Drug smugglers have claimed sections of the US-Mexico border as their home turf, turning hundreds of square miles into a no-mans-land for US citizens and a deadly gamut for illegal migrants. A lack of political will has prevented any decisive action to be taken to secure the area. That's about to change. . .

Returned from Europe after international pressure boiled up over the way they secured the Russian chemical weapons dump, the 289th Engineer Group is sent to an isolated stretch of border in New Mexico to serve out its tour of duty. All they thought they would have to do is fix the...