First Reunion for the 16th Engineer Brigade

ZANESVILLE, OH – A one of a kind Veteran’s Reunion is happening this weekend at VFW Post 1058.

It’s been 20 years since the 16th Engineer Brigade returned from Iraq and it was also the first time they had all been overseas together.

Roberta Craigo, the Organizer of this Veteran’s Reunion, says they never really had a chance to all meet up and swap stories after this deployment.

She says she wanted to create something for everyone to come together and celebrate the good, the bad, and everything in between that’s happened over the last 20 years.

“We’ve had a couple soldiers pass away and we have a Sergeant Major that’s 80-years-old now, and I’m like, why can’t we get everybody together and celebrate our return back from Iraq, because we didn’t lose anybody over there.” Craigo said. “But we’re starting to lose them because of time, so I wanted to try to get everyone back together so we can reminisce about the good, the bad, and the ugly of our return from Iraq.”

Craigo says there have been mini reunions between smaller groups within her Unit, but nothing like this has ever been done for the entire Unit.

The reunion will be taking place at 5:30PM, Saturday August 1st at VFW Post 1058 here in Zanesville and it’s meant to be a night full of fun times and comradery.

“The story to me is to get the word out that you don’t have to sit alone, you don’t have to sit and reminisce by yourself about where you’ve been and what you’ve done.” Craigo said. “And that’s what I want everyone in this unit to do, I want us to come back together and talk about the good, bad, and ugly, what we’ve done since then, and what we plan to do later.”

Craigo says her unit was responsible for sending out missions for other engineering units to build roads, bridges, and buildings for use in their time over in Iraq.