“If you think about those components we now own – engineers, mobility, counter-mobility, survivability, intelligence, signal, communications, and CBRN – the BEB commander will be called on to advise the brigade commander on all of those components,” he said.
Borders was quick to credit the Engineer Regiment that provided critical support to engineer battalions/new BEBs, offering the example of the regiment’s contributions in the form of training packages to the newly established “Task Force Enabler Academy,” which enabled 326th BEB leaders with refresher training on tactical engineering fundamentals, as well as intelligence and signal fundamentals. “Task Force Enabler Academy not only provided engineer fundamentals, but ensured it addressed signal and intelligence fundamentals to better prepare our leaders across the full capabilities of a BEB,” he said.
Soldiers stand in formation to recognize a key day in Sapper Eagle history as the 326th Engineer Battalion transforms into the 326th Brigade Engineer Battalion, which will support the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Photo by Sgt. 1st Class John D. Brown
In addition to establishment of the new academy, Borders expressed great pride in the fact that the new BEB elements have led to the re-establishment of habitual relationships and integration “between engineers and their maneuver brethren.”
“It all reflects the underlying fact that a BEB exists to provide essential combat support enablers to help the warfighter fight and win in the contemporary operating environment,” he said.
Other unique Engineer Regiment capabilities can be found in the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), which provides commercial-level power to military units and federal relief organizations during full-spectrum operations. The battalion includes a headquarters company, four Prime Power line companies (with four to six platoons each), and the Prime Power School.
Asked about recent battalion activities, Lt. Col. David Hibner, commander of the 249th Engineer Battalion, began by pointing to the integration of the battalion’s emergency response operations into USACE’s scalable response plan.
“Really what we are doing is increasing our response capability and capacity to include the entire battalion,” he explained. “It goes well beyond just the personnel in our battalion, which is how we have responded historically, but now we are looking to include our organic power generation equipment.”
He said that the organic equipment in the 249th can fill a need not readily available in a standard FEMA package, noting, “We produce power at 4160 volts, which is a commercial and industrial power level. By contrast, the generators that are provided to the national response framework by FEMA are typically lower voltage.”
If we no longer have those Seabee battalions that were working in the Pacific, who’s going to pick up those operations and jobs? So we are starting to look at not just Army engineers by themselves but also at balancing our capacities against increasing joint force requirements.”
Hibner added that the industrial power-level capabilities are important in places like water pumping stations or wastewater treatment facilities, both critical elements in disaster recovery.
“And just one platoon of generators – four of our organic MEP810B generators [former Air Force models that have been transferred to the Army] – can provide 3.2 megawatts of electricity,” he said. “That’s a significant power-production capability.”
Referring to successful participation by battalion elements in the recent Combined Response Mission Exercise, held in Anchorage, Alaska, he offered, “We feel ready to make this a regular part of how we respond – particularly as we move into hurricane season, because historically that has generated the largest response requirements for the battalion.”
Hibner said that the battalion is also “in the process of taking on another mission in support of Space and Missile Defense Command, where we will maintain and operate power generation plants in support of forward base remote radar sites.”
Those sites will feature MEP810A generators.
He acknowledged other battalion growth in alternative energy and operational energy solutions, as evidenced by “a major project on the Island of Palau, where we constructed and commissioned a solar array, which we continue to monitor from a maintenance perspective remotely.”
Summarizing some of the challenges facing the Engineer Regiment in the future, Secrist pointed to the fact that the other services are “going leaner on their engineer capabilities.”
“It’s Red Horse in the Air Force and it’s Seabees in the Navy,” he said. “They’re cutting a lot of their formations in those areas. You’ve got to ask yourself: If we no longer have those Seabee battalions that were working in the Pacific, who’s going to pick up those operations and jobs? So we are starting to look at not just Army engineers by themselves but also at balancing our capacities against increasing joint force requirements.”
This article first appeared in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2014-2015 Edition.