FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- More than 50 combat engineers assigned to A Company, 41st Brigade Engineer Battalion "Sappers," 2nd Brigade Combat Team, conducted route clearance training Sept. 6-9 on Fort Drum.
During the event, engineers took to the training areas trails, not to detonate explosives, but to brush up on skills they have not used over the last 14 years of combat operations in the Middle East.
"When people think of engineers, they always think of the explosions, but engineering is a lot more complex than that," said Capt. Christopher Dichiara, commander. "There is a high degree of math that is involved in this job that the Soldiers have to learn, and the techniques, tactics and procedures they have to use to complete these (reconnaissance missions) is something unexpected until you go out and see it being done."
Dichiara said that the intent of this mission was to conduct complex reconnaissance in preparation for Mountain Peak and a rotation to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.
"Reconnaissance comes in many forms for engineers," he said. "You have engineer reconnaissance that consists of curves and grades of roads. Bridge reconnaissance … determines the load classification of a bridge, determining what weight a vehicle can pass over it and determine the velocity of the river that is flowing underneath it."
Some of the tools engineers use during a route reconnaissance are rope, compass, map, communication equipment and construction measuring tapes.
"When you plan routes, you have to measure the angles of the turns to ensure that trucks pulling trailers can make the turn and at what speed they can safely operate during day and night operations," he said.
The engineer's abilities to perform these measures are critical to a unit's success when fighting a near-peer enemy in unknown terrain.
"In today's uncertain operating environment, it is impossible to train for every scenario that could occur," Dichiara said. "Decisive action provides commanders with a baseline from which to expand training to meet burgeoning threats. Additionally, it is imperative to train for the most dangerous threats we face, which is currently a conflict with a near-peer adversary. The training that A Company conducts nests within our higher headquarters' mission essential task list, which inexorably is grounded in decisive action."
Dichiara said that his engineers will be the ones who determine the load classifications of bridges, curves of roads that will allow Soldiers to have safe traveling routes during upcoming training.
"The future fight dictates that we have these skills," he said.
One experienced noncommissioned officer explained why it is important to brush up on these skills.
"I feel engineer reconnaissance is a lost art," said Staff Sgt. Jeffries Gendron, acting platoon sergeant. "I have only done it a few times while being in the Army, and now it is important that we know this skill for Mountain Peak and JRTC."
Gendron said that having his engineers be proficient in these skills will help ensure mission success and safe movement of the brigade Soldiers and equipment into new training areas.
Social Sharing