Wyoming Dedicates a Wall to Engineers

March 1, 2012
By LTC Samuel House
Cheyenne, WY, United States

Recognition of the thousands of Army engineer Soldiers who have faithfully served the state of Wyoming and their nation has become more than an idea for retired Command Sergeant Major Steve Walls, and his vision came to fruition on Feb. 16 with the completion of the Engineer Wall in the Joint Forces Readiness Center (JFRC) in Cheyenne.

Several months ago, Walls presented the idea to the Wyoming military department arts board and got approval to develop an engineer wall for the engineer Soldiers of the Wyoming Army National Guard.

Walls served a career in the active Army and the engineer regiment with distinguished service on many deployments, to include Vietnam and Bosnia. Following his retirement, he was hired to work in the Wyoming Army National Guard Environmental Engineering Division as the environmental special projects coordinator.

Prior to this project, Walls had been involved in a number of projects that have helped to tell the story of the Army across Wyoming.

Officially the second art wall to be completed in the new multi-million-dollar facility, the Engineer Wall contains donated pictures from Walls’ personal collection, artwork that was purchased by the military department, as well as a display honoring recipients of the de Fleury Medal.

“It is my opinion, based on three or four months of study, that all the artwork available on the market depicting Army engineers is hung on this wall,” Walls said. “There is nothing [else] out there available, and I went to many, many sources.”

The artwork includes a brass engineer castle cast of Turkish brass, a regimental pewter plate commemorating the 200th anniversary of the engineers, and numerous prints and drawings depicting engineers in action.

For years, the legacy of the Army engineers has been overshadowed by the long legacy and lineage of the field artillery in the Wyoming Army National Guard; however, the completion of the Engineer Wall and the de Fleury Medal display helps to shed light on the important role our engineers have played in the state.

According to the Army Engineer Association, the de Fleury Medal was named after French engineer Francois Louis Tesseidre de Fleury who joined the American Army in its fight for independence from Britain in 1777.

Because of the valor de Fleury showed in defending American soil, he was honored by the Continental Congress two years later with a medal struck in his honor.

The engineer regiment adopted the de Fleury Medal as an award because of the values demonstrated by the man for whom it was struck.

Though the first de Fleury Medal was struck in 1779, the first known recipients in Wyoming to receive the award were in 2005, Walls said, after he had an opportunity to speak to senior engineer leaders about the recognition.

“The first time I attended a military department ball was in 2004, and I saw the Order of St. Barbara [given to artillerymen], and all these others, and I didn’t see the de Fleury,” Walls said. “I just saw a discrepancy. St. Barbara isn’t the only award out there.”

“You know we have the St. Michael [given to aviators], the St. George [given to armor and cavalrymen], and why aren’t we pursuing these, particularly at the troop command level? And no one could give me an answer,” he said. “So in 2005, I took the lead and started calling contacts at the engineer school, and we got the first [set of] de Fleury Medals.”

Walls said he designed the de Fleury Medal display to contain the silver, bronze and steel medals surrounded by the history of the award. Underneath the display, he envisioned a plaque with each individuals name, rank and year they were awarded the unique medals.

Currently there are 25 Soldiers and two civilians who have been recognized, including nine who were inducted this year.

As for the commemorative wall, Walls said there is nothing tied directly to him anymore. “If something happens to me tomorrow, my intent is that this is the property of the Wyoming military department to love and to take care of for the rest of the time they are there.”

“Is some of my legacy on that wall?” he asked. “You bet, and that sort of makes me proud.”

The art being placed throughout the building is the result of the 1991 Art in Public Buildings legislation. According to the Wyoming Arts Council website, the legislation requires 1 percent of construction costs of new state-owned buildings to be utilized for the purposes of placing artwork in the public setting.

According to Wyoming military department arts board member Jamie Ciz, most of the art for the JFRC was purchased; however, there have been a number of donated pieces, similar to those Walls donated, that help represent Wyoming’s heritage.