84th Engineer Battalion (Construction)
Association Viet Nam

The 84th Engineers Change of Command Ceremony 2010
Farewell LTC Katers
Welcome LTC Farnsworth

An Introduction of the new Battalion Commander.

I would like to give you a little information about Jerry so you can get to know him a little.  He hails from Sweet Home, OR.  After graduation from high school he attended West Point (USMA) where he not only was a dean’s list student but a football player (Go Army Beat Navy!) and cadet battalion commander.  He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 1991.  He was then assigned to the 94th Engineer Combat Battalion
(Heavy) in Vilseck, Germany where he served as a platoon leader, XO, battalion maintenance officer and as the Command Engineer Officer for the United Nations Protection Force based out of Skopje, Macedonia.
Next he was sent to Fort Bragg where he served as the assistant S3 and then commanded the Company A, 37th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne).  Upon his completion of command he decided to compete for and was granted the opportunity to teach in Dept. of Chemistry at USMA.
This was after he completed his Master’s of Science in Environmental Engineering at Duke University. I met Jerry while teaching and working as an Athletic Trainer in the Dept. of Physical Education at USMA.  I was teaching the Master Fitness Training program, Lifetime Sports courses, and traveling with the Army Rugby team primarily.  We both volunteered much of our time with the many Army teams.  Even though I am not in the military we both acted as officer representatives (OR).
Jerry was OR for lacrosse, hockey and football while I was an OR for triathlon.  After USMA, Jerry was assigned as the XO for the 3-364th Eng. BN – 4th BD (TS), 91st Division – and then later to the 864th Eng.
Combat BN (Heavy) and Task Force Pacemaker which was deployed to Afghanistan from March 2005-2006.  While in Afghanistan he served as the second in command of a 1000 soldier task force that cut 225 miles of the roads through some of the roughest Taliban-held country to Afghanistan.
After his return he was sent to D.C. to serve as the Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Engineers, which was a great opportunity to for him to travel and see many US engineering projects.

About the Battalion Commanders Wife:
I hail from Montesano, WA.  I graduated and went on to play basketball and volleyball at Grays Harbor Community College and then later finishing my basketball career at Eastern Washington University.  I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in both Physical Education/Sports Medicine and Pre-Med.  I became certified as an Athletic Trainer and became a graduate assistant at Northern Illinois University.  This is where I received my Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology and worked at a large high school as the head Athletic Trainer and Clinical Educator to sports medicine students.  From there I took the job as Instructor and Athletic Trainer in DPE at USMA.  After we left USMA to took the position of Head Athletic Trainer at Evergreen State College.  When Jerry was getting ready to deploy I decided to go back to school and applied to the University of Washington, MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program.  This is where I received my degree as a Physician Assistant, took my boards and started work for a large orthopedic group in Reston, VA – Commonwealth Orthopaedics.