The 216th Engineer Battalion of the Ohio Army National Guard has a storied history, most recently in its deployment to Iraq.

Now, the public has been invited to share in the history of the 216th Engineer Battalion 1191st Engineer Company Sunday from 1-4 p.m., at the unit's open house at 1620 Coles Blvd., in Portsmouth.

“We will have vehicles and engineer's equipment for people to see,” said Sgt. Tiffany Coriell. “We will have military vehicles from World War II as well as Vietnam-era vehicles, all the way up to the vehicles we use today, including Hummers, Humvees, five-ton vehicles, dumps and engineer equipment.”

She said there also will be various uniforms on display.

“We will have uniforms such as physical fitness, Class A's and Class B's,” Coriell said. “And gear and weapon displays as well as information on our missions.”

Coriell also said a must-see is the CD's they will be showing, featuring the work they completed in Iraq and here at home.

The company was deployed to Iraq in December 2003.

The 216th has been activated for various needs, from weather emergencies to the 1993 prison riot at Lucasville, and overseas action. Coriell said the unit has trained in places such as Honduras, Grafenwohr, Germany; Nicaragua, Panama; and to California to support Task Force Grizzley in constructing roads and a fence off the Mexican border.

Readiness Sgt. Dennis Conley said engineers perform a lot of different duties.

“We are builders in the army,” Conley said. “We also do demolition, and this is a heavy equipment company. We do construction.”

Conley said the engineers motto is “Fight and build.”

FRANK LEWIS can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232.