The Engineer TEC-ASCC Planning Exercise (ENTAPE) hosted by the 412th Theater Engineer Command in Orlando, Fla. ended May 18, 2013, after three days of discussion and friendly debate.
The intent of the ENTAPE think tank was to match the requirements of the Army Service Component Commands with solutions provided by the entire Army Engineer Regiment which included the active-duty Army, United States Army Corps of Engineers, United States Army Reserve Command, United States Army Engineer School, Army National Guard, the 416th and 412th TECs.
The event was unprecedented in its occurrence and ambitious in its scope.
"History was made this week," said Col. Adam Roth, deputy assistant commandant, United States Army Engineer School.
Underscoring the importance of this attempt to integrate the Army Engineer Regiment was the number of commanding officers who attended the exercise. Those present were, Maj. Gen. William M. Buckler Jr., commanding general, 412th TEC, Maj. Gen. David J. Conboy, commanding general, 416th TEC, Brig. Gen. Douglas R. Satterfield, deputy commanding general, 412th TEC, Brig. Gen. David L. Weeks, deputy commanding general, 416th TEC, Brig. Gen. Lewis G. Irwin, brigade commander, 926th Engineer Brigade, Brig. Gen. Robert D. Carlson, brigade commander, 372nd Engineer Brigade, Brig. Gen. Tracy A. Thompson, brigade commander, 420th Engineer Brigade, Brig. Gen. Jeff H. Holmes, brigade commander, 194th Engineer Brigade ARNG and John P. Constable, brigade commander, 411th Engineer Brigade.
Maj. Gen. Luis R. Visot, deputy commander (operations), USARC, attended via video teleconference.
The main thrust of the last day's effort was the separate 416th and 412th TECs breakout sessions where TEC Soldiers and representatives of their regionally aligned ASCCs got down into the weeds and knocked out some answers to the support problems identified the first two days of the exercise.
"I think it was a great session," said Maj. Scotty Autin, deputy chief of staff, engineer, Army Service Component Command, United States Army Africa, who worked in the breakout room with Col. Richard Takishita, G3 chief of readiness, 412th TEC. "We were able to actually sit down and move from a conceptual view to looking at unit capabilities and assigned those capabilities to projects that we have planned and working through the real details of it."
This is important to USARAF which does not have any assigned troops. They do have a regionally aligned active component brigade, but it only supplies a minimal amount of engineer capabilities, namely sappers. USARAF needs help with technical, construction engineers, and this is exactly what the solutions forged in the breakout sessions will help them with in the future.
"It was incredibly valuable to have the two TECs together to interact about issues important to our future," said Conboy. "The hard work that has been done, and begun and still has to continue, is all about the planning piece and ensuring that we're tying in with our customers, the ASCCs and combatant commands, to ensure we stay relevant. We know what the requirements are, and we're working hard to meet those."
Buckler, in his closing remarks, praised the product that was built during the ENTAPE exercise, and the people who help build it. "It's an exciting time right now," he said, "but we're not done."
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