Winchester evolved into the headquarters, serving customers throughout the Middle East and Africa. 
  • September 30, 1986, the Middle East/Africa Projects Office (MEAPO) was formed as a district-level element of the South Atlantic Division.
  • Managed $300 million in work in Oman for use by the U.S. Air Force
  • Supervised projects for defense forces of Egypt, Bahrain, and Kuwait, with smaller projects in Sudan and Liberia. 
  • Supported the Africa Civic Action Program
  • Served Voice of America with modernization program
  • Assisted Third Army with the earliest Logistics Civil Augmentation Program services contract
  • Within two days of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, MEAPO began its deployment to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, to provide design, construction, and real estate services to support U.S. forces.
  • USACE 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.

Transatlantic Division: 1991-1995

  • Formed February 1991, headquartered in Winchester, Virginia, with multiple area and resident offices in the Middle East, and a single district – Europe – in Germany.
  • Assisted Kuwait with recovery operations after liberation from Iraq: Civil repairs totaled $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.
  • Assisted with Operation Provide Comfort, provided engineering assistance for relief efforts to Kurdish refugees in Turkey and northern Iraq.
  • Expanded engineering support to U.S. Central Command, for operations in the Middle East.
  • Worked in the former Soviet Union for programs ranging from embassy renovation to assisting with projects to reduce the threat of chemical and nuclear weapons.
  • Developed, awarded, and administered 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.
  • Renamed the Transatlantic Programs Center in 1995, with subordinate Transatlantic Programs Center Europe
  • An organizational change in 1998 reassigned Europe District to the North Atlantic Division.

Transatlantic Programs Center: 1995-2009

  • Assisted U.S. Agency for International Development with construction projects in Kenya and Tanzania
  • Assisted Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy with designing and building a nuclear storage facility in the Ural Mountains
  • Expanded operations to meet the engineering requirements resulting from the troop buildup for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • In fall 2002, initiated program to build barracks and facilities for battalions of the Afghanistan National Army
  • Established the Afghanistan Area Office, which later evolved into an independent district reporting to the Corps of Engineers headquarters
  • 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.
  • Established the USACE Deployment Center to prepare civilians for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • 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, 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.

Middle East District: Oct. 1, 2009 to the Present

  • Continue providing products and services to customers in Middle East, Central Asia and other areas.
  • Provide wide range of support for U.S. and allied partners through in-depth project management, technical, contracting, and support services to those within Afghanistan and Iraq focused on reconstruction projects that improve the lives of citizens.
  • Home to specialized USACE capabilities: the TCX, Technical Center of Expertise for Aircraft Hangar Fire Protection; the COS, Center of Standardization for Non-Permanent Facilities; and the UCDC, USACE Contingency Deployment Center.