Capt. Joshua Moore, the 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade engineer, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, is one of many that manage the tracking of logistics within the 3rd DSB. Moore also has a unique role in the logistics support to the warfighter integrating his experience as an engineer to ensure the supplies make it to their destination and the engineers have the means to conduct their mission.
“In a deployed environment I’d be relied upon for my expertise in mobility, counter mobility and survivability for the DSB,” said Moore. “Since we would be in the consolidation area I would be the liaison with the maneuver enhancement brigade as well as tracking routes that have been cleared of any threats or hazards.”
The three essential tasks for an engineer are mobility, counter mobility and survivability. For each of these tasks, Moore has to coordinate with engineer elements to support the DSB or for the DSB to support the engineers.
“Mobility is the ability to breach enemy obstacles and ensure our forces the freedom to navigate the battlefield,” said Moore. “Just like we’re trying to slow down and stop the enemy, the enemy is trying to slow us down and stop us.”
Within mobility, engineers have the ability to breach obstacles including minefields, improvised explosives, roadblocks and downed bridges. The brigade engineer assists adjacent or attached engineer assets in identifying and coordinating the use of systems with the capability to clear the routes for the brigade’s logistics assets move through and complete their objective.
“The ability for our logistics elements to reach their destination is critical,” said Moore. “We have to ensure that the supplies Soldiers need to sustain themselves and their equipment reach their destination and to do that we have to ensure we coordinate with the engineers in our area of operations for the freedom of maneuver on the battlefield.”
While the engineers are ensuring the mobility of our forces, they are also providing ways to prevent enemy forces from impacting operations through the use of counter mobility assets.
“How that ties into the sustainment brigade’s mission is that you have to resupply the engineers in their effort to slow or redirect the enemy,” said Moore. “If I looked at the graphics and understood the size of the obstacle belt and knew exactly what the division was emplacing as far as the obstacles, I can determine what assets we would need to help sustain the engineers emplacing those obstacles.”
Survivability, the engineer’s other task, is the building of fortifications and other emplacements to ensure the safety of personnel and materiel.
“Prior to an engagement, during the defense, engineers are going to be responsible for survivability positions,” said Moore. “Fuel consumption is always a main concern for the heavy equipment and that fuel has to come from somewhere. They usually do not have fuel bladders at the dig site, so we also have to ensure a way to fuel those vehicles.”
Mobility, countermobility and survivability are the key roles of engineers in a deployed or training environment, but Moore’s role as an engineer is vastly different in the garrison environment.
“In the garrison environment my job is more of a facilities engineer,” said Moore. “I coordinate with the units in the brigade to ensure that our facilities are maintained to allow for the units to conduct their missions safely and securely.”
Moore took on a major facilities engineering project with the transfer of the division’s COVID logistics support area to a new facility.
“One of my most important tasks as a facilities engineer was the planning for our brigade to assume responsibility of LSA Castle,” said Moore. “The LSA was placed in the Georgia Land Dominance Center, an area that is normally run by the National Guard, and not in constant use like most of the other facilities on the installation. I had to make sure that all the buildings used to support the division’s COVID efforts were up to standard and that the Soldiers who may be living there had all the life support assets they needed to sustain themselves.”
Moore looks forward to using his time at the sustainment brigade in the future when he moves on to his next engineering assignment
“I’m glad I have had the chance to serve as the brigade engineer in a sustainment brigade,” said Moore. “This position will help me later on in my career to have a better understanding of sustainment operations.”
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