Engineers Bring Real-World Construction to Mass State Police Training
By Sgt. 1st Class Steven Eaton
Sounds of construction echoed throughout the Massachusetts State Police Academy, where Soldiers from the 181st Engineer Vertical Construction Company, Massachusetts National Guard, were hard at work improving training facilities.
Mass Guard engineers were at the Mass State Police Academy in New Braintree, Mass, conducting a variety of construction projects as part of their annual training from June 6-17, 2025. While there, the engineers repaired, upgraded, and improved training areas for the academy.
“The Mass State Police (Academy) has old residential buildings that are used for the academy trainees to conduct scenarios that could happen in real life,” said Capt. Sarah Perry, Commander of the 181 EVCC.
These training environments are important to making sure that State Police cadets and troopers are trained to handle a multitude of situations in the real world.
“It gives us the ability to give troopers and other agencies the ability to train scenarios in a real-world environment,” said Mass. State Police Sgt. Corey Choruzek.
Training like this can add additional wear and tear on structures.
“For us, these are assets that we want to preserve; they have been used throughout the years,” said Jon Devins, Facilities Manager at the State Police Academy. “Just to preserve this asset for future training is huge. And it’s also the safety of our trainees and our staff, making sure that these houses don’t have any hazards,” he added.
Repairing and improving training areas for the MSP enabled the engineers to refine their craft, learn new skills, and see that their work has an impact.
“Performing engineering tasks for an outside agency, the Massachusetts State Police, gave a great sense of ownership and pride in the work performed,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Koch “Soldiers knew the hard work they put in brought value and real-world impact to the Massachusetts State Police training facilities,” he added.
The engineers were able to complete multiple projects for the academy, including: replacing two roofs, demolition and replacement of sidewalks, constructing new and improved roads, updating electrical and plumbing, installing pads for K9 kennels, and installing a french drains to improve stormwater management for the Academy. These projects provided unique training opportunities for Soldiers.
“The biggest takeaway from this AT, is seeing the skills and leadership development of our NCO’s and Soldiers in action. With so many simultaneous construction efforts happening at once, squad leaders, team leaders, and junior Soldiers leading teams were put to the test in their leadership, communication, planning, and coordination skills this AT, and they certainly delivered. “
“[We] Don’t get to exercise all these different tasks, especially when it comes to plumbing and electrical so the Mass State Police was just a great opportunity for us to hone in on our individual construction tasks so we can work, more efficiently as a company, should we have a project from ground to finish that needs to be constructed,” said Perry.
Soldiers in the company took a lot of the lessons back with them, growing their skills and motivating them to start new projects.
“[We had] the ability to practice and sharpen 12 series MOS skillsets by working on a variety of project like Carpentry, Masonry, Electrical, Plumbing and machine operating trades in an actual residential neighborhood,” said Spc. Jonathan Caceres, an engineer with the 181 EVCC. “This opportunity to apply these skills not only improves our readiness, but benefits our daily civilian lives as well,” he added.
Partnership projects like this benefit both the Mass. Guard and their partners. It provides training for the Guardsmen and enables partners to get work completed in time and in a cost-effective manner.
“Having the National Guard do this work, it’s a significant value. The amount that we spend providing materials versus what we get if we had to pay for this elsewhere through other vendors and things, the cost would be significant. So there’s significant money savings in this partnership,” said Devins.
“The second thing is we have a small staff here in facilities, we don’t have access to the equipment that you have or the numbers that you bring. When [the Guard] brings 80- 90 people here, you can simply achieve more. The amount of work that they do in 11 or 14 days, whatever it may be, would take my staff of nine months to complete,” he added.
This isn’t the first time the engineers have worked at the academy; on two separate occasions, Mass Guard Soldiers have helped improve the facilities in 2015 and 2021.
The planning for this started in November of 2024, with a phone call. Within weeks, the unit was putting together the scope of work for the project.
When the unit received the scope of work, in which they defined based on unit capabilities, they developed necessary materials, schedules, and personnel resourcing. Project management is an essential function for the engineers’ training.
“A big part of the mission was the planning process as well,” said Perry. “Validating the BOM (bill of materials) was pretty major for us to do, because that wasn’t something that MSP gave us,” said Perry. “They didn’t say we’ll buy you all these things. We said we need these things to in order to complete the mission” she added. It was a great opportunity for the leaders to practice their project management skills while working together.
Perry and the engineers look forward to future opportunities with the State Police or with any other partners throughout the Commonwealth.
“If there are municipalities or agencies within the Commonwealth that are looking for minor improvements, maybe to structures or roads or parking lots, that’s the type of work that we are looking for; we’re looking to expand beyond where we typically operate,” said Perry.
“It’s a huge benefit to us to build partnerships, if there are municipal buildings that may need a little bit of work, this is an opportunity for them to save money in labor costs and get some good training in that soldiers can feel proud of,” she added.
