USACE Hydrographic Survey Boat Named

The U.S. Army Corps Buffalo has named the latest addition to its high-tech hydrographic survey fleet after retired Command Sgt. Maj. Micheal L. Buxbaum of the U.S. Army on 23 June 2015. The addition of the survey vessel Buxbaum enhances Buffalo District’s ability to support USACE’s navigation mission with a third survey vessel equipped with a multibeam sonar system to meet increased production goals during peak periods.

The Buxbaum will a part of the multibeam sonar be equipped with a vessel-mounted Lidar system. The Optech Ilris 3D laser scanner has the capability to collect data in a terrestrial (static) mode and in a marine (mobile) mode of operation which allows the Buffalo District to survey offshore breakwater structures from a moving vessel, with fewer field personnel required. This methodology is safer and more productive.

37 Harbours, of which 5 from Top 5

Buffalo District serves an area of some 38,000 square miles, from Massena, New York, in the east to the Indiana state line in the west. Within that area are 16 commercial and 19 recreational harbours; 5 of the top 10 US ports; 110 miles of federal navigation channels and 38 miles of piers, jetties and breakwaters.

Guests at the ceremony included: assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy; Maj. Gen. Richard L. Stevens, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Great Lakes and Ohio River Division commander Brig. Gen. Richard G. Kaiser; Buffalo District commander Lt. Col. Karl D. Jansen; command sergeant Major Antonio Jones; and the late command sergeant Major Buxbaum’s widow Roberta and her daughters Katie and Christina.

Buxbaum passed away in his sleep on 9 November 2013 while in Afghanistan, where he was working as a contractor supporting deployed soldiers - a calling that spanned his 33-year career.