Dear Members of Army Engineers Forum
My questions are;
(1) Are Engineers of Army are same like Engineers from different Universities?. If they are not then i mean what are educational differences between Civilian engineers and Army engineers.
(2) My second question is that Army engineers are involved in ground combat or not. For example there may be conditions when suddenly a Unit comes under attack(Ambush) or it my be sent for war against insurgents. In that situation are Army Engineers really sent to front lines?
(3) My third question is about BCT. After taking BCT Courses a person becomes a full soldier. After that is he really becomes fit(mentally/physically) for combat?
(4) My forth and last question is about jobs. What kinds of jobs are offered in Army Engineers Branch?
Well wishes to all of You from the core of my heart!

Hello!

I really can't fully answer them.. but I know that since I'm a Hvy Construction Equipment Operator with the 955th EN CO DET 1 in STL.. if in combat situations we get attached to an infantry unit set up defensive positions an what not. And or you can volunteer to go outside of the wire with a combat patrol, or do route clearance stuff.
After BCT.. if you go straight to combat you probably are more combat fit. If not your unit should get you to the point where you are fit for it. But as a soldier you should always be fit to fight.
Jobs... if you go to goarmy.com and search for Engineer jobs that should give you a list of them.
That's the best that I could answer your question. I'm sure others will answer them better than I could lol

Hopefully you are still around to read this. I'm more than a couple years out of date, but your questions are general so maybe this will help.

1) Unless your getting a castle on your collar than no they are not the same. Depending on the MOS you'll get more of a trade school level of education. If you become a 12B(21B) like me your education will be demolitions, basic construction, heavy equipment operation which leads to being a mechanic, lawn care, any nasty job Brigade can think of, and bar brawling.

2) If your a Combat Engineer that's self explanatory. When I was in it was still Force on Force type of warfare, Abram's and Bradley's dueling it out with the equivalent on the other side. CE's laid elaborate minefields and wire obstacles, and practiced breaching them (which is loads of fun, nothing like running through a minefield caring C4). I understand with today's asynchronous warfare no one is safe from seeing some form of combat. So don't kid yourself. If you don't want to get shot at, join the Air Force.

3) Basic and AIT give you the foundation of basic skills you'll need. Once you get to your unit they'll build off those skills, or tell you to forget some of them because there is a better way. So technically you'll have the skills of a basic infantry soldier from Basic and the basics of your MOS from AIT. Which according to the Army is enough to send you off to combat with. IF this happens don't worry you want be the first or the last, you'll just learn the rest at an accelerated pace. As far as mentally you'll never be fully prepared for combat, the first time is always a shock to the system. I don't know if the Army still does the training exercise where the fire live rounds over your head in the dark while you low crawl through a field with artillery simulators going off, but it'll give some idea of what to expect. Learn you skills and you'll do fine.

4) I don't know all of them, ask a recruiter. I do know that if it has to do with building anything there's an Engineer Unit involved. Any job you see at a civilian job construction site their is usually an Army counterpart.

Hope this helps, and I didn't scare you off.



Don't give a damn about any Old Man who don't give a damn about us!

The difference between a light Engineer and a heavy Engineer is like night and day. Go light if you want to learn more combat skills.

I was a combat engineer in Iraq during 2003-2004 then again in 2005. I did about 2 months of blowing **** up, then 10 months of raiding. Our battalion did over 1000 raids in a year, more than the infantry battalion in our brigade. So it all depends, you might get stuck on guard duty depending on who your camping with or who is in command of your area. or you might end up kicking in a bunch of doors like I did. It does feel good to say that Ive raided more houses than most soldiers will do in 20 years though, its too bad that, that phase of the war is now over.