Engineer Regimental Week honors the fallen, highlights future

By Mrs. Melissa K Buckley (Leonard Wood)May 1, 2014

Engineer Regimental Week honors the fallen, highlights future
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Engineer Regimental Week honors the fallen, highlights future
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"Essayons" was a popular word on Fort Leonard Wood last week as engineers celebrated their profession and honored fallen Sappers during regimental events.

The 2014 Engineer Regimental Week theme was, "The Army's Regiment of Opportunities."

About 75 companies were present for the Army Engineer Association's Industry Days vendor displays April 22 and 23 at Nutter Field House.

"It's good to get to see all the new and different technology. I could sit in a brief all day long, but here we have the subject-matter experts to walk us through their equipment," said Maj. Victor Deese, S-3 Operations officer-in-charge, 1st Engineer Brigade.

Sgt. Maj. Steven Jimenez, S-3 Operations noncommissioned officer-in-charge, 1st Engineer Brigade, said he enjoyed visiting the vendor displays, too.

"It's interesting to see the new equipment. Young Soldiers will be working with these tools one day," Jimenez said.

The next event was the Senior Engineers Leadership Council. It was designed to facilitate open communication and gather consensus from leaders concerning the regiment's future.

The themes for this year's SELC were: building professionals in the branch of opportunities; Soldier 2020 Implementation; materiel solutions; and Engineer 2025 analysis across doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel and facilities.

During the commandant's address April 24 in Lincoln Hall Auditorium, Brig. Gen. Anthony Funkhouser, USAES commandant, said the future of the regiment looks bright; he also pointed out some changes engineers can expect to see in the coming months.

He focused quite a bit on how Soldier 2020 will affect engineers. Soldier 2020 is the Army's plan to integrate women into previously closed military occupational specialties and develop physical standards across the board that men and women will both have to meet.

"Twelve Bravo (combat engineer) is our focus MOS. The fact is, in May, if the secretary of the Army signs it, all of our 12A (engineer officer) positions will be open to female officers," Funkhouser said. "By 2016, our 12B positions should be open to enlisted females. We are way ahead of the other branches working through this. Col. (Daniel) Larsen over at the 1st Engineer Brigade already has gender integrated One Station Unit Training for 12B and 12C (bridge crewmember)."

There is one angle the regiment is still working on. When enlisted positions open in a couple of years, there won't be any female noncommissioned officers to mentor new female Soldiers.

"There will be captains who are females but no enlisted mentors. So, we have a proposal to look at reclassifying some female (sergeants and staff sergeants) as 12B. We will send them to Advanced Individual Training and Advanced Leader Course. We owe it to our 12B female privates to have women as mentors. We don't know how much traction we will get, but we think it is a good idea," Funkhouser added.

Continuing with changes engineers could see in the future, Funkhouser emphasized how important military working dogs are to the regiment. He said the canines are a significant engineer capability that he doesn't want to lose.

"The challenge over the last couple of years has been how to retain the dogs. The military police have their dogs and we are working with Brig. Gen. (Mark) Spindler and his team to help with a plan. The MPs will provide search dogs and there will be some kind of relationship, so that those dogs can go with the route-clearance patrols. Then the mine dog piece, we are working on buying back about 32 spaces that will give us the ability to have our mine dogs back."

He also updated the engineers about some of the equipment changes underway. According to Funkhouser, the M2 Bradley infantry-fighting vehicle does not currently have the infrastructure to support all of the activities he needs.

"They are going to upgrade to the A3 Bradley (cavalry-fighting vehicle)," he said.

He then turned his attention to the Assault Breacher Vehicle. He said it would be beneficial to the regiment if more Soldiers had hands-on training with the tracked combat vehicle.

"You have to start sending your Soldiers to the B6 (Combat Engineer Heavy Track) Course for training. You will get an investment back when you send them to this school," Funkhouser said.

Also on April 24, engineer spouses got together for an amazing race event.

Spouses participated in engineer-specific tasks across the installation. They learned about training from the Sappers, mappers and divers, just to name a few.

The evening of April 24, engineer Families gathered at Memorial Grove for the Fallen Sapper Memorial.

During a moment of silence the only sound that could be heard was the rain falling on the chapel's roof.

Ten engineers were killed in Afghanistan in 2013. They are Sgt. Tristan Wade, Hyun Shin, Pfc. Barrett Austin, Peter Serrano, Sgt. Justin Rogers, Pfc. Errol Milliard, Pfc. Jonathon Hostetter, Spc. Kenneth Alvarez, 1st Lt. Jason Togi and Sgt. 1st Class Ricardo Young.

As Command Sgt. Maj. Butler Kendrick, USAES, called out the final roll call for the fallen Sappers, a Soldier would slowly walk forward, lay the fallen's dog tags on the handle of the rifle and salute.

The week rounded out with the ball and awards ceremony Friday in Nutter Field House.

Deese said regimental week is a great time to celebrate his profession, but he is always proud to be an engineer.

"Engineers are a versatile type of Soldier. That's one of my favorite things about being an engineer. We provide a lot of things to the fight," Deese said.

Jimenez agreed and said he is grateful to be at Fort Leonard Wood during regimental week.

"I'm proud to be an engineer. It's in my blood after 25 years. I came in as a 12B. It's a great military occupational specialty," Jimenez said. "When I leave Fort Leonard Wood I won't have the opportunity to do this again. Being here during this week is a good opportunity to get out and participate in the week."

Related Links:

Fort Leonard Wood on Flickr

Fort Leonard Wood Guidon Newspaper

Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonad Wood