We could not be prouder of our very own Brett Karns, JSD’s project surveyor who recently returned from serving nine months in Kuwait!

Brett will be retiring from the military at the end of this year after he began in the Army in 1997 as a heavy equipment operator making trips to Alaska and Guatemala for road work. He was soon commissioned as an Engineer Officer in 2002, then deployed to Afghanistan from 2004-2005. There, Brett was assigned to a Civil Affairs unit, assisting in rebuilding roads, hospitals, schools, and more, and he interestingly created a class to teach local contractors how to properly build to American standards.

His first company command of an Engineer Company moved him to Dodgeville until 2008, followed by a second company command in Milwaukee from 2009 through 2012, leading to his deployment to Afghanistan in 2016-2017. His focus shifted a bit as he worked under NATO as an engineer with the Afghan military and Ministry of Defense to build the Afghan Army to mirror the US. This allowed him to manage a multi-million-dollar budget for equipment purchasing.

In 2019, Brett was an Officer in Charge for an Engineer Facilities Detachment (EFD) in Ft McCoy, WI to oversee construction and design projects throughout the Midwest. His next deployment recently sent him to Kuwait where he just returned this summer. His team designed projects for the Middle-East, ranging from small building additions to road designs. He also spent nights working with Army Surveyors teaching them practical use of surveying as well as CAD. His second half of deployment transitioned him to serve as the Director for the Department of Public works for his camp.

Presently, Brett is a professional land surveyor, managing survey crews and directing and training field survey parties to comply with contractor’s requests for surveys. WE ARE INCREDIBLY PROUD OF HIS SERVICE!