FORT STEWART, Ga.- Soldiers of Company A and B, 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division conducted an annual weeklong engineer training event at the demolition range on Fort Stewart, Georgia, Jan. 25-29, 2016.
This event was dedicated to reinforcing the engineers' demolition and construction skill sets, ensuring the companies' readiness. The engineers use qualification tables as a means to evaluate placement and detonation of explosives, construction of fighting positions, and clearing of route obstacles.
"The purpose is to qualify the engineers on our qualification tables' standards to prepare us to support mobility and countermobility operations," said 1st Lt. Michael Schaefer, officer in charge of the range, Company A, 9th BEB.
Only after properly preparing, placing correctly for the purpose and detonating the explosives will the engineers be qualified. Prior to the field training event, engineers engaged in classroom training to review calculations, knot tying and correct usage of heavy construction equipment. Additional focus was directed toward engineers recently arrived to the companies.
"We have a lot of new soldiers. We are building confidence that they know what they are doing, training them well enough that they can go out and execute in smaller teams instead of having leadership oversight," explained Schaefer.
The engineers also qualified on horizontal construction equipment, such as bulldozers, road graders among other equipment moving tons of soil. The engineers were assigned a variety of different structures to construct.
"The standard is simple," said 2nd Lt. Mehmet Bahadir, officer in charge of the range, Company B, 9th BEB. "For instance, building a berm for an artillery gun, the standard is five feet tall, the width and length depends on the demand of the company."
Safety was the responsibility of all soldiers and strictly enforced at the two range sites.
"Just as always, NCOs [noncommissioned officers] are responsible for supervising soldiers; however, everyone is a safety patrol officer here," said Sgt. 1st Class Augusto Pinpiro, noncommissioned officer in charge of the range, Company B, 9th BEB.
The engineer training supports 2nd Brigade's overall readiness, ensuring each engineer is capable of executing assigned missions.
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