BANGOR, Maine — Maine will keep its Army National Guard engineering units, the state’s National Guard chief told members of the American Legion at their annual convention Saturday.
“They’re going to work with us,” Brig. Gen. Gerard Bolduc said of the National Guard Bureau leaders. “They know what the engineers mean to the state, and they’ll do whatever they can to work with us on keeping them. But we have no final answers.”
Bolduc is the acting adjutant general for the state’s national guard units.
He said outside the ballroom of the Cross Insurance Center, where about 250 American Legion members were gathered, that he expected a final answer by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“I’m confident this will be a mutually agreeable situation that will ultimately benefit the citizens of Maine,” Bolduc said. “We probably will lose something. What that is, we don’t know. I’m confident that we’ll keep the engineers because they bring a lot to the fight, especially on the domestic side.”
Bolduc told the legionnaires that 45 people and 23 pieces of equipment from Maine engineering units were sent to the Boston area in February to help with snow removal.
“The cost of that was reimbursed by Massachusetts,” he said Saturday. “That was good training for our folks, and it was the right thing to do.”
The acting adjutant general also said engineering units recently have worked on projects in St. Agatha and Sanford, but he did not offer details.
Bolduc also serves as commissioner for the Department of Defense and Emergency Management.
“One of the challenges we have in the department is reaching out to younger veterans, anyone from 18 to 35,” he told the group made up almost entirely of senior citizens. “That age group, they use social media, and we know our social media is lacking in the state. We’re going to work on that.”
He said there are 142,000 veterans in Maine, of which about 20,000 are retired. Of that total, 60,000 are younger than 35, according to Bolduc.
Bolduc has been on the job 12½ weeks. He replaced Brig. Gen. James Campbell, who was fired by Gov. Paul LePage in March over a controversial plan to transform Maine’s 133rd Engineer Battalion into an infantry regiment, according to a previously published report.
The transformation plan, which Campbell formulated and submitted to guard leaders, led to his dismissal by the governor. The plan received preliminary approval at the federal level.
The transition plan — formulated by Campbell before he was fired, approved in draft form by the Department of the Army in January and set for approval later this year — would create the new 1st Battalion, 103rd Infantry Regiment. The new regiment would be formed by the 488th Military Police Company in Waterville, Bravo Company, 172nd Mountain Infantry unit based in Brewer, and four units from the 133rd: the 136th Engineer Company in Skowhegan and Lewiston, the 251st Engineer Company of Norway, and the Forward Support Company and Headquarters Company, both based in Augusta.
Discontinued units under the draft plan include the 1035th Survey and Design Team of Portland, the 1968th Contingency Contracting Team and the 121st Public Affairs Department, both based in Augusta.
The state would keep two engineer companies — the 262nd Engineer Company based in Westbrook and the 185th Engineer Support Company from Caribou — if the 133rd to 103rd transition takes place.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin also addressed legionnaires. He said strides have been made in assuring women veterans who have been the victims of sexual assault receive the services they need after they leave the military.
BDN writer Nok Noi Ricker contributed to this report.