What’s All The Racket Around Battle Creek?

Maybe you heard them. A series of big booms or explosions in the area yesterday late morning into the early afternoon. Social media lit up with comments and questions. Some people reported being able to feel a vibration along with definitely having their attention drawn to the noise. Some said their dogs went crazy over the combination of the noise and the rattle. There was speculation of sonic booms, or maybe the precursor to an earthquake.

In the end, maybe we should have known. The 1433rd Engineering Company of the Michigan National Guard was at it again at its primary training site at Ft. Custer just west of the city.  This unit has been getting a lot of attention lately.  Following lots of overseas tours of duty in the last two decades, the unit was recently named the third-best in the country through a rigorous evaluation process. And in the past two weeks, the 14-33rd has been supporting the distribution of medical supplies throughout the state to help with the COVID-19 virus situation. Now they’re back to more normal things like training and blowing things up. We understand the unit isn’t finished with the training exercise. You might get startled a few more times today. More than likely when you least expect it. That’s how those army engineers like to do it.