Located in the heart of the Ozarks in south-central Missouri, Fort Leonard Wood is a place every Army engineer officer knows well. Home to the U.S. Army Engineer School, every newly commissioned engineer officer in the Army attends a program called the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Leonard Wood.
This intensive 19-week course is designed to equip new engineer officers with the technical knowledge and tactical skills needed before they lead their first platoon. For students in the course, it’s like drinking through a firehose.
“They are trying to jam an entire career’s worth of knowledge and experience into formalized training. It’s technical experience, tactical military maneuvering and fighting, as well as just general leadership and organizational skills,” said Lt. Col. John Meyers, deputy district commander for the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “It’s a whirlwind of information.”
Less than a 5-minute drive from the U.S. Army Engineer School is the Kansas City District’s Missouri Area Office. For the Missouri Area Office employees, their location provides a dual advantage since many of their construction projects directly benefit the installation, giving staff a unique perspective into both the military and civilian sides of Army engineering.
It was this unique perspective that gave Capt. Leandra Ramos the idea to incorporate a detailed USACE 101 brief into the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course. Ramos is what’s referred to as borrowed military manpower. She essentially serves in two roles simultaneously – both as an officer assigned to the 554th Engineer Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade and as the operations officer at the Missouri Area Office with USACE.
“I came in as borrowed military manpower – I’m kind of a floater here on Fort Leonard Wood,” said Ramos. “I’ll help out with administrative things, but I also may be placed on a project to get experience as a project engineer or a project manager, and then I also have the role of USACE outreach.”
It’s in her outreach role that she provides an in-depth USACE 101 brief to students attending the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course. Although her predecessor also gave USACE 101 briefs to students, it was Ramos’ idea to incorporate USACE civilians in the briefings as often as possible.
“When I took over, I thought it would be a good idea to include civilians here at our [USACE] office to sit in my USACE 101 brief so they can answer questions from the students,” said Ramos. “I can give the students my side of the Army or my side of USACE, but it definitely gives a broader perspective when it’s coming from our civilian engineers.”
Just like the students she now briefs, Ramos attended the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course as a newly commissioned 2nd lieutenant. She remembers getting a USACE 101 brief at the time, but it was from the course instructor rather than someone assigned to USACE.
“When I was in [Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course] back in 2021, I do remember getting a USACE 101 brief, but it was from our instructor who wasn’t in USACE at the time,” she said. “He just gave a general overview of what he knew, which wasn’t very detailed.”
Fast forward a few years and Ramos was stationed at Fort Drum, New York, where she was assigned to a support unit and got to see horizontal and vertical construction as opposed to a typical combat engineering unit most young engineer officers get assigned to. As a platoon leader, she often looked for larger construction projects for her soldiers to work on, or even just observe. At the time, she didn’t realize there was a USACE office on Fort Drum.
“A lot of officers don’t know they can walk over to their local installation USACE office and network,” said Ramos. “It would have been nice for me to have known to head over to the USACE office and see if they had any sort of shadowing opportunities that my soldiers could have participated in.”
It was her experience at Fort Drum that inspired Ramos to incorporate the USACE civilian perspective in her briefings to newly commissioned 2nd lieutenants. At the briefings, USACE civilians not only answer complex mission questions, but also serve as a connection to engineer officers who might one day lead the organization.
“In the Army, we always say non-commissioned officers are the backbone of the Army. In my USACE 101 brief, I say that civilians are the backbone of USACE, which is 100% true,” said Ramos. “Engineering officers are coming and going from USACE positions … but many civilians have grown up in the areas that they are currently working in or around, so they have a lot of knowledge of local and community needs that USACE can support.”
When 2nd Lt. Lia Stokes started the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course, she didn’t know much about USACE. If asked about the tactical side of Army engineering, she could tell you quite a bit. But as for the Army’s civilian engineering side of the house, she admits she had plenty to learn. After Ramos’ USACE 101 brief, she said she knows more about the vital missions benefiting communities across the nation.
“I’m pretty green to the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment so I didn’t know more than general information about USACE,” said Stokes “I’m active duty and we’re always a warfighter first. But I learned that engineers – military and civilian – are nurturing the local populous by showcasing their technical expertise.”
According to Meyers, when he attended the Engineer Basic Officer Leader Course in 2010, he wasn’t thinking that one day he’d be a deputy district commander with USACE. Instead, he was just trying to get through the course and preparing to lead his first platoon. But now that he is a leader in the enterprise, he hopes the 2nd lieutenants walk away from Ramos’ USACE 101 brief with a sense of pride.
“Having worked for Kansas City District, I still get goosebumps every time I talk about our mission. Especially the mission at home – civil works, military, Hazardous, Toxic, Radiological Waste, operations, regulatory or emergency management,” said Meyers. “It’s so cool to be part of and I just hope they are proud they are part of that larger family.”
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