Readiness

Retired Col. James “Rip” Harper christens a D7G bulldozer used in Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, outside the Naval Support Activity Portland after 6th Engineer Support Battalion’s battle color rededication ceremony in Portland, Ore., Nov. 15, 2014.The battalion celebrated the 70th anniversary of its formation with a rededication ceremony and paid homage to Harper, the battalion’s first adjutant. Harper served as the unit’s first adjutant as a first lieutenant in 1944, when the unit was formed in Guadalcanal during World War II. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Tiffany Edwards)