FORT LEONARD WOOD, Missouri -- The 595th Engineer Company (Sapper) conducted field training exercises last month, the unit's first since moving to Fort Leonard Wood from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico earlier this year and the first since the company returned from an Afghanistan deployment last year.
The exercises marked a definitive shift back to the company's Sapper focus.
Upon returning from Afghanistan, the 595th Eng. Co., part of the 5th Engineer Battalion, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, began to prepare for the transition to Fort Leonard Wood. When the company arrived at Fort Leonard Wood, it consisted of just 45 Soldiers. Since then, the company has begun rebuilding and the 595th Eng. Co. now consists of 75 personnel and growing.
The commander of the 595th Eng. Co. said manning isn't the only challenge his troops have faced.
"The fact is that the average squad leader within this company is a [sergeant] with approximately 5 years of experience and two deployments consisting of route clearance," Capt. Robert Fullerton said. "We are transitioning back to our original role as Sappers; this is a learning process for us all."
Unit leaders said preparing for the exercises and squad certifications was no easy task. In order to certify the squads during the periodic training assessments, the company needed to start from the very beginning. This meant completing Engineer Qualification Tables that started at the individual level and worked up to teams and finally squads. The culminating event of the training was the squad certification exercise, or FTX.
Fullerton said the qualification tables are used to certify Sapper squads in the company and are based on a common standard of skills that can be used by any combat engineer. According to Fullerton, this technique provides a consistent battlefield result regardless of the type of unit Soldiers would serve in, or support.
The FTX consisted of three days of evaluated lanes that were comprised of core engineer tasks such as emplacing wire obstacles and conducting an Engineer Route Reconnaissance. The FTX also placed emphasis on utilizing the platoon leaders and platoon sergeants to help the squads both administratively and tactically. A major point of focus was utilizing the troop leading procedures and operations orders to brief the squads of their missions.
Sgt. Zachary Ivie said he never had much exposure to operations orders in the past and never briefed one prior to the recent FTX.
"The first attempt was kind of rough, however my platoon leader and platoon sergeant worked a lot with me to improve my briefings," Ivie said. "By the end of the FTX, my operations orders had improved significantly. I can see that my Soldiers have also learned a lot about the briefing process as well."
The last event of the FTX was a squad live fire event.
"We wanted to end the FTX on a high note. Events like this help to build confidence and trust within the squads and in the Soldiers' skills," Fullerton said.
At the end of the FTX, all six squads within the company had been certified.
"We have had a very fast tempo with our training these past six months," Fullerton said. "But this company hasn't been to the field since their deployment to Afghanistan 2012 - 2013. The company needs this. In a way, we're making history."
Fullerton went on to explain that there is an entire generation of engineer Soldiers who have not trained on tasks that support a combined arms breach, or a mission where support forces reduce obstacles in the way enabling forces to continue to the objective.
"This company is forging new leaders who will take the next generation of fully trained Sappers into the breach," Fullerton said.
*Editors note: Mish is a platoon leader with the 595th Engineer Company (Sapper)*
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