Combat Engineers have been a vital and inseparable element
of the combined arms team since the battle of Bunker Hill. They
are the first in and last to leave a battle. Virtually all engineer
officers receive troop leading experience in combat, construction
or topographic engineering units before branching out into such
fields as civil works, military construction, environmental engineering
and other specialties.
Combat missions for engineers include: bridge building and destruction;
minefield emplacement and breaching; obstacle/fortification emplacement
and reduction; and other tasks requiring specialized engineer
skills and equipment. Construction engineers build and maintain
roads, airfields and facilities to support combat operations.
Topographic engineers provide the terrain depiction products
and analyses that give maneuver commanders an edge in battle.
After appropriate and successful troop experience, engineer officers
may be sent to graduate school to specialize in construction
management and other disciplines culminating in command of engineer
districts and divisions involved in water resource and of her
domestic and overseas infrastructure projects, or construction
and maintenance of military facilities.
The explorers Lewis and Clark were Engineering Officers
Engineers are responsible for completing the three important
tasks of mobility, counter mobility, and survivability. |